Revelation 2:18-29 - The Authority to Judge

Introduction

On July 26, 2020, thirty-eight members of FBC Diana gathered for one of our most difficult and most important members’ meetings to date. It was certainly the most emotionally exhausting and pivotal members’ meeting we’ve had since I’ve been here. At that time, we had 512 members on our roster, but our regular Sunday attendance was about 70. When I became the senior pastor FBC Diana in August of 2014, our regular attendance was about 100, and though that did go up a bit for a couple of years, we never had more than about a third of our members in regular attendance.

After years of teaching and preaching on meaningful church membership, and after many conversations and efforts to reconnect with absentee church members (I reached out to many of them, and so did some of you sitting here today), we came together as a church on that Sunday afternoon for what was sure to be a long and painful meeting.

We had come to a decisive moment in our church’s history. Based on our records, FBC Diana did “censure” or excommunicate a handful of members during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. But I am not aware of any formal church discipline cases after that. It is a sad fact of history that FBC Diana is not unique in this pattern. Most Evangelical churches today (and for the last 150 years) simply do not address any unrepentant sin among their members, not perpetual absence, or sexual promiscuity, or unbiblical divorce, or a host of other common sins among those who claim the name of Christ in our American culture.

Greg Wills wrote a book on Baptist history (called Democratic Religion), and he estimates that Baptist churches in America, before the mid-1800s, excommunicated about 2% of their members each year. [1] Some of the most common reasons were (in our terms we might use today) partying, sleeping around, and public drunkenness. It’s hard to know exactly why that practice seemed to die out during the latter half of the nineteenth century, but Greg Wills says that it’s likely Baptists simply got tired of doing it… and that they tended to turn outward (to the world) with their moral judgment instead of inward (to the church). They condemned sinners in the world, and they worked hard to advance moral causes in their communities, but they stopped dealing honestly and directly with sin in their churches… among their own membership.

For our part (as a church), we wanted to recover this practice. We believed that Christ commands us to be serious about our relationships with one another. We believed that it was important for our witness in the community (for us to be real Christians and not just pretend ones). And we also believed that practicing more meaningful church membership would help us grow healthier as a church, where discipleship and spiritual maturity are the expectation and not the exception.

By God’s grace, I believe that we are a healthier church today. I believe that discipleship and spiritual maturity are the expectation and not the exception among us. And I believe that we have a reputation among our community for being a church who takes Christianity and church membership and following Christ seriously. In other words, I believe we are speaking a truer word about what it means to be a Christian and what it means to follow Christ.

We mean to help people make it to heaven, and not just to help people become church members.

But this practice has not come without a cost. It has cost us friendships (there are some former members of FBC Diana who despise what we’ve done). It has cost us numbers – both members and money (some former members left FBC Diana precisely because we have decided to operate this way). And it has cost us (at least some of us) personal heartache and doubt (some of us probably wonder if what we’re doing is actually for the better).

What does it say to outsiders if we excommunicate a man for sleeping around on his wife? Doesn’t everyone sin sexually sometimes?

What does it say to other churches members if we excommunicate a woman for denying her God-designed gender? Shouldn’t we strive to make her feel loved?

What are we saying if we call one another to repentance, and if we ultimately remove from our membership those among us who refuse to repent?

This morning, we are going to read and consider a passage of Scripture that addresses questions like these. The church in Thyatira was commended by Christ for their “love” and their “faith” and their “patient endurance,” but they were also rebuked by Christ for “tolerating” sin and false teaching among the church.

These are immediately relevant words for churches in our own day, and we too need to be reminded of the importance of and the reasons why church discipline is something that the Protestant Reformers considered a mark of a true Christian church. Why have many Christians before us thought that a church that does not confront sin and does not excommunicate unrepentant sinners is not a true church?

Let’s consider this passage together… and may God help us to be instructed by it as well as encouraged… encouraged to “keep” Christ’s “word” and “works” even as we await that day when Christ Himself shall give us more authority and more responsibility… even to “rule” beside Him.

Scripture Reading

Revelation 2:18–29 (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.

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.’

Main Idea:

Christ is the righteous King who shares His own authority to judge with His faithful people; therefore, Christians are to be faithful and to judge rightly.

Sermon

1. The Righteous King (v18)

This is now the fourth letter to the seven churches in Asia minor (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and now Thyatira). And as we’ve noticed already, these letters all have the same basic structure and content:

(1) picture or description of Christ

(2) a kingly assessment of the church [“I know…”]

(3) a call to some sort of action [often with a warning for disobedience]

(4) a promise for those who persevere or conquer [i.e., faithful to Christ]

And as I pointed out last week, the picture or description of Christ at the beginning of each letter is intended to provide some emphasis on Christ’s character that drives the rest of the letter.

The church here in Thyatira was called to repent of their “toleration” of sin (v20) and to “hold fast” until Christ comes (v25). And the picture of Jesus they needed to steel their spines and to sober their minds is there in v18… Jesus is described as “the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze” (Rev. 2:18). In other words, He is the divine King who sees (with His flaming eyes) right down to the heart of things, and He will tread under foot (with His hard and unbending feet) those who continue in sin and rebel against His kingly authority.

