Thyatira
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Intro
Intro
Ephesus - The Church that lacked love.... in the biggest city
Smyrna - The Persecuted church..... poor church in the wealthy city
Pergamum - The church that compromised ..... where satans dwells....
Thyatira - The Church that tolerated a false teacher .... In a city that was expendable military outpost and blue collar workers.... And it has been iflitrated by a false teacher...... most insignificant church gets the longest letter.
18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
19 “ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,
23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.
25 Only hold fast what you have until I come.
26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations,
27 and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
28 And I will give him the morning star.
29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.
Moses words to the two clans staying on the East of the Jordan river...... Your sin is going to be obvious to all..... BUT most importantly, you may be able to hide your sin to some, you may be able to keep in under wraps..... but your sin will find you out!
It’s not that bad right? - someone else down the street is 10x worse than me!.... Look at my Facebook feed!
Keep a secret - If I just keep my skeletons in my closet, noone will open it....
work the system - I know the language… I know what the Bible says.... I know how to get what I need when I need it..... and thats all that matters.
This morning...... as we look at the Church in Thyatira..... let us be aware of our sin and the forgiveness found in Jesus.
in verse 18 - He has eyes like a flame of fire and feet that are burnished bronze.... He sees everything and he is pure and holy and righteous and he is coming to bring his refining fire!
1. Continue to Grow in Good Works
1. Continue to Grow in Good Works
Jesus sees there works..... They are good!..... As a healthy church… Jesus gives the thumbs up.... The Good, the Bad, the call to endure/reward
19 “ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
Love - Compared to Ephesus this church is doing the work of the kingdom for all of the right reasons! A love for Jesus that overflows to love for others!
What’s love got to do with it?....... EVERYTHING! Just as the church in Ephesus!
Faith - They believe and obey !
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
Fully Dependent on God - Taking radical risks for the Kingdom!
This small town is producing works that far exceed their insignificance!
Service - Same word for deacon.... literally they have no problem waiting tables, getting down on hands and needs to meet the needs of their community!
No situation is too dirty to clean up
No person is too far from God to recieve love!
Patience - They continue in the works.... They are persevering, patiently enduring!
They no it takes time to serve people..... It takes endurance!
Increasing - They are doing works and more works.... and more works!
This church had the food pantry - the prayer walking, the prayer meetings, the pregnancy center, the adoption services, the evangelism teams, making disciples that make disciples...... The list of opportunities to serve in the church and in the city was growing by the week! If volunteers were needed.... they always said yes!
This city was full of hardworking people in the trades, and this church was full of hardworking people!
Follow the Truth not a truth
Follow the Truth not a truth
If they were continuing in good works.... then here is the bad..... They have let a false teacher to set up shop in the church..... a Jezebel.
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
Who is Jezebel?
Who is Jezebel?
A woman in the church - not literally named Jezebel....
Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, a priest of the cruel, sensuous, false god Baal
31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.
32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria.
Self-proclaimed prophetess - self-given authority
She was not an apostle - She was claiming the authority on her own
God told me...... Be cautioned when someone uses those words!....
Teaches - verse 24 calls it the deep things of Satan
She is in a place/position that she is teaching others regularly
She is using Christian lingo and twisting it to her desires and needs.... SATANs teaching!
It sounds right, but it aint it!
Docetism - Your soul was good, you body was evil.... thus you could go about sinning in your body, but not your soul
Antinomianism - Against the Law - Should we sin that grace may abound?.... BY No MEANS!...... There are some that say.... Shall we sin that grace may abound...... YES!..... You see how this creeps into teaching.
Prosperity Gospel - James Goff noted in a 1990 Christianity Today article, God is “reduced to a kind of ‘cosmic bellhop’ attending to the needs and desires of his creation.”
Just use God for your material gain!
practices sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols
The town was a military outpost.... it was 30-35 miles southeast of Pergamum and was known for its wool and dye industries - Lydia in Acts is from Thyatira - her purple dye was a money maker....
The whole town was full of guilds - the Labor unions of the day and each had a greek god that they worshipped for blessing in their work...... Imagine you would attend the steel mill union meeting or the concrete plant union meeting here in town and the union leader stands up and says.... We are going to begin our meeting with a few prayers to Apollo and sacrifice some food to him and then get into how we can make the most money together!.....
SHE WAS CALLED TO REPENT but didn’t - This is unpopular in our day.... but the letter carrier had heard this 3 times by now.... and approaching Thyatira he knew what was coming.
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
The first steps were taken.... but there was no repentance.... the church leaders clearly didn’t continue through this process....... They needed to call out Jezebel in front of the whole church!
Jesus or Jezebel... Follow the Truth not a truth
22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,
23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.
There is a choice to be made with Truth in the church then and now!
- Punishment, here disease sickbed and death.... and punishment by God’s wrath in the tribulation....
- To the rest..... meaning there is a group that follows the truth! be a part of that truth!
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jezebel in the OT was adding Baal side by side with God, and here in Revelation in Thyatira this Jezebel is adding another god with Jesus.... and you cannot have both!
This morning… we are not going to guild meetings.... hearing someone teach us at LCBC that we must believe in Jesus and some other gods or sinful ways..... HOWEVER.... we face this in our everyday life.....
Genesis 4:7 (ESV)
7 ....sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
This is Pauls words to the Philippians this summer… and to us now..... to Live is Christ and Christ alone!
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Let us only choose Jesus!
3. Receive the reward
3. Receive the reward
25 Only hold fast what you have until I come.
26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations,
27 and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
28 And I will give him the morning star.
29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
1. Rule with Jesus - He gives authority
Psalm 2 - Jesus is over the nations as King!
6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
The Reward is to rule and to reign with Christ!
Whatever this authority looks like it is given through Jesus authority!
3. The morning star -Jesus himself!
In one of Balaams blessings when he was going to curse said this!
17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.
There is a king - the scepter and a star - Jesus himself!
The bright morning star we recieve is to be with Jesus! Revelation is the revealing of Jesus.... It is the best thing now and it will be even better in Heaven! Jesus!
Our Choice this morning - We have ears.... let us hear this!
Receive Jesus and Rule with him and recieve him as the reward!
or
Reject Jesus and receive judgment from Jesus