Sermon preached on Revelation 2:8-17 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/08/2024 in Petaluma, CA.
Note: Audio recording not available for this sermon. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
We continue our series through Revelation, working through the next two letters to the seven churches. Recall that chapter one began our first major vision, seeing a divine man walking among seven lampstands. That was interpreted for us as Christ walking among his churches, caring for them, which is the present reality we experience. In that vision, he then spoke to give a letter to each of the seven churches referenced in that vision. Last time we studied the first one, the letter to Ephesus, where Jesus addressed the matter of dead orthodoxy, calling them to return to their first love and to demonstrate that by returning to their first works. We can say that the lasts letter dealt with an opposition that comes from our own self, that inner battle between the old man and the new.
As we turn today to the letters to Smyrna and Pergamum we will now consider opposition which comes from outside ourselves, that comes literally from Satan. Satan seeks to ruin our faith and destroy Christ’s churches. The Bible teaches that Satan employs various wily strategies to attack God’s people. Our letters today will show us two different tactics Satan uses to oppose Christ’s churches.
We begin first with the letter to Smyrna, verses 8-11. This letter will address how Satan sometimes attacks through direct, outright persecution. Jesus addresses this letter to Smyrna’s angel, identifying himself as the first and the last, who died and came to life. This identity reminds the church that Jesus has overcome death and that he has the power to overcome our deaths too. To a church threatened with outright persecution, persecution that could end in martyrdom, this is an encouraging truth. The most Satan can do is kill us, but we will win if we are in Christ, for we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. Not even death can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So then, the body of the letter to Smyrna begins in verse 9 with the words, “I know.” Remember, that is how the body of each of the seven letters begins. Jesus tells them that he knows all the tribulation they’ve been enduring and will endure. We can glean from the letter the reality of how Christian persecution can result in several things. It can result in financial poverty. If your community begins to ostracize you because you are a Christian, that is persecution that can leave you hurting for money. Certainly today, people might not get hired by certain people if they know you are a Christian with biblical convictions. That’s at the heart of much of the “cancel culture” movement. It can leave you poor. Jesus acknowledges here that he sees they are poor and the sense is that it is a result of such persecution. But Jesus immediately reminds them they are actually rich. This is a theme in Revelation, that things may look one way from outward, physical eyes. But they can look another way with spiritual eyes. Jesus sees them rich because of their faith in him and the heavenly treasure that they have stored up in him.
Jesus goes on to identify the source of persecution that they are facing and predicts that it will heat up even more. In verse 9, he identifies this as coming from people who claim to be Jews but aren’t really Jews. Who does he have in mind? He has in mind ethnic Jews, apparently those associated with the local Jewish synagogue there in Smyrna. Those are people who were Jews from an outward, physical sense. But Jesus is saying that this group of Jews aren’t actually Jews according to a spiritual sense. They are apostates who collectively are a synagogue of Satan. This is the repeated testimony of the New Testament. If you are ethnically a Jew but have rejected the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ, then you have been cut off from the covenant community. This passage helps us to see Satan’s influence behind that. If you are such a Jew that has rejected Jesus, when you are gathering together on Saturdays to worship God, you are actually worshipping Satan. Not explicitly, obviously. But effectively. This is especially true for any Jew who would even outright persecute Christians, those chosen people of God who belong to Christ’s church and bear his glorious name. Such a Jew has become apostate and, without realizing it, is in league with the devil. Such a Jew needs to repent and receive Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior.
So in verse 10, Jesus speaks about coming persecution that they are about to suffer. Some of them will be imprisoned. Some will even be put to death for Christ’s sake. He again credits the devil being behind this all. He says this will serve to test them. But he also says that will be for ten days. Surely that is more symbolic language that Jesus uses here. Probably it is not a literal ten days. When you compare this with another symbolic time frame in Revelation, specifically the 1000 years mentioned later, then surely what ten days represents is a relatively short period of testing. So, an intense but relatively short time of persecution is coming for this church, and it will test their faith.
Indeed, future church history records show that Smyrna specifically did endure such persecution. One notable example is the martyrdom of Polycarp. The earliest recorded martyrdom outside the Bible was Polycarp, bishop at Smyrna, who actually was installed by John himself. Polycarp was burned at the stake in 155 AD and, according to the records, the Jews were heavily involved in having the Roman authorities put him to death. This matches up exactly what we seeing going on in this letter with the Jewish persecution. And so, Polycarp is an example of being tested in the face of persecution unto death. Polycarp was given opportunity to have his life spared if he but denied Christ. But Polycarp would have had this letter from Jesus that called him to be faithful unto to death. That is what Polycarp did. When he rejected the offer to deny Christ and live, Polycarp gave these famous words, “Eighty-six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
So then, that is what Jesus commends in this letter. He calls for the church at Smyrna to not fear Satan’s attacks. Sometimes the devil will attack us with the overt sword of persecution. He wants to frighten us into recanting our faith in Christ. Jesus instead calls us to be faithful even unto death. The result will be the victor’s crown of life. James 1:12 makes the same promise, that those who are steadfast under persecution will receive such a crown. This is not the king’s crown but the athlete’s crown when you defeat your opponent and are crowned the winner. Jesus says if we persevere in faith, we will defeat Satan!
