Revelation 2:12-17 | "The Compromised Church"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

You have a Bible, go ahead and open it to the Book of Revelation.

If you're not sure where that is, it's the very last book of the Bible.

For those of you who might know something about the Bible, the Book of Revelation might weird you out a little bit because there are some strange things that appear to happen at a cursory reading.

Don't worry, we're not going to get into the weirdness there.

We're just going to examine a church.

Last week, Pastor Anton brought us to Jesus' analysis and critique of the church in Ephesus.

And this morning we are going to look at the church of Pergamum.

So we're going to be in chapter 2, starting in verse 12.

God's word says, 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 that they might eat food sacrificed 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 in war against them with the woo 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 a new name written on it, that no one knows except the one who receives it.

Amen.

Before the advent of social media, even farther back, before the advent of the phone with the camera on it, even farther back, all the way back to 1948, which I can't even imagine life without a phone with a camera, but there was a time where that happened.

1948, August 10th, a pioneering television producer named Alan Funt debuted a hidden camera reality TV show called Candid Camera.

These shows basically just kind of crowdsource themselves nowadays because it just ripped all the videos off of YouTube that everybody that brings their phone to Walmart captures.

But before then, there was a show called Candid Camera.

The genius of the show was that it caught people in the wild behaving how they naturally would, without having to put on any kind of act or or performance.

It produced a lot of laughs, but it also offered a fascinating look into how humans tend to think.

In one episode titled Face the Rear, there was an unsuspecting person who boarded an elevator, and naturally, as soon as he walked in, he turned to face the front of the elevator, right?

He pushed the floor that he was going to and he faced the front, which is where the doors were.

That's when three actors entered the elevator, and instead of facing the front, they faced the rear of the elevator.

They turned around.

The hidden camera in the elevator captured the angst, the growing angst of the guy being pranked.

He's sitting there looking around, like, what am I missing?

Is there a door back there?

Do I need to turn around?

What do they know that I don't?

Finally, a fourth actor entered the elevator and again turned around to face the rear.

The social influence exerted by those facing the rear was too overwhelming, so that the guy who was being pranked at the time just gave in and decided to join what everybody else was doing, no matter how foolish it looked.

All because of the social influence, the external pressure.

We succumb to social pressure all the time, don't we?

Even people whose job is to be a neutral governing force, succumbs to external pressure.

You Vikings fans know what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about NFL referees.

According to a recent study, football refs are often swayed by their surroundings.

Michael Lopez, a researcher and statistician at Skidmore College in New York, he led a study that showed referees are much more likely to make calls that favor the team whose coaches and players are on the sideline closest to the potential penalty.

Even when things are going too fast for them to know for certain, if it happens on the sideline by the team that is barking the most, they're likely to give in to those coaches and players who are just being loud.

And they'll give in to that pressure.

He examined five years of NFL games, including 1,400 different penalty calls.

He measured how often these kinds of judgment calls go in favor of the team whose coaches are on the sideline closest to where the potential penalty is.

And again, found the referees much more likely to make calls that comply with what people nearest to them are demanding.

What happens when the church begins to cave to pressure around it?

What happens when we give in and compromise because of what looks good, sounds good, and feels good?

Indeed, we're constantly faced with external pressure.

We're constantly being enticed to compromise.

We're pressured to compromise on fundamental doctrines of the Christian identity so that more people can go to heaven, so that we can widen the highway of eternal life.

We're pressured to compromise on our definitions so that people don't feel the overwhelming sense of shame when they walk through the church doors.

We're pressured to compromise on God's word because we want to do what the world around us is doing.

Again, I want to ask what happens when the church begins to make compromises to the culture and the world around it.

I want to examine a church this morning that did just that in my sermon titled The Church of Compromise.

If I were if I were still in the Southern Baptist Church, I would call it the first Baptist Church of Compromise, but you guys probably wouldn't get that joke.

So it's just the Church of Compromise.

I want us to look at verse 12.

And then before even diving into the text, I want us to get our context right to know who exactly is speaking to the church in Pergamon.

Just as the person speaking to the church in Ephesus, again, Pastor Anton led us through the church in Ephesus, showing us that we can possess all the doctrinal knowledge in all the world.

We can know our Bible backwards and forwards, and yet if you don't have love, you are grossly out of balance, and you are in a church that is at risk of losing its status as a church of Christ.

That same person addressing the church in Ephesus is the person addressing the church in Pergamum.

