Pergamum / Revelation 2:12-17
Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles, we are in a fascinating series in the book of Revelation, looking at chapter two, verses 12 and following. When we started this series, our goal was to walk through these short letters that Jesus gave to John to pass along to seven churches in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey.
Weeks ago, we talked about Sardis, the neglectful church. Then Shay walked through the church of Ephesus, the fickle church that had lost its first love. Last week, we looked at Thyatira, the tolerant church that just wanted to get along. Today, we arrive at the next church in chapter two: the church in the city of Pergamum.
Ground Zero of Imperial Worship
Pergamum was third on the Roman postal route that ran north from Ephesus up the coast to Smyrna, then to Pergamum, where the route turned inland. It was a massive city. The name Pergamum means “citadel” or “high place.” Indeed, this city boasted a stunning 1,300-foot-high citadel, or acropolis. When you saw this city from afar, it was not like seeing the lights of Tulare heading down Highway 99. It was extravagant, incredible, and one of the wealthiest cities in the region.
Pergamum was known for a few very specific things that directly impact our reading of this letter. First, it was known as ground zero for imperial worship—the worship of the Roman emperor. Imperial worship originated here and spread throughout the province. For a city to receive the privilege from the Roman Empire to be a neokoros—a temple keeper allowed to build a temple to worship Caesar—was a monumental honor. Pergamum was granted two. Short of Rome itself, this city was the most deeply rooted in imperial worship in the entire empire.
After Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, his adopted nephew Octavian took over and assumed the name Caesar. He became Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor to truly establish the empire. Augustus claimed to be descended from a Julian star, portraying himself as fully divine and fully human. Caesar Augustus claimed that if you came to him as divine ruler, he could promise you eternal life, peace, forgiveness, and justice. In Pergamum, they built a massive temple designed specifically for imperial worship. When citizens were required to burn incense and proclaim, “Curia Caesar”—“Caesar is Lord”—this was the very place where that took place.
Archaeologists in Pergamum also unearthed a statue of the Emperor Trajan. He stands with sword drawn and no sheath, because to the Romans, there was no retreat and no surrender. He stands with sword drawn because the emperor possessed what was known as ius gladii—the right of the sword. It was the absolute authority to execute or pardon someone at will. That power was granted to whichever governors or officials Caesar appointed.
You see this authority in the Gospels when Jesus stands on trial.
John 19:10 (NASB)
So Pilate said to Him, ‘You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?’
Pilate possessed the ius gladii, the right of the sword given to him by Rome. The imperial cult was critical because the Roman Empire was expanding rapidly from Germany to North Africa, and from Spain to Egypt. Surrounding the Mediterranean, Rome governed diverse people groups with different languages, cultures, and deities. You were allowed to worship whatever god you pleased, provided you had one non-negotiable common denominator: you had to worship Caesar as well. Caesar was the unifying political and religious glue of the Roman world.
A City of Excessive Pagan Deities
Second, Pergamum was renowned as a center for pagan worship. In the Roman world, pagan deities fell into several categories.
First, you had household gods. If you remember the movie Gladiator, Russell Crowe’s character kept little statues of his ancestors and prayed to them before battle. People in the ancient world prayed to over 30,000 distinct localized deities associated with specific streams, fields, and homes.
Second, there were occupational gods. These were tied to trade guilds—ancient religious unions. If you were a stonemason, you worshipped a specific guild deity to bless your hammer and your craft.
Third, there were patron deities. A city would adopt a particular god as its primary protector and civic mascot. We see a vivid example of this in the book of Acts when Paul preaches in Ephesus.
Acts 19:27-28 (NASB)
‘Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.’ When they heard [this] and were filled with rage, they [began] crying out, saying, ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’
Demetrius and the craftsmen started a massive riot because Paul’s preaching threatened their patron goddess.
While most cities had one patron deity, Pergamum had four. Pergamum was a city of absolute excess.
