Pergamos, The Seat Of Satan

Revelation 2:13

"I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is:

and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in

those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was 

slain among you, where Satan dwelleth."

        Pergamos had a place all its own in Asia. It was not on any of the great roads, as Ephesus and Smyrna were, but historically it was the greatest city in Asia. The city of Pergamos was fifteen miles from the Aegean Coast and seventy miles north of Smyrna.  An immense alter to Zeus, the chief of the Greek mythological Gods, stood on the higher part of the city, one thousand feet above the plain. This may be what is being referred to as Satan's seat in (v-13). The church in Pergamos represents the age of the state church, which began with Constantine and continued until the first pope was recognized to have authority over the catholic church (A.D. 313-590).   

        And here is the explanation of the beginning of the letter to Pergamos. Christ is called, he who has the sharp two edged sword. Roman governors were divided into two classes those who had the right of the sword, and those who did not. Those who had the right of the sword had the power of life and death; on their word a man could be executed on the spot. Humanly speaking the person, who had his headquarters at Pergamos, had the right of the sword, and at any moment he might use it against any Christian; but the letter bids the Christian not to forget that the last word is still with  Christ, who has the sharp two edged sword. The power of Rome might be satanically powerful; However the power of the Risen Lord is greater yet. Amen!  Here is something very important. The principle of the Christian life is not escape, but conquest. We may feel it would be very much easier to be a Christian in some other place and in some other circumstances but the duty of the Christian is to witness for Christ where life has set him.

        In spite of the fidelity of the Church at Pergamos there is error. There are those who hold the teaching of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. We have already discussed these people in connection with Ephesus and we meet them again when we come to study the letter of Thyatira. They sought to persuade Christians that there was nothing wrong with a prudent conformity to the world's standards. It is the word of Christ that he will make war with them. We must note that he did not say: "I will go to war with you;" he said: "I will go to war with them." His wrath was not directed against the whole Church but against those who were seducing her; for those who were led astray, he had nothing but pity.
    For those who would "Repent" He would give them hidden manna and a white stone  with a new name written on it. There may be a wider and more general meaning. Of the manna it is said: "This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat" (Ex. 16:15). The manna is called "grain of heaven" (Ps. 78:24); and it is said to be the "bread of the angels," (Ps. 78:25). Here the manna may mean heavenly food. In that case John would be saying: "In this world you cannot share with the heathen in their feasts because you cannot sit down to eat which is part of a sacrifice that has been offered to an idol. You may think that you are being called upon to give up much but the day will come when you will feast in heaven upon heavenly food." If that is so, the Risen Christ is saying that a man must abstain from the seductions of earth if he wishes to enjoy the blessings of heaven.

         The final promise of Christ to the faithful in Pergamos is that he will give them the white stone with the new name on it. This is a passage of which there are almost endless interpretations. In the ancient law courts white and black stones were used for registering the verdict of juries, black for condemnation, white for acquittal. This would mean that the Christian is acquitted in the sight of God because of the work of Jesus Christ. It has been suggested that the white stone is the man himself; that the Risen Christ is promising his faithful ones a new self, cleansed of all earthly stains and glistening with the purity of heaven. So Abram becomes Abraham when the great promise is made that he will be the Father of many nations and when he, as it were, acquires a new status in the plan of God for men (Gen. 17:5).
         Christ promises a new status to those who are faithful to him. It suggests that the white stone means that Jesus Christ gives to the man who is true to him a new self and that the new name means the new status of glory into which the man who has been true to Christ will enter when this life ends and when the next begins. 

        Amen!!

Reading: (Rev. 2:12-17)

Ref: (BSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

 

Smyrna's Trial

Revelation 2:9

"I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty,

(but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy 

of them which say they are Jews, and are

not, but the synagogue of Satan."

        It was only natural that Smyrna would come second to it's great rival Ephesus. Of all the cities of Asia, Smyrna was the loveliest. Men called it the ornament of Asia, the crown of Asia, and the flower of Asia. The setting of the city was equally beautiful. It began at the harbor, and it traversed the narrow foothills; and then behind the city there rose a hill covered with temples and noble buildings which were spoken of as;  "The Crown of Smyrna." 
        Here we have an interesting and a significant thing which shows the care and knowledge with which John wrote his letters from Christ. The Risen Christ is called, "He who died and came to life." That was an echo of the experience of Smyrna itself. There are three things that the letter says about this trial; Affliction, Poverty, and then there is Imprisonment.
        John forecasts an imprisonment of ten days. That is not to be taken literally. Ten days was an expression for a short time which was soon to come to an end (v-10d). John calls the Jews the synagogue of Satan. He is taking a favorite expression of the Jews and reversing it. When the people of Israel met together they loved to call themselves "the assembly of the Lord" (Num. 16:3; Num. 20:4; Num. 31:16).  It is as if John said: "You call yourselves the assembly of God when, in fact, you are the assembly of the devil. 
        Jesus Christ will be in no man's debt and loyalty to him brings its own reward. To the faithful a promise is made: they will not be hurt by the second death. Of such things it is not given to any man to speak with confidence but, when John spoke of the faithful being unharmed by the second death, he meant precisely the same as Paul when he said that nothing in life or in death, in time or in eternity can separate those who love him from Jesus Christ. Such a man is safe from all that life or death can do to him (Rom. 8:38-39).
        Amen!!

