Revelation Study Week 8: Chapter 2:18-29

Revelation 2:18-29

18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are 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, faith, service, and patient endurance. I know that your last works are greater than the first. 20 But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her fornication. 22 Beware, I am throwing her on a bed, and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great distress, unless they repent of her doings; 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve. 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 to what you have until I come. 26 To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end,

I will give authority over the nations;

27 to rule them with an iron rod,

as when clay pots are shattered—

28 even as I also received authority from my Father. To the one who conquers I will also give the morning star. 29 Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Literal Meaning

Vs. 18   “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze:

What we have as a description of Jesus here is “Son of God,” “eyes like a flame of fire,” and “feet like furnished bronze”

Son of God - only time mentioned in this from in all of Revelation. Apollos was the sone of Zeus, as son of a god and was worshiped in Thiatira

eyes like a flame - through out scripture the idea of eyes of flame deals with seeing the unseen and discernment.

Feet like burnished bronze - judgement.

what we have is Jesus sees all and brings judgement.

Vs. 19  “I know your works—your love, faith, service, and patient endurance. I know that your last works are greater than the first.

There is good news for this church…they have love, faith, service, and patient endurance…Not only that but they are growing in what they did! Consider this the three things that remain, Faith Hope and Love, this church has them all. Faith and love are spelled out, hope was evident because of their patient endurance.

if you remember Ephesus had lost their first love and needed to return to doing the things they did at first, here love and service was a commendation. In Ephesus the works were lacking but their doctrine was solid, here the work was solid but their doctrine was lacking.

Vs. 20 But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

Jezebel was mostly likely not a particular person but a type of person. As you know, Jezabel was a Sidonian woman who married King Ahab and led the whole country into worshiping false gods specifically Baal. Not only that but she sought to destroy the prophets of the living God.

She was a self-proclaimed prophet. In other words she claimed to hear from God.

The practice of fornication and eating food sacrificed to idols was in relation specifically to the trade unions but not limited to them.

fornication is the greek word “porne” which is where we get the word pornographic from. It literally means to “prostitute one’s body to the lust of another.”

eating food sacrificed to idols is bad, but then pauls says in 1 Cor. 8:4-8 that idols were nothing and eating meat sacrificed to them means nothing…both can’t be true.‌

1 Corinthians 10:18–22 (NLT)

18 Think about the people of Israel. Weren’t they united by eating the sacrifices at the altar?

19 What am I trying to say? Am I saying that food offered to idols has some significance, or that idols are real gods? 20 No, not at all. I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to participate with demons. 21 You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too. 22 What? Do we dare to rouse the Lord’s jealousy? Do you think we are stronger than he is?

What Paul is saying here is that we can eat meat sacrificed to idols, but we cannot participate in the celebration of the worship of idols (or as he puts it, demons).

The issue is she is teaching things and encouraging the people to do things that contradict what God commands.

The church in Thyatira was doing the good they were told to do, but was also doing what they shouldn’t be doing, sin.

Vs. 21  I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her fornication.

This is fairly self explanatory, she had time to repent but she didn’t

Vs. 22-23 Beware, I am throwing her on a bed, and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great distress, unless they repent of her doings; and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.

Throwing her on a bed is a euphemism for making one sick.

Those who commit adultery with her will find themselves in great distress the greek word here is tribulation but not he Great Tribulation.

Repentance for both are needed...

The children of Jezabel (her followers) will be struck dead. As long as you remain a follower of Jezabel, death at the hands of God will be your future.

the phrase “I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and gives to each of you as their works deserve,” can be tied to eyes of fire and feet of bronze.

God sees all and brings judgement...

Vs. 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 to what you have until I come.

These two verses give us some encouragement...

Not all in Thyatira have followed the teachings of this Jezabel…the deep things of Satan

Those who remained faithful will not have any other burden put on them except to hold fast to what you have until Jesus comes.

Vs. 26-29 To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end,

I will give authority over the nations;

27 to rule them with an iron rod,

as when clay pots are shattered—

28 even as I also received authority from my Father. To the one who conquers I will also give the morning star. 29 Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

We will receive authority over the nations when remain faithful, which includes doing works until the end…

The morning star we will be given is Jesus, it is in contrast to the stars mentioned in the first chapter which were angles.

2 Peter 1:19

Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts.

Revelation 22:16

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.”

Universal Understanding

We can be commended about our love, faith, service, and patient endurance but as churches if we allow false teaching in, we will be judged.

Prophetic Nature

Ephesus was the apostolic/post-apostolic time - 1&2 Centuries

Smyrna was the Roman Persecution - 2 century to 313-360

Pergamum was the age of Constantine - 313-360 to about 600

Thyatira was the dark ages - 600 to about 1517

The church had been married to the governing power, the Roman government.

The church was dominated Roman Catholic institution. It rose out of the ashes of the Roman Empire itself.

The Roman government started fall apart around 600 AD. It would fracture, reunite, fracture, reunite (as Daniel said it would). It initially split into two halves, east and west.

Rome was the headquarters of the western half of the empire and Constantinople (Istanbul) was the headquarters of the east.

When the Empire broke apart it left a power void, and the Roman Catholic Church filled that void.

It went from being in bed with the powerful government to being the powerful government.

The church ruled the world, but wasn’t ruling it spiritually.

Forcing people to be Christian led to leaders who weren’t Christian.

Many heresies were introduced into the church during this time.

Justification by works…

worship of Idols and images - interesting to note that the catholic bible doesn’t have the “no idols” listed in the Ten Commandments. The separate no coveting into two to have ten.

Celibacy of priests

The hierarchy of clergy

Confessing sins to an intercessor other than Christ himself.

Penance

Worship of Mary

Communion as actual body and blood of Christ. A continual sacrifice - (Meaning of Thyatira)

Jesus said he would put an end to it, and he did.

He did give them time to repent as he said he would, almost a thousand years…but then

He through her on a bed and we know can see that as the black plague.

A lesser known result of the black plague is the rise of the reformation. The rise of free thinking allowed Martin Luther to question that of catholicism.

Personal Application

Are we loving God and serving as we should, but allowing ungodly doctrine in our lives? How do you know if they are ungodly or not?