The Churches of Revelation

The Churches of Revelation

The Church That Compromised

week 2

Introduction

Thyatira was noted for its numerous guilds (roughly the equivalent of today’s labor unions).

Thyatira’s main industry was the production of wool and dyed goods (especially purple goods).

The pressure faced by the Christians in Thyatira came from the guilds.

To hold a job or run a business, it was necessary to be a member of a guild.

Each guild had its patron deity, in whose honor feasts were held—complete with meat sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality.

Christians faced the dilemma of attending those feasts or possibly losing their livelihood.

How some in the Thyatira church were handling the situation caused the Lord Jesus Christ great concern.

The Correspondent who writes to the church

Revelation 2:18 (ESV)

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.

His general title here is Son of God, that is, the eternal, one and only Son of God. This denotes that he has the same nature as the Father but a distinct and subordinate manner of subsistence.

That his eyes are like blazing fire signifies his piercing, penetrating, perfect knowledge.

He has a thorough insight into all people and into all things.

I am he who searches hearts and minds (2:23).

He will make all the churches aware that he does this.

His feet are like burnished bronze.

He is characterized by steadfastness, purity, and holiness.

As Christ judges with perfect wisdom, so he acts with perfect strength and steadiness.

The Church is commended

Revelation 2:19 (ESV)

19 “ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

The believers at Thyatira were showing love for God and for one another.

—although that love was apparently fragile, since there was not a strong foundation of unified sound doctrine. In some ways, Thyatira was strong where Ephesus was weak; in fact,

Thyatira is the first of the seven churches to be commended for its love.

Christ commended them for their faith.

The true Christians in Thyatira were dependable, reliable, and consistent.

Not only did the Thyatiran Christians possess these virtues,

Their deeds of late were greater in number than at first.

Their loving service was becoming more consistent, and their faithful perseverance growing stronger.

They were growing in grace, maturing in their Christian lives, and advancing the cause of Christ (cf. 2 Pet. 1:8). For that behavior they were to be commended.

Jesus is going to criticize the Thyatirans but he did not brush aside their achievement and their virtues.

James Hamilton writes:

“Sometimes when we go to address problems, even ones that are not so serious, we fail to see and acknowledge the good things that may be happening.

Jesus is encouraging this church. They have problems, but those problems don’t keep him from seeing and commending the fruits of the Spirit in their lives.”2

Following Jesus’ gracious example, when we are dealing with people who need to be corrected, we would be wise to notice their strengths and praise their virtues, in this way opening a door for the harder message that they may thus be more willing to receive.

Given our own weakness and tendency toward failure, how wonderful it is to learn that Jesus knows, cares about, and appreciates all the good things taking place in our lives as his people.[3]

The church at Thyatira had many people that loved God and served his people.

They had faith in his word, and they persevered.

They helped many, and they kept it up. As others then got involved, the church grew.

The deeds, or the works, of the church were far more when this letter was written than when it first began.

That is the way a church grows. If you and I had been there at Thyatira, we would have been greatly impressed by this church.

It was a busy, bustling, active church with some wonderful people in it who obviously manifested love and faith, concern and care for others. It must have seemed a very attractive church.

The Concern for the church

Revelation 2:20–23 (ESV)

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.

The meetings of the guilds were devoted to licentious debaucheries which were connected with the worship of erotic idols of the Greek world.

These guilds met frequently, and they met for a common meal. Such a meal was, at least in part, a religious ceremony.

It would probably meet in a heathen temple, and it would certainly begin with a libation to the gods, and the meal itself would largely consist of meat offered to idols.

The official position of the church meant that a Christian could not attend such a meal.” William Barclay

As a result of false teaching of the prophetess Jezebel the servants of Jesus are engaging in sexual immorality and idolatry.

This woman might have been justifying participation in the Roman Imperial Cult, with the result that the Christians in Thyatira engaged in idolatrous, immoral activities that accompanied pagan celebrations[4]

Jezebel has been called to repentance, but she has refused to repent.

Those who belong to Jesus repent of sin.

The refusal to repent of sin identifies someone as unregenerate.

its as if they are bullet proof - everything that should make them repent bounces right off of them

How do you respond when you are confronted with your sin?

Does it make you angry? Or does it make you humble, contrite, and more grateful that Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin?

Does it make you more zealous to turn away from sin in the future?

Or does it make you feel like you need to be more careful not to be caught in the future?