I want us to examine who this person is in chapter 1, verse 9.

Same book, Revelation.

Revelation 1:9

Chapter 1, verse 9.

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

The guy writing things down, his name is John.

He is described in his own gospel as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

He was very close with Jesus.

And he was an apostle who the Romans were very creative in their ways of executing people.

So rumor has it, they attempted to kill John by putting him in a boiling hot vat of oil.

And when he didn't die, it freaked them out.

And so they're like, well, let's just get rid of him.

Let's just put them out of sight, out of mind, let's put them on Patmos, which was uninhabitable.

It was very, very vicious in terms of the climate, high winds, jagged rocks, not a vacation destination.

And that's where John was sent during the great tribulation that was happening to the church, the great persecution coming on the church.

That's where he was sent to live out the rest of the days of his life.

And he says he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.

Meaning the Spirit of God came to John in such a unique way that he had a spiritual experience.

It happened on the Lord's Day, which is a reference to Sunday, the day where Jesus rose from the grave.

And he heard behind him a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.

John sitting there minding his own business, probably worshiping the Lord on a Sunday.

The Spirit descends on him and gives him this supernatural experience to where he hears something behind him to write these words down in a book, send it to the seven churches, and this isn't just anybody, because this person's voice sounds like a trumpet.

And so John, naturally curious, turns around.

Verse 12.

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me.

And on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

The hairs of his head were white like wool, white wool, like snow.

You guys know what snow looks like, right?

It never goes away.

His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

In his right hand he held the seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword.

That's important.

Make note of that.

From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

Who is this person speaking to John?

Who is this person with these seven golden lampstands?

This person later explains that the lampstands are the churches, the stars are the churches, but this person is the glorified and risen Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory and splendor, dressed like a king, radiant, to the point where his face glows like the sun.

Jesus is speaking to his churches.

Which is why it's important for us to remember that these are red letters in our Bible.

Not that there's any dis uh separation between the black letters and the red letters in terms of importance, but the red letters help us to know who is speaking.

And Jesus has something to say to his churches.

Not Jesus meek and mild.

Talk about Jesus in all of his glory, addressing his churches.

As we consider what he's saying, I want us to grasp the weight of who is saying it.

It's a glorified Christ.

This is his church.

And to respond properly, we need to know who it is speaking.

So, with that in mind, with that context, Jesus speaking to his churches.

Let's go to verse 12.

Again, Jesus speaking, he says, and to the angel in the church of Pergamum, right?

The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.

Again, make note of that.

That's important.

We're going to come back to that.

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 to 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.

Jesus first begins his letter to the church in Pergamon with a commendation.

That's our first point this morning, the commendation to the church in Pergamon.

As with the church in Ephesus, Jesus begins this letter with a commendation, an encouragement.

It begins with Jesus' acknowledgement of what the church has been through and what the church has done despite opposition.

Look at what he says.

Verse 13.

I know.

I won't say that again.

I know.

Jesus knows.

Two very simple words that provide an amazing amount of comfort.

Jesus knows.

He knows where they are.

Look what he says.

I know where you dwell.

I know where you guys are at.

In fact, I know it so well, it's the very throne room of Satan.

And he makes note of that twice.

That this is the place where Satan himself dwells.

He knows where they are.

Pergamum was traditionally known for its worship of Asklepios.

And that might mean nothing to you, but it was a symbol that was on Pergamon's coin.

And it was a serpent wrapped around a stick.

You might see it when you walk into a doctor's office.

It was the Greek god of healing.

If you were sick and you wanted to go get healed, you would go to the Greek god of Asclepios, and you would lie on the ground usually, and you'd have all these snakes that would crawl all over you.

Praise the Lord for modern medicine.

They also worshipped other traditional Greek deities, such as Demeter, Athena, Dionysus.

Its famous throne-shaped giant altar of Zeus, which was 120 feet long by 112 feet high, overlooked the city on its citadel.

And that's the background behind this place being called the very throne room of Satan.

It was one of the first cities of Asia to build a temple to the Roman Emperor, a temple to Augustus.

A further imperial temple would follow in decades following John's letter.

This is a hotbed of pagan idol worship.

And Jesus says, I know, I know where you are.

And he follows it up with, I know what you're up against.

Because they were intensely religious in Pergamum.

That religious intensity brought physical attacks and physical opposition, persecution up against this church.

Such persecution that it even took the life of one of their pastors, Antipas.