Their first patron deity was Zeus. High on the acropolis sat the massive Altar of Zeus. The actual altar was excavated by German archaeologists and reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. It stands four stories tall, nearly the length and width of a basketball court, with intricate friezes stretching the length of a football field. It remains one of the largest altars ever discovered from antiquity. Zeus was hailed as the father of gods and acclaimed as a soter—a savior.
Their second patron deity was Athena, the goddess of wisdom, known as the victory bearer (Nikephoros). Connected to her altar were the ruins of a library second only to the Great Library of Alexandria, holding over 200,000 parchment scrolls.
Their third patron deity was Asclepius, the god of healing. If you were sick, you did not just sit in an office flipping through dated magazines; you entered a lavish healing complex resembling a resort spa. It featured theaters, libraries, and mineral baths. Priests would induce drug-assisted trances, whispering incantations and releasing non-venomous snakes across patients to promote healing. Much of our modern medical symbolism traces back to Asclepius.
The Dionysian Symposiums
The fourth patron deity was Dionysus, whom the Romans called Bacchus. He was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking, fertility, ritual madness, and theater. Carved right into the hillside beside the great theater was his temple.
Dionysus was worshipped alongside Silenus, the god of drunkenness, and satyrs, celebrating unbridled lust and sensual excess. Worshippers gathered for events called symposiums. Today, a symposium is an academic lecture where you get bored and look for refreshments. In Pergamum, symposiums were wildly different. Guests gathered in banquet halls or private homes for meals that dissolved into erotic performances, excessive drinking, and debauchery.
A master of ceremonies, called a symposiarch, managed the gathering and dictated the strength of the wine. Wine was served before dinner, during dinner, and after dinner in massive vessels called craters, each holding roughly twelve gallons.
An ancient Greek writer described the progression of a symposium: the first crater was for health, the second for love and pleasure, the third for sleep—at which point wise guests went home. The fourth belonged to bad behavior; the fifth to shouting; the sixth to rudeness and insults; the seventh to brawls; the eighth to breaking the furniture; the ninth to depression; and the tenth to madness and complete unconsciousness.
It was designed from the ground up as a drunken festival. Roman pagan gods demanded no moral code, no personal holiness, and no restraint. They did not care how you lived. Imagine being the Christian parent of a sixteen-year-old boy in Pergamum when the neighborhood kid knocks on the door and invites him to a symposium. Think of the cultural pressure that young follower of Jesus faced every single day.
The One with the Sharp Two-Edged Sword
Throughout the New Testament, the Greek word for sword is typically machaira, referring to the standard 28-inch Roman short sword. But six times in the book of Revelation, John uses a different word: rhomphaia. This refers to a massive, two-handed broadsword.
That is the exact word Jesus uses to introduce Himself to this church.
Revelation 2:12 (NASB)
’And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this:
Why does Jesus introduce Himself this way? The Roman proconsuls claimed the ius gladii, the right of the short sword. They believed they held the ultimate power of life and death. But Jesus declares, “I am the One with the true authority. I carry the rhomphaia—the sharp, double-edged broadsword.”
Revelation 2:13 (NASB)
’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.
Jesus knows how difficult their environment is. He calls Pergamum the place “where Satan’s throne is.” Surrounded by the imperial cult, the towering altar of Zeus, and temples dedicated to healing, wisdom, and drunken debauchery, believers could not walk down the street without encountering idol worship and depravity. Yet they held fast to Christ’s name. They refused to deny Him even when their brother Antipas was martyred in their midst.
The Compromise: Balaam and the Nicolaitans
They had stood firm against intense public persecution, but danger was brewing inside the church.
Revelation 2:14 (NASB)
’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.
Who was Balaam? In the book of Numbers, King Balak of Moab hired the prophet Balaam to curse the nation of Israel. Three times Balaam attempted to speak a curse over Israel, and three times God turned his words into a divine blessing. Frustrated that he could not curse them externally, Balaam advised Balak on how to corrupt them internally.
Numbers 25:1-3 (NASB)
While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the LORD was angry against Israel.
Balaam realized that if you cannot destroy God’s people from the outside, you can entice them into disqualifying themselves from the inside. If you offer the right sensual temptation, people will set their theology aside, indulge their flesh, and walk straight into judgment.