If you get angry when people call you to repentance, or if you feel yourself scheming about how to avoid being caught in the future when you plan to commit those same sins again, you are not acting like one who has been born again by the power of God’s Spirit.

When a person hears the news that God is holy, that God calls people to account for the ways they offend his holiness, that the punishment for sin is infinite and eternal, but that Jesus took that punishment when he died on the cross, if the Spirit gives life, they hear this news and are simultaneously born again and believe in Jesus.

If you believe this news and you repent of your sin—that is, you want to confess your sin and turn away from it so that you never do those evil things again—you have been born again.

If you claim to believe this news, but you do not want to turn away from sin but want to keep right on committing those same sins,

you should call on the Lord to send his Spirit to give you life. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

There is good news: "unless they repent of her ways."

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.

Our Lord always gives an opportunity for repentance.

I have often thought that natural disasters -- earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc. -- are opportunities being given men to think again, to stop and look at what we are doing, and to change our ways.

It is opportunity to repent, a slap in the face that says, wake up! "

But," Jesus says, "she was unwilling." And so the judgment must come.

By refusing to repent, Jezebel declared that she did not belong to the people of God.

Once she made this plain, the church in Thyatira had a responsibility to tell her the truth—she was not right with God. They had a responsibility to protect the flock.

They had a responsibility to exclude her from the church.

Instead of telling Jezebel the truth they were tolerating her, and as a result of the church’s failure to act, she was leading the servants of Jesus into sin.[5]

The church was about forty years old when John wrote, so that her false teaching had been around long enough for a second generation of errorists to have arisen.

How seriously does God take such things in his church?

As he did with Ananias and Sapphira,

The Lord threatens to kill these errorists with pestilence (literally “kill them with death”).

It was too late for Jezebel; her heart was hardened in unrepentant sin.

The Lord Jesus Christ mercifully warns her disciples to repent while there is still time.

The severe judgment promised to the false prophetess and her followers reveals Christ’s passion for a doctrinally and behaviorally pure church.

He will do whatever is necessary to purge His church of sin—even to the point of taking the lives of false teachers.

That sobering reality should cause all who purport to be teachers and preachers in the church to be certain they are speaking the truth. (cf. James 3:1).

It should also warn Christians who are following false teachers to repent of their sins, lest they face divine chastening.[6]

Christ gave a word of comfort to those true believers in the Thyatira church who had not followed Jezebel’s false teaching: “I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.”

Christ’s judgment would be based on each person’s deeds; those who were innocent would not be punished along with the guilty.

That everyone will be judged by his or her deeds is a frequent theme in Scripture.

In Matthew 7:16 Jesus said of false prophets, “You will know them by their fruits.” Speaking of His second coming, Jesus warned, “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds” (Matt. 16:27; cf. Rev. 22:12).

God is the righteous judge “who will render to each person according to his deeds” (Rom. 2:6). Paul wrote of his bitter opponent Alexander the coppersmith, “The Lord will repay him according to his deeds” (2 Tim. 4:14).

Works have always been the basis for divine judgment. That does not mean, however, that salvation is by works (cf. Eph. 2:8–9; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5).

People’s deeds reveal their spiritual condition. That is what James meant when he said, “I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18).

Saving faith will inevitably express itself in good works, causing James to declare that “faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself” (James 2:17, cf. v. 26).

Christians are new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17), “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

Works cannot save, but they do damn. [7]

Hold What you have been given

Revelation 2:24–25 (ESV)

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.

To the true believers who had not experienced the alleged deeper knowledge claimed by these heretics, Christ said, I place no other burden on you.

Bearing the burden of seeing blatant false teaching and immoral living rampant in their church,

and having to resist the incessant solicitation and ridicule from the Jezebel party, was burden enough for them to bear.

But lest they become overconfident, Christ exhorts them, “what you have, hold fast until I come.”

(cf. 1 Cor. 10:12). The use of the strong word krateō(hold fast)

Hold fast indicates that it’s not going to be easy.

Jesus unequivocally denounces Jezebel’s teaching as evil. He doesn’t explain it.

He doesn’t make excuses for it.

He doesn’t try to give it the benefit of the doubt.

He simply identifies it as satanic.

And he is not afraid to say what he thinks.

We need more Christlikeness in our day. We need more people willing to call evil what it is.[8]

The final words to the church at Thyatira

Revelation 2:26–29 (ESV)

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.’