The letter to Smyrna then closes with the promise that to the one who overcomes, they will not be hurt by the second death. We’ll see later in Revelation that the second death refers to what happens after the final judgment at the end of this age. Jesus will return and judge the living and the dead. Those who are not found saved in Christ, will be declared guilty for all their many sins and will be delivered over to an eternal punishment. That will be the second death. It is clear why Jesus mentions that here. Those opposed to Christians today might even kill us. That would be the first death. But those opponents will eventually die and find themselves dying a second death, a far worse death, when they are cast into the eternal lake of fire to suffer forever for their evil. But Christians will not suffer such. Though we die the first death, we will enjoy the resurrection unto everlasting blessedness in the coming new creation.
The application of this letter to Smyrna should be clear. We likely won’t have synagogues of Jews scheming for our execution. In our lifetime, we might not face the threat of persecution unto death. But we have certainly seen in our day forms of persecution. We’ve been called names by some non-Christians perverting our teachings and then calling us things like bigots, homophobic, and transphobic. We’ve heard various news reports. Christians getting sued because they won’t bake a cake or create a web site for something against Christian convictions. Christian parents facing custody battles over their children because they won’t use the pronouns they demand. Christians getting in trouble in the workplace if they won’t participate in certain “celebrations” the company is advocating. Churches have faced vandalism. There are indeed real ways Christians face persecution today in our country. This letter foretold that they were going to face greater persecution in the future, and they did. We very well may be facing greater periods of persecution ahead too. The same word Jesus gave Smyrna he gives to us today. Fear not. Be faithful unto death. In Christ we will be victorious.
Let us turn now to consider this letter to Pergamum in verses 12-17. Here is an alternate strategy Satan also uses to try to destroy Christians. Jesus addresses this letter to Pergamum’s angel, identifying himself as the one with the sharp two-edged sword. That identity reminds us of the vision in chapter 1 where that sword represented the power of Jesus’ words. These words come now to bear on this congregation at Pergamum. The sword of Jesus will need to be used by the Pergamum church to combat Satan’s alternate strategy.
The body of the letter then begins in verse 13, again with the words, “I know.” There Jesus speaks of the challenging place they are located at, where Satan’s throne is. This might refer to how Pergamum had become the capital in Asia Minor for the cult of the emperor. That is the practice of worshipping the Roman Emperor as divine, and there was a major temple for such in Pergamum. The main point, however, is to see the devil ultimately behind what is going on Pergamum.
But Jesus’ reference to their location being such a Satanic hotspot is actually to encourage the congregation how they’ve withstood persecution from Satan. Look again at verse 13. Jesus commends them for how they have persevered in faith even in the face of direct, outright persecution. A Christian martyr named Antipas is referenced, who church history names as a bishop of Pergamum. They faced persecution unto death by such a direct attack by Satan and they kept the faith. Jesus had just said that such testing lay ahead for the church at Smyrna. But Jesus now says that such testing was in the past for Pergamum. They had that test and they passed it. That doesn’t mean they won’t ever face that test again. But he does here commend them for recently passing such a test. And it sets up the conversation for Satan’s alternate strategy. You see, they overcame Plan A by Satan. Now, Satan had a Plan B for them.
We see this by the reference to Balaam in verse 14. After Jesus commends them for persevering under persecution, he then tells them that he has this against them, that there are some among the church of Pergamum that have fallen prey to the doctrine of Baalam. Let’s slow down and understand that Jesus is referring to the Old Testament Balaam who afflicted God’s people during the time of their wilderness wandering in Numbers 22-25. We see some of Balaam’s story here when it mentions how he teaches Balak to put a stumbling block before the Israelites. But let me back up and remind you of the Old Testament background. Balak was a Moabite King at that time who was opposed to Israel, God’s people. Balak decided to hire a now infamous prophet Balaam to curse Israel. You could say that was Plan A to destroy Israel. Balak wanted Balaam to call down curses of divine judgment upon Israel. This was to be an attempt at a direct assault of spiritual warfare upon Israel. But it failed. Three times Balaam tried to curse Israel and three times what came out of his mouth was a blessing upon Israel. Scripture says God turned Balaam’s curses into blessings, Deuteronomy 23:5.
