GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching. Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”

Revelation 2:14-16 NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we look at Jesus’ letter to the church in Pergamum in Revelation, chapter 2, we find that He was happy with the believers there on some things, not so much in others, and through His words dictated through John, we see a classic good news/bad news scenario play out.

Yesterday, we saw where Christ Jesus was happy that the Christians in Pergamum were remaining true to His name and not renouncing their faith in Him despite the persecution instituted by Satan who was alive and present in their midst. We learned that the persecution was severe enough that one believer, Antipas, actually was killed for the cause of the Gospel.

So one hand, Jesus was happy but as we see in today’s message, there were also things going on in the church that brought on His rebuke. Look again at these words found in verses 14 through 16:

“But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching. Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”

One of the main concerns that has been in play since the very advent of the Christian church is that believers in any one congregation would allow their actions and doctrine to stray away from the Lord’s will and toward the ways of the world. We certainly see this in play as Jesus speaks to the Christians in Pergamum, declaring “a few complaints” that He had “against” them, the bad news He didn’t hesitate to deliver.

As we see in these verses, the Pergamum church had allowed sinful, pagan behaviors to creep in, behaviors that included tolerating some in the church who were teaching like Balaam, an Old Testament prophet from Mesopotamia, who used his God-given gifts for sinful, self serving purposes. After trying to profit from Balak, the Moabite king who Balaam knew was an enemy of God, Balaam advised Balak on the best way to get the Israelite people to compromise their faith, therefore putting them in a place of enmity with their God and subject to His judgment and punishment.

And so we know the teaching (some translations use the word “doctrine”) of Balaam was all about compromising oneself for selfish gain. Rather than espousing devotion to God, the teaching based on Balaam, a teaching also promoted by some Nicolaitans in the church, would be one that would encourage someone to chase after and seek to fulfill their own desires, no matter if it was against God’s expectations or not. This is what Jesus was railing about in this portion of the letter.

As we see in the final verse of this passage, Jesus gave firm direction as to what He expected. The Christians in Pergamum were commanded to repent or face the consequences of disobedience and sin against their God and His Son who was speaking to them, a Son who promised to come on them “suddenly” and “fight against them with the sword” of His mouth, a metaphor for the full extent of His power.

You know, as I write this message today, I can’t help but wonder what Jesus might say if He was to write a letter to any Christian church in practice today. Would He have only good news to share, news that He was pleased with the Gospel work being done, work that was honoring Him in every way possible? Or, would He express displeasure about what was happening within the congregation, detailing what He saw was wrong and threatening punishment if there wasn’t an immediate confession of sinful wrongs with an accompanying, genuine, heartfelt desire to change direction towards becoming the church He would be proud of, a church who once again established Him as the Head.

Friends, within our Christian congregations today, we had better keep these words of Jesus at the forefront of our minds as we go about our work in His name. I pray they would be the driving force toward complete, uncompromising compliance with the scriptures and His will and way, a will and way ever revealed through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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