Reading: (Rev. 2:8-11)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

Ephesus, Held Accountable

Revelation 2:4

"Nevertheless I have somewhat

against thee, because thou

hast left thy first love." 

        Let's look at a little history of Ephesus, and learn something of its conditions during it's time. It is easy to see why it comes first in the list of the seven Churches. During the time of John, Ephesus was the greatest harbor in Asia.  All the roads of the Cayster Valley ran to it. The Cayster was the river on which it stood and converged upon it.  It was at Ephesus that the road from Euphrates and Mesopotamia reached the Mediterranean.  It was at Ephesus that the road from Galatia reached the sea, having come by way of Sardis. Ephesus was ''The Market of Asia," and it may well be because in Rev. 8:12-13, John was writing  down a description of the varied riches of the marketplace at Ephesus.  Its position made Ephesus the wealthiest, and the greatest city in all Asia, and it has been rightly called the Vanity Fair of the ancient world.
        The Church at Ephesus had faithfully applied its tests and had weeded out all evil and misguided men; but the trouble was that something had gotten lost in the process. "I have this against you," says Christ, "you have lost your first love."  In Ephesus the enthusiasm was gone.  Jeremiah speaks of the devotion of Israel to God in the early days.  God says to the nation that he remembers, "the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride" (Jer. 2:2).  There had been a honeymoon period, but the first flush of enthusiasm had past.  Maybe, what Christ was saying was; that all the enthusiasm has gone out of the religion of the Church of Ephesus.
        Some where the Church of  Ephesus had gone wrong.  The earnest toil was there; the gallant endurance was there; the unimpeachable orthodoxy was there; but the love was gone.  So Christ makes his appeal and it is for their return journey to Him.  The early Christians did not identify paradise and heaven; so to the early Christians paradise was the intermediate stage, where the souls of the righteous were fitted to enter the presence of God.  But there is something very lovely here.  Who has not felt that the leap from earth to heaven is too great for one step, and that there is need of a gradual entering into the presence of God.  My friends, we must turn our minds to the words of Jesus, to the dying and penitent thief, that said "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thou Kingdom." (Luke 23:42)  And Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke. 23:43).
        Amen!!

 Reading: (Rev. 2:1-7)
References: BSB

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

               

The Great Voice From Behind

Revelation 1:10

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day,

and heard behind me a great voice,

as of a trumpet."

         John was in the Spirit. That means he was in an ecstasy in which he was lifted beyond the things of space and time into the world of eternity. "The Spirit lifted me up said Ezekiel (Ezek. 3:12), "and I heard behind me the sound of a great earthquake."  When John heard the voice it was like the sound of a trumpet. The sound of the trumpet is interlaced into the language of the New Testament. (Matt. 24:31; 1Cor. 15:52; 1Thess. 4:16). The voice of God has a commanding, and unmistakable clarity of a trumpet call. 
        John was in a place where, all he had was God. So John was in the right place and it was in God's time, and must of all he was in God's Heaven when he was told to write the vision which he saw. It was his duty to share the message which God gave to him. Now it was not a special duty, but a duty all Christians have, "Listen and obey God"
        A man must first hear and then transmit, exactly what he heard and who he heard it from, even if the price of the transmission is costly. When a man has a vision he must withdraw to see his vision, then he must go forth to tell it. The Scriptures read that he turned to see the voice. Question? What would we say! Probably this, "I turned to see who it was speaking to me, because I didn't quiet recognize the Voice. My friends; we must know the sound of our God's Voice!
        Amen!

Reading:  (Ezek. 3:10-15)
                (Matt. 24:29-31)
                (1 Cor. 15:51-58)
                (1 Thess. 4:13-18)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

The Island Of Banishment

Revelation 1:9

"I John, who also am your brother, and companion in 

tribulation, and in the Kingdom and patience of 

Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called

 Patmos, for the word of God, and for

the testimony of Jesus Christ." 

