DEAR CHURCH: That's Compromising

I was sitting down for a delicious lunch of homemade Lunchables in the PreK 4 classroom this past week. After discussing how delicious the ham and cheese combination was and whether or not it was an acceptable use of food to wear the deli ham as a necklace, the conversation turned to Halloween costumes.
 
One little girl was excited to tell me that she was going to be a unicorn.
Another little girl was excited to tell me that she was going to be a princess.
One more said that she would be a unicorn.
And a fourth said that was would be a princess.
 
Finally, the little girl, who had been waiting and shaking with excitement to tell me her costume got her chance.
 
And she told me she would be something different:
An Elsa Unicorn.
 
I was curious. “What did that look like? Cause that might be hard to be both.”
She said, “I wear a crown and a horn on my head. Princess unicorn.”
 
A compromise.
 
Today we are continuing our series called Dear Church. It’s a series based on letters from Jesus to his church. Today’s letter is to a church that was compromising. But not in a good way. Compromising in a way that made them look about as silly as an Elsa Unicorn compromise. Our goal today is to identify why Jesus was reprimanding their compromise, when compromise is bad in our Christian lives, and what to do about fixing it.
 
Before we begin, a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth, your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see, our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. The Good
 
This letter starts in Revelation 2:12 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.
 
Pergamum was an ancient city located on a lofty hill. It was also a key state in Roman control of their empire and home to the Red Basilica of the Greek god, Isis.
 
To put it simply, everywhere that the people of Pergamum looked there was symbols of authority:
 
The high impressive hills showing the authority of nature.
The Basilica reminded them of the authority Greek gods had in their culture.
The large amount of soldiers representing the authority of the Roman government.
 
No wonder Jesus starts his address by reminding the Pergamum church of where true authority resides: Himself. He says that his words are a sharp double-edged sword.

Not just sharp on the left.
Not just sharp on the right.
Sharp on both sides.
 
That means his words don’t just take out everything on the left.
Nor do they take out everything on the right.
But both sides. He has all authority.
 
Briefly, I don’t think this is a direct reference to American politics, but still… It might be worth saying:
The right isn’t the ultimate authority.
The left isn’t the ultimate authority.
Jesus is the ultimate authority.
 
Next, Jesus gives the congregation a compliment: “I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.” (v. 13)
 
Pergamum was home to a large library of over 200,000 books. It was called The Library at Pergamum and is second in renown only to the Library at Alexandria.
 
Of course, this wasn’t Lifeway Christian Bookstore -- not all of these books were commentaries on the Bible. In fact, they often proposed ideologies and moralities in opposition to the Bible. These ideas from the books came influential in shaping Pergamum thought. Books that might have had titles like:
 
Greek Mythology – It’s not a Myth Anymore
101 Ways to a Good Relationship with the god, Isis
Temple Prostitution and You – a Beginners Guide
Food Sacrificed to Idols – 15 Minute Recipes for the Idol Worshiper on the Go
 
Pergamum was also home to a large theater. (Again, aptly named The Theater of Pergamum). It held over 10,000 people. By the way, its ruins are still there today.
 
At the time, attending the theater was a common way to spend the weekend. And common plays glorified things that weren’t so godly: worship of idols, pursuing money at all costs, adultery being okay as long as you sleep with the one you truly love, and generally bucking traditional morality and doing whatever you feel like doing. 
 
In essence, this theater was doing what Hollywood does today.
 
That’s why Jesus calls this place Satan’s home.
There’s temptation everywhere.
There’s false teaching everywhere.
There’s evil everywhere.
 
In fact, it had gotten so bad that a believer named Antipas is killed.
Murdered.
Put to death because he witnessed to the truth of Jesus.
 
Pergamum was hard place to plant a church.
Yet… The church survived.
 
The Good:
The church held onto FAITH in a city surrounded by VIOLENCE against it.
 
That word “held onto” means to “grasp firmly.”
 
It’s like playing tug of war with a dog. You are holding one end of the rope until your dog grabs onto the other end. Then…
 
It pulls.
It tugs.
It bares its teeth.
It shakes its head back and forth.
It growls as it tries to wrestle that rope way.
 
That’s what was happening in Pergamum – the culture was like a dog trying to wrestle faith away from the Pergamum church.
 
But…
They didn’t let them.
They held on tightly to their faith.  
 
That was good.
 