That's the tradition of who Antipas was.

He was one of the pastors there in Pergamum, and persecution was getting so bad that the Roman authorities came even for Antipas.

These Christians are strange, they're weird, they're probably going to start an insurrection.

They don't worship the way we do.

They won't even take a little bit of incense and put it on the altar to the Roman Emperor.

These Christians are dangerous.

So they must be stopped.

And so they are opposed and oppressed physically to the point where it causes the it costs them the life of one of their pastors.

And yet Jesus knows.

I know, Jesus says.

I know.

And some of you need to hear that this morning.

Jesus knows.

He knows.

He knows what you are going through.

He knows your suffering.

He knows your pain.

He knows your sacrifice, especially when it comes to your faith.

When you have to sacrifice and endure hardship on account of Christ, Jesus knows.

He knows.

And what's more than that is in Matthew's gospel.

Jesus tells us that he doesn't just know of our suffering, he's not just standing afar and observing what happens to us.

Jesus so attaches himself to his people that he states in Matthew's gospel that when they suffer, it's as if he himself is also suffering.

In Matthew 25, when he's explaining to his disciples about the great white throne judgment before God, when all people will be called to account before him one day, and the unrighteous will be put on his left hand side, and it and the righteous will be called to stand on his right.

He will tell those on the right, the righteous, to enter into his kingdom.

And the reasoning he gives is this in verse 35, he says, For I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you clothed me.

I was sick and you visited me.

I was in prison and you came to me.

Jesus says that he personally experienced all of these difficulties.

There's a personal ownership of Jesus in all of these things, and the righteous, confused, will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?

Or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and welcome you?

Or naked and clothe you?

When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

When did all these things happen, Jesus?

And the king will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

Jesus suffers when his people suffers.

I don't know how that all works out, but Jesus takes it incredibly personally when his people are going through hardship.

So much so that when people show compassion to his people, when others show compassion to his people, it's as if you're showing compassion to Christ Himself.

Jesus knows, and he has so connected himself to his people that by extension what his people experience, he also experiences.

First Corinthians chapter 12 tells us that if one member suffers, all suffer together.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body, the very body of Christ, and individually members of it.

Meaning if you are part of Christ's body and you suffer, it's as if the whole body suffers.

Not just some sort of disconnected or some organization of people, but the body of Christ.

Jesus himself experiences it.

He knows.

He knows.

And he commends this church for its faithfulness.

He commends them for having endured that hardship.

But then he gets to the problem and issues the complaint against them, and that's our second point, the complaint.

Verse 14, he 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 they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality.

So also you have some who hold to the teaching of the Nikolaitans.

I want you to notice a few things about this.

This charge that Jesus brings against his church.

First, notice the offenders.

The offenders.

It is not the entirety of the church holding to this false teaching.

It is some.

That's what he says.

You have some there who are holding to the teaching of Balaam.

And you have some there who are holding to the teaching of the Nikolaitans.

The entire church may not hold to these teachings, but they are somehow complicit in its growth and influence.

Those are the offenders.

The charge here, on the surface, it seems that they are holding to two separate beliefs, the teaching of Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

I'm convinced that the teaching of Balaam is used to illustrate the nature of the Nicolaitans.

We don't have any kind of evidence of the teaching of Balaam ever affecting any of the first century churches.

There's really no proof or evidence that we have for any kind of teaching of Balaam being in an existence in the ancient world.

We do have evidence of this group called the Nicolaitans, who have relentlessly tried to infiltrate God's church and pull God's people astray.

And so I'm convinced that the teaching of Balaam is used as an illustration to highlight the nature of the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

And so, in order to understand the charge against them, we need to understand what the teaching of Balaam is.

Balaam is a historical figure.

We read about him in the book of Numbers, back when God's people are roaming the desert.

After God frees them out of Egypt, out of slavery, delivers them through the Red Sea, meets them on Mount Sinai.

They begin to wander, they have bouts of disobedience.

And in the meantime, they are attacked.

They are attacked at one point by this nation called the Amorites.

The king of Moab.

He sees the defeat of the Amorites, who were a very powerful nation, and sees that these people, these people who were just slaves, just like two seconds ago, are defeating some of the most powerful nations on earth.

Now, how on the earth, how in the world does that happen?

And so the king of Moab rightfully begins to panic.

And he calls in a hired gun named Balaam, who was a magician.

He was a magician for hire.

It's not that he had a stick and you know spouted off his best Harry Potter impression.

