Pergamum: Loyal But Not Faithful—Exodus 32: 1-16&19; Rev. 2: 12-17
As we continue or study of the message to the modern-day church from the prophetic words of Revelation uttered to the seven churches, we come to the church at Pergamum this week. Pergamum reminds me of a church I played organ for only briefly as interim It’s a church I rarely speak about because of its briefness in my life. I was only there a few weeks filling in as the church had found a new organist after an exhaustive search nationwide. They were welcoming a fantastic musician who was excited to come to this church with a full-time music director position.
Unfortunately, a senior member of the congregation was not happy and let it be known. He came into the pastor’s office fussing one day while I was making copies. This organist was not the person he wanted, he declared. He knew someone who was local and could do the job without bringing in this fancy, new person. As a side note, the person he wanted was a former night club Hammond organist from the 1950s and his cousin. She had never actually played for churches before. The pastor politely explained that the search committee and board had made a decision, and that was the end of the story.
The man, enraged, promised it was not the end. He began a phone campaign to the board behind the pastor and board chairperson’s back. He wanted to lead the rest of the church leadership down a path of in-fighting and turmoil. The pastor, to his credit and having learned what was going on, stood up in the pulpit and told the whole story to the congregation. The man, now exposed as a troublemaker, stormed out of the service slamming the door and took his generous tithes with him. He was loyal to the church and would do anything asked, but that loyalty came with the price tag of control because he was not faithful to God in following the mission and ministry to which that church was called.
Pergamum had a similar problem. The people were loyal. Though they had faced great pressure from a city described as the “throne of Satan,” they had not waivered. They even proclaimed their loyalty to God when one of them was martyred. But what was strong from the outside was rotting on the inside. It reminds me of when I cut into an apple recently. The outside was beautiful, but with one slice of the knife, I learned the whole inside had rotted to goo. Pergamum had allowed idolatrous teachings. They had allowed leaders to guide them into sin. This was a church which could stand against persecution but was on the verge of imploding should they not repent and repent quickly. The remedy was a strong and truthful word naming their bad deeds and calling them back to repentance.
The problem at Pergamum is often difficult to wrap or heads around. We assume that if a church’s faith or practice is wrong, then it will be clear from their coming downfall and demise. But that’s not necessarily true. Some of the biggest churches have some of the most questionable teachings. Pergamum looked like the best of the best as far as the churches go; however, they had already started down a slippery slope with allowing bad teachings, sinful practices, and wrong influences into the core of the church. There are people who come into churches with the best of intentions and the strongest of loyalties, but those loyalties are based on power and control and not on faithfulness to the leading of God. The writer says that the remedy is this: “Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against [the wrong leaders] with the sword of my mouth.”
The only way to stop bad influences within a church and its leadership is open, clear, truthful words which call out the problem and gently rebuke it. Biblically we are called to meet first with the person in private, then with the congregation if they won’t listen. The same struggle is seen in the Old Testament for today. The people knew God had led them out of Egypt. They knew God had parted the Red Sea. They saw the cloud and pillar leading them. However loyal they might have been to the idea of God, they struggled to be faithful to the true God. So, while Moses was away, they turned to other gods. Moses had been gone for some time and they had been camped there waiting. Perhaps they reasoned that God was done and they needed some new god to lead them? Whatever their wrong motivation, they were loyal to the idea of a god, but not faithful to the one true God.
But Moses did return after begging God not to destroy the unfaithful people. And he threw the truth of God’s words at them…literally…as the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments came hurtling down at them. The people quickly learned the power of the “sword of God’s mouth.”
It is actually quite easy to avoid the disaster that awaited Pergamum. First and foremost a church must be led by the Bible as the Living Word of God. II Timothy 2:15 says, “Work hard [or some versions say ‘study’] so you can present yourself to God and receive…approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.” This means both reading your Bible and having a good commentary to make plain where the Bible is confusing.
It is also important to remain in open, honest communication in a church both with God and with one another. Proverbs 1:5 tells us, “Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance,” and James 1:19 reminds us to be “quick to listen.” In our modern society, we have lost the desire to listen to understand and truly communicate. We only listen now to argue, and that is a bad habit. James 1:19 goes on to say “quick to listen [and] slow to speak.” We, instead, are filled with this spirit of “I hear you, but..” or “I hear you; however,…” If Pergamum had stopped to listen to wise counsel, perhaps they would not have been led astray by fancy teachings which sounded nice but confounded the truth of God’s word.
Much of this struggle comes from faithless loyalties. We become loyal to or ideas, or social norms, our history, our politics even. The Hebrew people were enslaved to Egypt and an entire generation or more knew nothing else. But God was calling them on a new and different journey to a promised land. Pergamum had all the strength, loyalty, and spiritual power of a truly strong church, yet both had to be faithful to God even if it challenged ideas they were loyal to for many years. In order to stand on God’s promises, you must first be faithful to the God who never breaks a promise to us. So let us pray that God will take the strong foundation of or loyalties and make us faithful in all things God calls us to, for what is the point of believing if we are unwilling to follow the God in whom we believe?
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/4686327734766201