II. The Bad
 
But that’s also not the end of the letter. Look at what Jesus says next: “Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans." (v.14-15)
 
Notice the word that Jesus uses.
He says, “Some of you hold to” these teachings.
That’s the same Greek word.
The one that involves holding tightly as if you’re in a canine tug of way.
 
The church at Pergamum was holding onto the teachings of Jesus.
But also…other teachings.
 
We talked about the Nicolaitans in the letter to Ephesus. Not much is known about them other than that Jesus hated their practices. (Revelation 2:6) It isn’t surprising he wasn’t impressed by the fact that some of the Pergamum church was holding onto practices that he hated.
 
But Balaam…
 
Balaam was a false prophet in the Old Testament. He dabbled in occult type stuff. (Appropriate for Halloween, right?) He used spells, secret chants, and the power of the devil to see the future and cast curses onto people.
 
He was good at it.
 
In fact, he was so good at it that a guy named Balak who was king of the Moabites, hired Balaam to cast a curse on the people of Israel. If you remember, the people of Israel were God’s people in the Old Testament. He guided and blessed them, because one day the Savior Jesus would come from their race. But this was back at the time when the Israelites didn’t own any land, but were simply desert nomads.
 
Still, at over one million people in camp, the nation was impressive. It’s why Balak was concerned that they might come into Moab and destroy his nation. So, he hired Balaam to curse Israel.
 
Balaam was a big fan of money, so he agreed.
He stretched.
He shook out his hands.
He began cursing:
 
Hocus, Pocus…Hocus Crocus…Hocus…How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? (Numbers 23:8)
 
Sorry, King. Let me try again:
Bibbiddiy, boddiy, bless….God has blessed Israel and I cannot change it. (Numbers 23:20)
 
Just a second. Maybe we need to change up the curse location. Let’s try over on that hill there:
Eye of newt and ointment of Gibraltar – God’s kingdom will be exalted. (Numbers 24:7)  
 
Balaam couldn’t curse Israel.
God wouldn’t let him.
 
But Balaam was sly. He still wanted money. So, he offered some advice to Balak.
 
If you can’t curse them, maybe you can tempt them.
Send out some women.
Scantily clad.
Get their men, to…you know.
And you’ll become a part of their kingdom.
And lead them away from their God that way.
 
It worked. Numbers 31:16 says this: Some followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord.
 
Israel compromised.
 
Thousands of years later, the same problem was happening in the Pergamum church.
Sure, they were believers in Jesus. But some wanted to cover their bases:
 
I believe in Jesus, but I also believe that Isis might be able to help me with my crops. So, I’ll bring some offering to him and while I’m there I’ll sleep with the temple prostitutes. I’ll just have to remember to set my alarm so that I can get up for worship tomorrow. I’m ushering.
 
THE BAD:
Some held onto a TEACHING violently opposed to JESUS’ TEACHING. 
 
And I do mean violently opposed.
 
Balaam said, “Worship false gods.”
Jesus said, “Worship the Lord your God and serve him 0nly.” (Mt. 4:10)
 
Balaam said, “Do anything to store up treasure on earth.”
Jesus said, “Do anything to store up treasure in heaven.” (Mt. 6:19)
 
Balaam said, “Sexuality is yours. Do with it whatever you want.
Jesus said, “Sexuality is God’s gift. Use it within marriage as He tells us.” (Mt. 19:4-5)
 
Do you see the problem?
The Pergamum church held onto Jesus’ teaching.
But they also held onto things that were the exact opposite of Jesus’ teaching.
 
They were compromising.
 
III. The Compromise
 
Now usually compromising is a good thing.
 
Kids on the playground compromise and they both get to be Spider-man.
Teens in school compromise and they both work on parts of the school project.
Adults at work compromise and they go the meeting for half an hour today and half an hour tomorrow.
Spouses compromise and they have asparagus (like mom wanted) with Doritos sprinkled on top (like dad wanted).
 
Compromise can be good.
But not always.
 
I was listening to a podcast called the Liturgists the other day. (Sounds Christian right?) And the topic was pornography. I thought – That’d be good to hear. Some good tips on how to continually teach people the extreme danger of this destructive thing.
 
But as I was listening. One of the speakers said this:  
I’ve had some experiences with porn. And I found it to be helpful. I think it allows the opportunity to learn about sex and explore one’s sexuality. It’s just the lusts of the flesh, so whom does it harm?
 
