The "Tolerant" Church (Revelation 2:18-29)

Introduction to Thyatira.

Approximately 40 miles southeast from Pergamum, where we were last week, Thyatira is the smallest of the seven cities that we visit in these letters.

Its location is on the main north/south road of the region of the Empire of Rome.

Its location provided the city with great economic wealth.

Especially near the time of the writing of this letter, the city was entering into the great time of economic prosperity.

As we know from the times we live now, economic prosperity gives way to moral and spiritual looseness.

There wasn’t an “acropolis”, or an area with temples to various deities to be worshipped.

In the Thyatira Economy, there were trade guilds.

Each trade guild operated a certain part of society. Each trade guild had a patron deity that they would worship.

In order to be able to provide for your family in Thyatira, you had to be a part of the trade guilds.

This is where much of the pressure from the pagan society would come.

Would the Christians compromise their belief in the Lord Jesus Christ by participating in Pagan worship in order to provide for their families?

Christ’s Depiction (v. 18).

“Eyes like a flame of fire” points to the omniscience of Jesus Christ. He is completely aware of everything that goes on in His Churches.

He knows exactly what each of the members/attenders of His Body are doing.

Whether they are “tolerating” pagan worship—>Jezebel

Whether they remain faithful to Him—> verse 24.

“Feet like burnished bronze”

This points to His judgment of the Church.

Often you find phrases like, Psalm 110:1 “Yahweh says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I put Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.””

Being under Christ’s feet means being under His authority.

The “burnished” or glowing bronze speaks of the burning holy character that Jesus has.

We see this in Revelation 19:15, as Jesus “treads” the wine press of God’s Wrath over the nations.

This burning holiness compels Him to fight for the purity and holiness of His Body, the Church.

1 Peter 4:17.

Ephesians 5:26, 27.

Christ’s Commendation & Condemnation (vv. 19-23).

Commendation (v. 19).

Jesus points that He against is completely aware of all of the deeds of the Church in Thyatira.

In this letter, He outlines 4 of them.

love.

Just like we discussed with the Church at Ephesus, this love can be two or three fold.

The true Christians in this Church:

Loved Jesus.

They hadn’t left their first love yet.

Loved the brethren.

This is pointed out by their “service”, and their serving one another

Loved the lost.

faith.

The word “faith” is the Greek word for fidelity and faithfulness.

this means that the true believers in this Church were dependable and faithful to be called upon to serve the Lord and one another.

service.

We talked about this earlier, true believers love another and are willing and eager to be called upon to serve, and even seek out opportunities to serve in the Body of Christ.

perseverance.

This is the willingness and ability to remain under a trial, to glorify God in the middle of it.

As they faced the pressures from society, and those that were coming from within the Church, as we’ll see soon, they remained steadfast and faithful to the Lord.

They saw the purpose of their trial (Romans 5:1-5).

They could rejoice under trial (James 1:2-4).

They counted the cost (Matthew 16:24-26).

Not only did they have these qualities, they were increasing as the time went on .

“…your deeds of late are greater than at first.”

The true believers continued to grow despite the pressures inside and outside the church.

We’ve noted in the past that often the difficulties we face in our Christian lives are the crucible that God uses to refined, purify, and strengthen our faith in Him.

1 Peter 1:6-9.

Condemnation (vv. 20-23).

Even after such a wonderful and encouraging commendation by the Lord, all was not well in the Thyatiran Church.

They were tolerating a false teacher, seemingly named “Jezebel”.

This likely is a pseudonym for a person in this church. Jesus probably used it to bring to mind the account of the wicked King and Queen, Ahab and Jezebel, who led the Israelites away from the one true God, to worship the Baals.

1 Kings 21:25, 26.

You Probably remember the story of Elijah and the false prophets of Baal, having a sacrifice competition, to see whose God was the true God.

Obviously the true God of Israel won, and consumed both alters, and the false prophets with the fire from heaven.

1 Kings 18:20ff.

Like we saw last week, and the teach of Balaam, here we have woman teaching that mixing true Christianity and the pagan religions around them was fine, and acceptable.

We see this in Rev. 2:20b “‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and deceives My slaves so that they commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.”

Whats more, there was a second generation of this teaching (Rev. 2:23).

so it had been tolerated in this church for quite sometime.

Christ’s Course of Action.

Its amazing, because Christ doesn’t given them any chance to repent, because He already has been doing that!

Revelation 2:21-22.

He graciously gave her time to repent, as He often does.

2 Peter 3:9.

Ezekiel 18:23, 30-32.

Not only is she going to be judged

Her “children” (v. 23).

those who join her in her vile deeds (v. 22)

Christ commands the faithful, those who did not follow her teaching or perform any of her vile deeds, to remain steadfast in their belief.

He calls the false teaching the “deep things of Satan”.

It is good to recognize any false teaching as “Satanic” because it is deceptive at best.

John 8:43, 44.

2 Corinthians 11:12-14.

He tells them that he places no other burden on them.

They had the burden of discerning the false teaching, and fighting against it.

That is a heavy burden that isn’t a new admonition to believers.

Acts 20:26-31.

1 Timothy 4:1, 6, 15-16.

2 Timothy 4:1-5.

Jesus tells them to “hold fast”.

This points to this fact that this discernment and battle is not easy.

Paul calls it warfare in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6.

The Call to Heed (vv. 26-29).

Jesus promises two things to the “overcomers”, the true believers.

He promises that we will reign with Him in the Messianic Kingdom.

He quotes to O.T. passages that speak of His rule and reign in the Kingdom, and applies them to us.

In verse 26b and 27a, Jesus quotes Psalm 2:8, 9, which deal with His rule over the nations.

in verse 27b, He quotes Isaiah 30:14,.

This is to point to our amazing inheritance that we who trust and believe in Christ Jesus are promised.

We see this most clearly in 2 Timothy 2:12.

He promises that we will have Him in all His fullness.

We know and see Him in part now, through the Scriptures.

2 Corinthians 3:18.

We will know and sed Him in all His glorious majesty in the future.

Revelation 22:16.

2 Peter 1:19.

1 Corinthians 13:12.

He who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.

May we live lives of repentance, discerning error, living for the truth.