That's not what happened.

He was a guy who would read signs, stars, omens.

He was probably 50% right sometimes.

So that got him a reputation.

He's hired by the nation of Balaam or by uh by the nation of Moab by Balak.

And Balaam rides out to curse the people of Israel because Balak has paid him to, but God doesn't allow it.

And instead, he forces Balaam to pronounce a blessing over God's people.

It happens several times.

And it gets to the point where Balak, the king of Moab, starts to get very angry at Balaam.

Hey man, I'm paying you to curse them, and yet you keep just spouting off all these blessings on them.

What's going on?

That's not what I'm paying you for.

You ain't going to get your money unless you do what I ask you to do.

Happens several times.

Balak gets angry at Balaam.

Balaam tells Balak, hey, I'm I'm trying, it's just not happening.

I can't go against the God of the universe.

I can't override his will.

And then we get to this event.

Because it seems after all that happens, that Balaam rides away and all just kind of goes back to normal.

But then we have this event in Numbers 25.

Numbers chapter 25, it says, While Israel lived in Shetem, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.

Numbers 25 · chapter mention

These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Paor.

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

We find out later in Numbers 31 some additional details as to what's happening here.

You see, this was an insidious attempt by Balaam himself to get after the people of Israel, to destroy their ethnic identity by having them intermarry and to remove the very thing that defines them as a people, and that is the worship of their God.

If we can just entice them in to satisfy the desires of their flesh, those natural desires, if we can seduce them with our women and tear them away from worship of their God, then they're ours.

We've got them.

That was the strategy of this guy, Balaam, who turns out got paid after all.

Because this was his idea.

And God's people compromised in their worship of God, the one true God, in order to gratify the desires of their flesh.

I'm going to say that again.

God's people compromised in their worship in order to gratify the desires of their flesh.

That's the problem with the teaching of Balaam.

That's the root problem that happened with the people of Israel in the desert, bringing it back to the church of Pergamam.

Do we see the connection there of what's happening?

There are external forces infiltrating the church that are appealing to people's desires, that are calling them to satisfy the desires of their flesh.

And in so doing that, they are placing the worship of the true God to the side and beginning to worship other things.

They're making compromise.

And the compromise that they make leads to the toleration of sin and ultimately becomes a stumbling block for God's people.

What compromises are we making?

What compromises are we making?

Are we compromising in what we watch?

Because we've been taught to love entertainment more than God?

Are we compromising in our workplace because we've been taught to love money more than God?

Are we compromising in the discipleship of our children because we've been taught to love their accomplishments and their accolades more than God?

What about as a church?

What compromises are we making as a church?

Are we compromising in the Great Commission?

Because we've been taught to love comfort and ease more than God?

We don't want to be placed outside of our comfort zones and welcoming outsiders?

Are we compromising in the supremacy of Scripture, looking for other methods and other means of learning and growing because we've been taught that the Bible isn't enough?

Are we compromising in what truly matters in this church because we've been taught to adopt the methods and philosophies of the world?

And I don't have answers for all these questions.

I'm asking you.

I've had to wrestle with this for a full week, and God has shown me the areas that I've been compromising in.

But I want us to consider this question: where are we compromising so that we can identify the problem that allows us to move where Christ wants us to move?

Notice that Christ doesn't just point out the problem, he also points to the solution.

He points to the solution.

Look at this next.

Verse 15.

And we get to the correction.

This is our third point.

Correction.

Verse 16, it's very simple and yet increasingly hard.

Therefore, because of this, repent.

Repent.

Repentance is a church word, a biblical word that we often use and we don't really quite have a grasp on what it means.

The word repentance does not mean merely turning from sin and turning towards right behavior.

You can turn from sin and turn towards right behavior and still be far from God.

You would actually become a Pharisee.

Repentance at its core is not just turning from sin, it's turning back to God.

It's turning to God.

So how do we repent from compromising?

How do we turn from the sin of compromise?

And how do we turn back to God?

Well, at the heart of compromise is a desire to gratify the desires of our flesh.

And to battle the desires of the flesh, God has given us his spirit.

Galatians chapter 5, verse 16 through 17 tells us that we are to walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Galatians 5:16–17

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

So the picture that we have is once you become a Christian, once you are in Christ, the Spirit of God now indwells you and begins to wage war on those natural inclinations that you have, so that the Christian life is not one where you're just living in ease, but rather one where you're constantly battling and in this tension against your sin.