To the one who overcomes (i.e., a true Christian) and … keeps Christ’s deeds (in contrast to those in v. 22 who practiced Jezebel’s evil deeds) until the end (steadfast obedience marks a genuine Christian),

Christ promises two things.

First, Christ will give such people authority over the nations.

and you will rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces.

That promise, taken from Psalm 2:7–9, is one of participation in the millennial kingdom.

Those who remained faithful to Christ despite being beaten and despised in this life will rule with Him in His earthly kingdom.

They will exercise authority over the nations, ruling them with a rod of iron (cf. Rev. 12:5; 19:15).

Those nations in the millennial kingdom who rebel against Christ’s rule and threaten His people will be destroyed.

Those people who rule with Him will help protect His people and promote holiness and righteousness. Christ will delegate authority to them as He also has received authority from His Father (cf. John 5:22, 27).

That quotation from Psalm 2 is a reference to the rule of Christ in the earthly kingdom that we call "The Millennium." It is a promise of reigning with Christ, not in the new heavens and the new earth, but in a period marked by the type of rule found in this quotation:

Jesus says, "He will rule them with an iron scepter." That means with some degree of stern judgment. "He will dash them to pieces like potter's vessels" (Psalms 2:9 KJV), i.e., the combines of evil will be broken up in that day.

It is referring, therefore, not to the new heavens and the new earth (because nothing evil ever enters there), but to the millennial kingdom, the earthly kingdom over which the saints will share a reign with Christ.

We need to understand that the Millennium is a time when righteousness reigns, i.e., it rules over the earth, it judges among people because sin is present and death as well. But the new heavens and the new earth reflect a condition where righteousness dwells. Nothing shall enter there except that which is righteous and pure and good. Now our Lord becomes even more specific.

Christ also promised to give to His faithful followers the morning star.

The morning star is Christ Himself—a title He assumes in Revelation 22:16 (cf. 2 Pet. 1:19).

Christ promised believers Himself in all His fullness;

the One whom we “now … know in part [we will] then … know fully just as [we] also have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12).

The concluding words, “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” are

a charge to heed the message of the letter to the church at Thyatira.

Three Truths in Conclusion

First, this letter reveals the seriousness of practicing and tolerating sin, and that God will judge continued, unrepentant sin in the church.

Second, a pattern of obedience marks true Christians.

Third, God’s gracious promise to His own is that, in spite of struggles with sin and error in churches, they will experience all the fullness of Christ as they reign with Him in His kingdom.

Those churches, like Thyatira, who fail to heed the message will receive divine judgment; those who do heed its message will receive divine blessing.[9]

Conclusion

Jesus calls his own to repent of sin, and he brings affliction to lead people to repentance.

Jezebel refuses to repent, and others who claim to be Christians but who do not repent show themselves to be Jezebel’s children, the seed of the serpent. Jesus forgives his own, who repent, and he spares them from judgment (2:22). The church is called to purity and should no longer tolerate Jezebel. And those who overcome will reign with Jesus. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:29).[10]

[1]Packer, J. I. (1999). Introduction. In A. McGrath (Ed.), Revelation (p. 35). Crossway Books. [2]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1999). Revelation 1–11 (p. 99). Moody Press. 2 James M. Hamilton Jr., Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 96. [3]Phillips, R. D. (2017). Revelation (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.; p. 123). P&R Publishing. [4]Hamilton, J. M., Jr. (2012). Preaching the Word: Revelation—The Spirit Speaks to the Churches (R. K. Hughes, Ed.; p. 97). Crossway. [5]Hamilton, J. M., Jr. (2012). Preaching the Word: Revelation—The Spirit Speaks to the Churches (R. K. Hughes, Ed.; p. 98). Crossway. [6]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1999). Revelation 1–11 (p. 102). Moody Press. [7]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1999). Revelation 1–11 (p. 103). Moody Press. [8]Hamilton, J. M., Jr. (2012). Preaching the Word: Revelation—The Spirit Speaks to the Churches (R. K. Hughes, Ed.; p. 100). Crossway. [9]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1999). Revelation 1–11 (p. 105). Moody Press. [10]Hamilton, J. M., Jr. (2012). Preaching the Word: Revelation—The Spirit Speaks to the Churches (R. K. Hughes, Ed.; p. 101). Crossway.