Jesus warns the church in Pergamum that some among them were doing the exact same thing. They had stood firm against pagan threats, but they caved to their sexual appetites. They could say yes to Christ theologically, but they could not say no to the culture sexually. They were orthodox in doctrine, but corrupt in conduct.
Revelation 2:15 (NASB)
’So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
In addition, some were embracing the teaching of the Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans appear to have promoted license and indulgence under the banner of grace. They taught that physical conduct did not affect spiritual standing—that you could live however you pleased because grace covered everything.
Paul confronted this exact dualistic compromise in his letter to Rome.
Romans 13:12-14 (NASB)
The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to [its] lusts.
Paul also warned the Ephesians and Thessalonians that sexual immorality and impurity should not even be named among the saints.
A toxic divide between the secular and the sacred had infected Pergamum. People treated church gatherings on Sunday as sacred, but treated their personal conduct on Saturday night as their own business. But Jesus is not Lord of merely a slice of our week; He is Lord of our whole life. You cannot walk with God and simultaneously cultivate darkness.
1 John 1:5-6 (NASB)
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and [yet] walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
You can know all the right answers, but if your life is characterized by willful fleshly indulgence, it calls into question the reality of your faith.
The Sword of Truth and the Call to Repent
Jesus does not leave them without a clear warning.
Revelation 2:16 (NASB)
’Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.
Jesus warns that He will come rapidly, aggressively, and unexpectedly to make war against unrepentant compromise using the sword of His mouth. The rhomphaia cuts both ways: it has the power to save, and it has the authority to judge.
Scripture consistently associates the sword of God’s mouth with His Word. Isaiah wrote that the Messiah would strike the earth with the rod of His mouth.
Hebrews 4:12 (NASB)
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Paul calls the Word of God the “sword of the Spirit.” The sword in Christ’s mouth is not a bizarre physical weapon; it is the pure, authoritative, convicting Word of God. It exposes sin, reveals our need for the cross, establishes absolute truth, and demands repentance.
Promises to the Overcomer
Jesus closes His letter with profound promises of grace to those who refuse to compromise.
Revelation 2:17 (NASB)
‘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.’
To those who overcome, Jesus promises three things:
First, He promises hidden manna. In Pergamum, if you refused to bow to Caesar or participate in pagan feasts, you were boycotted, alienated, and cut off from the local economy. Jesus promises that He will provide spiritual nourishment and daily bread that the world knows nothing about.
Second, He promises a white stone. In ancient courts, jurors cast a black stone for condemnation and a white stone for acquittal. A white stone was also used as an admission ticket to exclusive banquets, or given to freed gladiators as proof of their liberty. Jesus promises that though the world condemns you, His white stone declares you forgiven, justified, and granted entry into His eternal kingdom.
Third, He promises a new name. The city authorities could erase a believer’s name from civic records and strip them of status, but Christ gives every overcomer an eternal identity that can never be revoked.
Walking in the Light
Paul laid out this same transformation in his letter to the Ephesians.
Ephesians 4:17-24 (NASB)
So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in [the likeness of] God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
We must ask ourselves the same question: Have we embraced the compromise of Balaam? Have we allowed the sexually saturated patterns of our culture to creep into our lives?
Compromise is subtle. It begins with images on social media, second glances, private internet searches, entertained fantasies, and media consumption that slowly numbs our conscience.
If we find ourselves drifting toward compromise, today is the day to repent and turn back to Christ. Sound doctrine must always produce holy living. Jesus said that the one who truly loves Him is the one who keeps His commandments.
Let us pray.
Lord, thank You for this letter to the church at Pergamum. Thank You for reminding us that orthodoxy in our beliefs must be matched by orthopraxy in our conduct. Do not let us be people who profess Your name while walking in the dark.
Change our hearts. Let this message serve as a warning to anyone drifting into compromise, and as an encouragement to those fighting the daily fight of faith. Give us the hidden manna, the white stone of Your grace, and our true identity in You as we strive to overcome in our day. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.