That's the picture there.

It's been given to us so that we would walk by the spirit, so that we don't gratify the desires of our flesh.

And if we walk by the spirit and we're not doing that, we're not gratifying the desires of our flesh, we will not succumb to compromise.

How do we know we're filled with the Spirit?

Well, Paul goes on to say in Galatians 5 that the fruit of the Spirit of the Spirit, the external evidence of the Spirit's work in your life is this love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Now, these are not qualities that we can somehow try to work to attain.

That's not the point he makes.

Because these are qualities of the Spirit at work in your life.

Not at your attempts for personal reform.

It's the Spirit of God at work in your life.

And that's the external evidence: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So, so, okay, I hear what you're saying, Pastor Jeremy.

Repent.

We need to be filled with the Spirit.

How do we get filled with the Spirit?

I'm so glad you asked.

Scripture gives us an answer there.

John 15 tells us, this is Jesus speaking.

He says, I am the vine.

You are the branches, meaning his disciples.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

That external evidence of the Spirit of God at work.

He it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

You want to repent from compromising?

Abide in Christ.

Abide in Christ.

Abide in Christ and be filled with the Spirit of God.

That means abiding means believing in Christ as God's Son.

It means entrusting in Christ to satisfy all of our longings.

It means believing in Christ for salvation from all the times that we compromised and sinned against him.

This means receiving his forgiveness and resting in his grace and mercy.

The good news for us this morning is that though we've made compromises in our lives, Jesus doesn't just say, Yeah, I'm done with you now.

He calls us to repent, which is an invitation to rest and abide in Christ.

Abide in Christ.

Rest in him.

And we repent.

We turn from our sin.

We turn to Christ and we rest and abide in him.

However, there is a there is a warning for the church.

There's a warning here for those who choose not to repent.

Look with me at verse 16 as we examine the caution given to the church.

That's my fourth point this morning.

The caution.

The caution that Jesus gives.

Again, in verse 16, he says, Therefore repent.

But if not, if you choose not to, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Thinking back to the image of the glorified Christ saying that he's going to come wage war against you is frankly terrifying.

It's a terrifying picture.

But I want you to notice that Jesus is not making war with his church.

He's making war on them, those, the external influences trying to convince us to give up our worship of God to satisfy the desires of our flesh and worship other things.

That's what Jesus is going to come and make war with.

But by implication, it's those who are compromising that are going to be swept up into that war.

And notice what Jesus is making war with.

Remember how I told you to take a note back in Revelation 1, verse 16 about the sharp two-edged sword that comes out of Jesus' mouth.

Revelation 1:16

Makes reference to it again in Revelation 2.12.

The sword that Jesus wields is going to be put to use for the church that refuses to repent from compromising.

The sword that he wields is the sword of his mouth, meaning it's the sword of his words.

In short, Jesus is going to wage war with his word.

Hebrews 4 12 says that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

You may take any sword in existence and you might be able to cause a flesh wound, but there's not a weapon in existence that can penetrate your soul except for the word of God.

The word of God is so powerful, it has the ability to penetrate your soul and wound your heart.

That's the power of God's word.

That's the power of this instrument that Jesus is going to wage war with.

It has the incisiveness of a surgeon's knife.

It penetrates the core of our moral and spiritual life.

It discerns what is within us, both good and evil.

And for those in Christ, the sword of God's word will penetrate our souls and wound our hearts when it has been overcome with sin.

Like that surgeon, he's going to begin cutting out the areas that are causing compromise in our lives.

But for those apart from Christ, God's word will swing not as a surgeon, but as a judge.

God's word will swing in judgment and reveal your guilt before you and before Him.

His word will prove true in every circumstance.

You will have nothing to say because His word will testify against your guilt.

However, there is another use for God's word for those who are apart from Christ this morning.

That's Romans 10, 17.

So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

This morning, if you are hearing the words of Christ, God is inviting you to come to faith in Him.

He is inviting you to believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, to turn from your sins and to trust in him alone.

God uses his word to draw people close to him, and he wants to do that with you this morning.

Don't leave here knowing that the sword of God's word can swing in judgment on you when the sword of that judgment was taken off of you and placed upon Christ as he went to Calvary, hung, and died on a cross on your behalf, so that the judgment of God would be absorbed in him.

That's what God wants you to hear this morning, and he wants to invite you to trust in him so that when this war is made, you are not a casualty.