So Balaam came up with a Plan B and taught that to Balak. Balaam realized he couldn’t stop God’s people with a direct attack. So, instead, surely with Satan’s crafty influence, Balaam devised a way to try to get God’s people in trouble with God so that God would be the one to afflict them. Sadly, this plan worked to a certain degree, at least among some of the faithless among Israels. Balaam’s Plan B is summarized there in verse 14 but spelled out in Numbers 25. Balaam had a bunch of pagan Moabite women seduce a number of Israelite men. Those pagan women then get the men to both worship idols and commit sexual immorality. This great sin by so many in the Israelite camp resulted in God unleashing a plague among the people. Thankfully, God’s anger was turned away from Israel when Aaron’s grandson Phinehas zealously used a spear to strike down in judgment an Israelite man and a Moabite woman who were representative of this sinful union. That signaled that this sin would not be tolerated among God’s people and God received it as an atonement and turned the plague away. A few chapters later, Israel would put Balaam himself to death by the sword.
So then, Jesus is saying that Pergamum has this sort of thing going on. There are people being led astray in the church after sexual immorality and/or idolatry. You will note that immediately after talking about this Balaam influence in the church it immediately turns in the next verse to talk similarly about the Nicolaitans. You may recall that last time we said the Nicolaitans were a group that promoted moral laxity for Christians, saying things like adultery didn’t really matter, and that it is okay to indulge your fleshly passions. The Nicolaitans certainly fit the bill described by the Balaam reference here. Some have understood that Jesus is saying the Balaam reference refers to the Nicolaitans. Others have understood Jesus to be referring to two similar influences in the church. One of those views is right, and the point is still the same. Satan’s attempt to destroy the Christian faith at Pergamum didn’t work when he did the direct attack via outright persecution. But Satan’s Plan B is working to draw astray some of the Christians there at Pergamum. Some of them there at Pergamum have shown themselves faithless by turning after evil things like sexual immorality and idolatry.
Jesus says to the church of Pergamum in verse 16 that they need to repent. Now surely, any in that church who had fallen prey to things like sexuality immorality and idolatry need to repent. But it seems especially what Jesus has in mind is that the church of Pergamum needs to deal with these unrepentant sinners in their midst. They need to do that with church discipline. If you notice carefully that Jesus’ rebuke of them is that they have some of the sinful people and influences there in their midst. A little leaven can leaven the whole lump. Pergamum needs to take action like Phinehas and Israel did. They need to use the sword of the spirit to excommunicate such unrepentant sinners and cut off from the church all false teachers who are leading the people so astray. They cannot tolerate this any longer. That is what it will look like for Pergamum to repent, to exercise the church discipline that is now overdue. Jesus threatens that if they won’t deal with this matter, then he’ll come himself with the sword, verse 17.
This letter to Pergamum closes with the promise to the one who overcomes he will receive some of the hidden manna and a white stone with a new secret name. The reference to the manna is fitting in light of the Balaam incident. While God judged many during that wilderness wandering period, the remnant survived in part by God’s provision of manna. While some in Pergamum have been faithless, there is also a faithful remnant there too. God has yet reserved a meal for them in the age to come when his remnant will dine with Jesus in the kingdom of glory. As for the white stone with the new name, that seems connected with Isaiah 62:2 where God speaks of vindicating his people before the nations and giving them a new name in the process. The white stone is likely that of a juror stone which would designate your innocence, which is that theme of vindication against Satan who falsely accuses Christians. So, this letter concludes saying that while Satan has fueled the world to oppose us, we’ll be vindicated by the Lord at the day of his coming.
I hope the application from this letter to Pergamum is also clear. Two come to my mind. One, we must be on guard against Satan’s alternate scheme to destroy us. He may seduce us to immorality and idolatry. Sin can be so enticing. He wants to lure us away from Christ and his righteousness toward a life of fleshly pleasures and passions. Don’t believe the deceitfulness of earthly pleasures. See Satan’s alternate strategy as the pit of death that it is. A second application is that the church needs to exercise church discipline against any who would so go astray after godliness. We pray that such discipline would result in the reclamation of that wayward person. But either way, this passage reminds the church of the duty it has to shepherd its members to the glory of God and even the good of the whole church.
In conclusion, Trinity Presbyterian Church, the book of Revelation reveals that Satan is seeking our destruction, one way or another. But let us take heart. God will soon crush Satan under our feet through the power of Christ with us. Let us stand firm in faith and allegiance to Christ our Lord. Let us go now in prayer seeking help from above to this end.
Amen.
Copyright © 2024 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