        John tells us about the visions of the Revelation that came to him, while on the isle called Patmos. Patmos, a barren rocky little island belonging to a group of islands called the Sporades,
it is ten miles long by five miles wide. It is crescent shaped, with the horns of the crescent pointing to the east. John was a leader of the Christians, and Christians were criminals, and treated as such. It is a wonder that he was not executed quickly; however banishment for him would involve hard labor in the quarries. John's banishment would be "preceded by scourging, marked by perpetual fetters, scanty clothing, insufficient food, sleeping on the bare ground, a dark prison, and work under the lash of the military overseer."
        Patmos left its mark on John's writing. To this day they show visitors a cave in a cliff overlooking the sea, where, they say, "the Revelation was written". There are magnificent views of the sea from Patmos "Nowhere is the voice of many waters more musical than in Patmos; nowhere does the rising and setting sun make a more splendid, sea of glass mingled with fire. It was to all the hardships and pain and weariness of banishment, and hard labor on Patmos that John went for the sake of God's given Word. And it was John's unshakable loyalty to the word of God, and his insistence on preaching the message of Jesus Christ which brought him to banishment in Patmos.
        The way to the kingdom is the way of endurance. That endurance is to be found in Christ. He himself endured to the end, and he is able to enable those who walk with him to achieve the same endurance and to reach the same goal.
        Amen!!

Reading: (Rev. 1:9-10)

May God Bless You

And Your Families

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

John To The Seven Churches

Revelation 1:4
"John to the seven churches which are in Asia:

Grace be unto you, and peace, from him

which is to come; and from the seven

Spirits which are before his throne."

         The Revelation is a letter, written to the seven Churches which are in Asia. In the New Testament Asia is never the continent but always the Roman province. The seven Churches are named in Rev. 1:11 Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. These were by no means the only Churches in Asia. Why did John single out only these seven? There can be more than one reason for his selection. These Churches might be regarded as the center of seven postal districts, being all on road which circled the interior of the province. 

        Letters delivered to these seven cities would easily circulate in the surrounding areas; and since every letter had to be hand written, each letter would need to be sent where it would reach the greatest number of people. Any reading of the Revelation will show John's preference for the number seven. It occurs fifty four times. There are seven candle sticks (Rev.1:12), seven stars (Rev. 1:16), seven lamps (Rev. 4:5), seven seals (Rev. 5:1), seven horns and seven eyes (Rev. 5:6), seven thunders (Rev. 10:3), seven angels, plagues and bowls (Rev. 15:6-8). The ancient peoples regarded seven as the perfect number, and it runs all through the Revelation.

         Seven is the perfect number because it stands for completeness. It is, therefore, suggested that, when John wrote to seven Churches, he was, in fact, writing to the whole Church. This is all the more likely when we remember how often John says: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches" Rev. 2:7, and all through the Book of Revelation.
       Now for the seven Spirits with the the seven Churches, in Heb. 2:4; we read of God giving "gifts of the Holy Spirit. God gives a share of his Spirit to every man. So the idea here would be that the seven Spirits stand for the share of the Spirit which God gave to each of the seven Churches. It would mean that no Christian fellowship is left without the presence and the power and the illumination of the Spirit. That my friend means all generation's. It would be who of us to read and spiritually understand "The Book of Revelation."

        Amen!!

Reading: (Rev. 1:4-20)

               (Rev. Chap. 2, 3)

 May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

  

Revelation, Unveiling And Revealing!

Revelation 1:1a

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God

gave unto Him, to show unto his servants

things which must shortly come to pass,"

        This book is called  the Revelation and sometimes the Apocalypse. It begins with the words "The Revelation of Jesus Christ," which mean not the Revelation about Jesus Christ, but the Revelation given by Jesus Christ. It is composed of two parts which are "unveiling and revealing."
        It is used for the revealing of God's will to us for our actions. Paul says that he went up to Jerusalem by revelation, because God told him he wanted him to go (Gal. 2:2). It is the revelation of God's truth to men. Paul received his gospel, not from men, but by revelation from Jesus Christ (Gal.1:12). In the Christian assembly the message of the preacher is an revelation (1Cor. 14:6). It is God revealing to men of his own mysteries, especially in the incarnation of Jesus Christ (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:3).
        It is specially used of the revelation of the power and the holiness of God which is to come at the last days. That will be an unveiling of judgment (Rom. 2:5); but for the Christian it will be an unveiling of praise and glory (1Pet 1:7); of grace (1Pet1:13); of joy (1Pet 4:13).
        Let us not forget that this revelation is connected specially with the work of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:17). We are bound to see that here we have a picture of the whole of the Christian life. There is no part of it which is not lit by the revelation of God. God reveals to us what we must do and say; in Jesus Christ he reveals himself to us, for he who has seen Jesus has seen the Father (John 14:9); and life moves on to the great and final revelation in which there is judgment for those who have not submitted to God; but grace and glory and joy for those who are in Jesus Christ. Revelation is no technical theological idea; it is what God is offering to all who will listen.

        Amen!

Reading: (Read The Introduction

                To The Book of

                Revelations) 

May God Bless You

And Your Families

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry