Title: The greatest power of a believer
Revelation (17) The greatest power of believers
(Rev 2:12-17)
"Faith that shines in the midst of suffering"
The text contains the words of the Lord to the angel of the Church of Pergamum, the third of the seven churches. First, the Lord commended the Pergamum church for keeping faith in an environment where it was difficult to keep it (verse 13). Good faith is faith that does not change even in the midst of hardship. If you keep your faith in the midst of difficulties, those difficulties will soon disappear like a mist. There is no darkness that hardens forever, and no failure that captivates forever. Therefore, you must not change your mind or retreat from the path of faith even in the midst of difficulties.
There is a movie called "A Beautiful Mind". The movie is based on the life of a genius mathematician named John Nash. In his twenties, John Nash surprised the world academia with his theory of equilibrium. However, after a while, his mind wanders and he keeps getting caught up in illusions, causing great misfortune. It was his wife who suffered the most from it. However, his wife has a beautiful mind and understands and loves her husband to the end. Eventually, after a few decades, he regained his consciousness and was finally awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics.
If you wait patiently with faith, good days will surely come. Don't shake that belief. The reason people often become discouraged is not because of great suffering, but because of lack of faith. A person who has faith sees his suffering as God's providence and thinks about the next thing. “How is God going to work through this and what kind of blessing is he going to give?”
See your sufferings as God's providence and overcome them with the belief that good things will come after the trials. Even the hardships that God has given you are considered grace. The reason God grants us many graces and at the same time causes suffering is God's will to give us greater blessings and make us a greater person. When he has such faith and cherishes his time, family, children, work, and place, the Lord will praise him for his faith just like the Church of Pergamum.
<The greatest power of a believer>
While praising the church in Pergamum, the Lord rebuked him in two ways: one for accepting the teachings of Balaam (verse 14) and the other for accepting the teachings of the Nicolaitans (verse 15). Balaam led the Israelites into idolatry and fornication. The doctrine of the Nicolaitans is indulgence, that no matter how many sins you commit in the flesh, it's okay because of God's grace. In the end, the number one problem in the Pergamum church was the unholy problem.
What is a holy life? Sometimes people misunderstand a holy life as a perfect life in which there is no sin. Such a life is impossible and unsustainable for long. A key element of a holy life is a life of repentance. That's why the Lord told us to repent. What if I do not repent? There will be a history of the operation of the Lord Himself (verse 16).
On the other hand, if you repent, you will receive two things. First, he said that he would give him the hidden manna. This means that it satisfies the soul. Second, he said that he would give me a white stone with a new name written on it. When the ancients gave a white stone engraved with their name, it was a sign of “I acknowledge you.” In the end, saying that he would give me a white stone with a new name on it means that the Lord accepts and acknowledges him. That is why repentance is so important.
Look at David. He was loved by God more than anyone. What a great honor it would be if our names were recorded even once as a blessed name in God's holy bible. However, the name of David appears 800 times in the Old and New Testaments. That is why David was loved by God. How did you get such love? The biggest reason was because of his character who could repent.
David also committed many great sins. Many people have been killed in many wars. Also, after becoming king, he killed his loyal servants through adultery with Bathsheba and threw the country into chaos. The Jews still say that Bathsheba seduced David about David's adultery. It is true that you can feel that situation when you read the Bible. However, in the penitential psalm of the psalm, David never once blamed Bathsheba, he blamed everything on himself, and repented thoroughly. In order to be truly repentant, you must have no heart of blaming others.
The greatest power for a believer is not 'the ability to perform mystical gifts', but 'the ability to practice honest repentance'. Anyone can make mistakes. Even saints and great men can sin and make mistakes at any moment. When acknowledging such a human reality, the most important thing is to repent. Making excuses in the face of wrongdoing draws them away from the respect of man and the approval of God.