And I started thinking in my head:
Your wife: who will feel like she can’t live up to it.
The actress: who will continue to feel like her worth is defined by how many watch her.
The industry: as you continue to give dollars to greedy jerks who don’t care how they treat women.
Me: because society will still see it as monetarily valuable and pump out pop-up ads and sultry material on the most tame websites.
And Jesus…who said – “I tell you if you look at a woman lustfully, you are guilty of adultery.”
 
But the people on the podcast?
The “Christians?”
They said:
 
You’re right. Porn is good.
 
Here’s the TRUTH:
Compromise is wrong when it treats BAD as GOOD.
 
Jesus loves good.
Jesus hates bad.
And he doesn’t compromise.  
 
Which means there is no compromise in the Christian faith.
 
You can’t love Jesus and love watching porn.
You can’t fill your spirit with Jesus and fill your stomach with moonshine.
You can’t be faithful to Jesus and be faithful to your spouse.
You can’t worship Jesus and worship your bank account.
You can’t say the Gospel is most important, but them make your traditions most important.  
You can’t claim to follow Jesus and then, do whatever you want.
You can’t claim to have the truth and then hold to teachings opposed to the truth!
 
In short,
If you want to hold onto Jesus, you can’t hold onto things that are opposed to Jesus.
 
Otherwise…
Look at what Jesus says:
Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. (v.16)
 
And my words are sharp.
They will cut your soul.
Your heart.
 
Because if you want to keep compromising your faith,
And keep doing the things opposed to my kingdom.
 
Then, I’ve got compromise for you:
 
You get to keep doing all that sinful stuff.
And I get to kick you out of my kingdom.  
Forever.
 
IV. What Now?
 
Jesus says, “Repent.”
Look at your life.
See where you’re compromising your faith.
Drop anything that’s against your Savior.
Put your faith in your Savior.
 
Because….
Faith in Jesus isn’t about compromises:
Faith in Jesus is about promises:
To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.”  (2:17)
 
Did you follow that section? It’s symbolic and yet rich with very real promises from Jesus:
 
(1) Hidden Manna
 
I had mentioned earlier that the people of Israel used to be nomads in the desert. Deserts don’t normally have a lot of food. There aren’t fast food places on every corner. Uber Eatz couldn’t bring you fried chicken. It wasn’t even a good place for growing your own crops.
 
So here what God did.
Early in the morning God send little pieces of bread, raining down from the clouds and landing softly on the ground next to their tents. These little wafer-like things tasted a bit like a honey, but not quite. A bit like bread, but not quite.
 
The food was so strange that the people simply called it: Manna.
In Hebrew, that means, “What is it?”
 
Manna was unexplainable. Its mystery was hidden. Yet God provided nourishment through it.
 
The same is true with the Gospel.
The message is mysterious.
Yet, God provides nourishment for souls filled with guilt.
 
In fact, Jesus said this: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry.” (Jn. 6:35)
 
Because in his Word, he gives us nourishment.
For all the times we’ve compromised.
For all the times we’ve done what we shouldn’t.
For all the times we’ve loved evil more than Jesus, God’s Word tells you: 
 
Jesus loved you.
Jesus died for you.
Jesus rose for you.
 
And through faith in him, you will be given a:
 
(2) A White Stone
 
In the ancient courtroom, a judge would lead the trial and give the verdict. But around the time of this letter, the Greek world began to introduce trial by jury. A jury would listen to the case. They would listen to the prosecution. They would listen to the defense. Then, they would vote.
 
If a juror found the person to be guilty, he would take a black stone and drop it into the official vote casting bag.
But if the juror found the person to be not guilty…?
 
White stone.
 
Jesus says to the repentant: “I am giving you a white stone.”
You are innocent.
You are not guilty.
You are forgiven.
 
In fact, to illustrate the farther.
It says that on that stone will be…
 
(3) A New Name
 
Because if you are someone who has been compromising your faith, you might not have the greatest name.
You might call yourself:
 
A Failure.
A phony.
A fake.
 
A porn addict.
A drunk.
An easy woman.  
 
A bad Christian.
 
But God?
He has a new name for you.
It isn’t based on you.
 
God calls you:
His.
Loved.
Forgiven.
 
And there’s no compromise on that.
You are God’s.
 
Don’t compromise on him. Amen.