You are not under his sword in judgment, under his loving care.

If you hear what Jesus has to say this morning, there is a beautiful picture of consolation and comfort here, and that's where we're going to close.

Point number five, consolation.

Consolation.

Verse 17.

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.

He says to those who hear, to the to the one who conquers, or rather perseveres to the end.

That's not the kind of person he's talking about.

He's talking about the person who's not trusting in their own victory, but rather in the victory of Christ.

That is the person who conquers because Christ has conquered, and they are attaching themselves to his victory rather than trusting in their own.

To the one who conquers, the one who abides in Christ, the one who is trusting in him.

He says, I will give some of the hidden manna.

Mana, if you read about it in scripture, sounds delicious.

I'm kind of surprised why the people of Israel were tripping up about it.

Like a little wafer, honey wafer, like, hmm, man, give me that all day.

All right, where you gotta get to a certain age, you gotta watch what you eat, but God just says, hey, here's some delicious bread.

And you're like, yes.

Right?

Mana was this delicious bread that God used miraculously to provide for his people while they were wandering in the desert.

I think it's interesting that Jesus closes out with a promise connecting to their folly of compromise in the desert for the people of Israel.

He comes back to a promise, to a provision that he made during that same time frame.

Mana was considered and called the bread from heaven.

In John chapter 6, Jesus miraculously provides food for over 5,000 people with only five barley loaves and two fish.

John 6 · chapter mention

And afterwards, people come after him.

They're coming after him because they're hungry again.

They want some more of this miracle food.

And Jesus tells them not to work for food that perishes, don't just live for the food that fills your stomach, but to rather uh look for the food that endures to eternal life.

So in their minds, they're thinking of heavenly bread.

They're going to manna.

They're thinking of manna.

Okay, Jesus says that God will provide this heavenly bread that will fill us for eternal life.

So they say, give us some of this bread.

And Jesus responds to them, I am the bread of life.

I am the manna of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Do you see the promise here?

To the one who conquers and endures, to the one who abides in Christ and trusts in his victory, not depending on themselves, Christ will provide satisfaction forevermore.

He will provide lasting satisfaction, one to where you will not desire or need to go after anything else.

Jesus will fill the needs of your heart.

Jesus will do that.

He will give you some of this manna.

He will give you the bread of life.

He goes on to say, I will give him a white stone with a new name on it.

We don't really have any other instance in the Bible of this white stone that Jesus refers to.

So it's kind of speculation as to what it means.

If you look at the history of the time that Jesus is speaking, in the ancient world and in the judicial system, if you were sitting on a jury and you're on this jury, you're given two sets of rocks.

You're given a black rock.

That if you think the person on trial is guilty, you're going to take that black rock and you're going to cast it in favor of guilt.

The other rock you possess is a white rock.

And you cast that white rock to vote for innocence.

I believe Jesus here is saying, to the person who conquers, to the one who abides in him, who trusts in him, he will satisfy and declare innocent.

And not just declare innocent, but even adopt him into the family of God.

That's the new name written on it.

A new identity.

You're made a new creation.

The old is past, the new has come.

This is the incredible promise of God.

To the one who trusts in him, he will satisfy you and declare you innocent, regardless of all the times that you've compromised in the past.

All the times you rebelled against him in the past, he will declare you innocent and invite you in to be with him.

That's the promise here this morning.

Despite the problem, for those who repent of their compromise, who turn to Christ and abide in him, there is a promise here from Christ Himself.

He doesn't leave us to wallow in our pity, to despair, and in our sin.

He gives us these incredible promises for those who trust in him to conquer.

Let's pray.

Father, forgive us of our compromises.

There are many things that our heart seeks after.

We think we'll be happy when we have more money.

We think we'll be happy if we have the perfect spouse or the perfect kids.

We think we'll be happy if we just have the right amount of sexual satisfaction.

We think we'll be happy if we even have the perfect church.

All of these are a pull at our heart.

So that we would compromise.

So that we would direct our rightful worship of you towards lesser things.

We do this so often that we we don't even realize it.

Forgive us of our compromise, Lord.

Forgive us and help us to receive the promise that you have called us to repent and trust in you.

And for those who trust in you, we will not have to worry about not being satisfied any longer because you will satisfy.

You do satisfy.

And much more than that, you declare us innocent before you.

You adopt us into your family, and you give us hope everlasting.

Help us to repent of our compromise and trust in your promises this morning.

We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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