This is, of course, an echo of John’s first vision of the glorified Christ in ch. 1 – “His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters” (Rev. 1:14-15).

And the vision John received of Christ there was itself a reference to an earlier vision received by the prophet Daniel.

I argued some weeks ago, that Daniel’s vision (in ch. 7 of the book of Daniel) was of both the “Ancient of Days” and the “son of man” (Dan. 7:9-10, 13-14). But also that John saw the risen and glorified Christ as a joining together of both of these into a single vision. In other words, Jesus is both the “son of man” and the “Ancient of Days” … He is both the second Adam and the God who made men and the world around them… He is both the Messiah-King (who was to come) and the God who reigns supreme (from before the foundation of the world). [2]

As I said in my first sermon in Revelation, this book has a high Christology! If you love and worship Jesus, then you will delight in the book of Revelation!

Interestingly, the book of Revelation picks up this same imagery in ch. 19, where Christ’s searching eyes are “like a flame of fire,” and “on his head are many diadems [or “crowns”]” (Rev. 19:12). And Jesus (as the righteous King in battle) is “clothed in a robe” soaked with the “blood” of His enemies (Rev. 19:13).

He who is the “anointed one” of God (or the Messiah or the Christ) is also the “Son” of God (Ps. 2:2, 7), and the “kings” and “rulers” and peoples of the earth have been “warned” to “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled” (Ps. 2:10-12)… but many do not… many will not turn away from their sin and “take refuge” in Him (Ps. 2:12).

Nevertheless, the picture is presented… and the church in Thyatira is warned… indeed, all churches are warned! Jesus is certainly the Good Shepherd who cares more than we can understand for His sheep, but He is also the righteous King… and His eyes blaze with piecing heat… He “searches mind and heart” (Rev. 2:22)… He “knows your works” (Rev. 2:19)… and He is coming soon!

But what is He coming to do?

What will that day look like when it arrives… that day of both judgment and deliverance… that day of both punishment and reward?

What will become of those who do not turn from their sin and do not trust and follow Christ… all the way to the end?

And what will become of those who do repent and believe… and keep on repenting and believing… following Christ all the way to the end?

Christ promises that they shall receive “authority over the nations,” and they shall “rule them with a rod of iron,” right alongside Christ Himself (v26-27).

2. Authority to Judge (v26-29)

This morning, Scott Tarnstrom began our service with a call to worship. He read a passage from the end of Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus said that He now has “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18). This was Jesus’s claim (yet again) to be the “son of man” from Daniel 7, where it was prophesied that the “son of man” would receive (from God) “dominion and glory and a kingdom” and “that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him” (Dan. 7:14).

The Bible clearly teaches us that God the Son already possessed all of the attributes of divinity (of godness) before He took on flesh and became the man, Jesus Christ… including all authority, all power, all honor, and all glory. What the Father has, so has the Son and the Spirit. These three are distinct as persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), but they are one in substance and attributes and authority (these are one God)… Three whos, but one what.

But when God the Son… the one who “in the beginning” was “with God” and “was God” (Jn. 1:1-2)… when God the Son “became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14), He took on the nature of man. As we read last Wednesday night in our Bible study (turn with me there for a moment… Philippians 2… starting with v6), “though he was in the form [or “nature”] of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form [or “nature”] of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7).

And in this “taking” on of the “nature” of man, God the Son became the God-man… truly God and truly man. The Ancient of Days entered the frame of history. The one who stretched the heavens was confined to a human body. And the one who rules the cosmos with the word of His mouth gave Himself to the path of obedience and sorrow in order to earn the throne that already bears His name.

The passage in Philippians goes on… “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). Who can plumb the depths of such a verse?! The eternal God, who knew no sin, subjected Himself to the penalty of sin, and He suffered the divine curse that had been spoken over His enemies!

Friend, if you’re here this morning, and you want to know why Christians love doctrine and theology… This is it right here! You can tell me some sappy story of personal Christian experience, and I will praise God with you for His kindness, for His provision, for His goodness.

But if you want my heart to beat faster… if you want my skin to crawl with excitement… if you want my eyes to fill with tears… then tell me something about that great humiliation of Christ… where the God of the universe took on flesh to bear my sin and shame! Tell me what it means that the God who cannot die tasted death in my place! Tell me about that time when the divine curse was spoken over God’s own Son, so that the divine blessing could be spoken over me!

Friend, if you want to understand this better or to know how you can become a beneficiary of what Christ has done on the cross, then let’s talk as soon as the service is over… I’ll hang around for a while, just come find me in the room.

Back to Philippians 2… let’s pick it up in v9. Because God the Son took on human flesh and died as the substitute for sinners… “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). In other words, it was in the humiliation of Christ (His taking on of humanity, His life of active obedience, and His death on behalf of sinners)… it was in His humiliation that Christ earned His exaltation as the glorified God-man.

And this is what Jesus is talking about near the end of our passage in Revelation 2 today! He says, at the end of v27, “I myself have received authority from my Father” (Rev. 2:27). This is not the divine authority, which God the Son already had before the world was made. This is the Messianic, the Christological, the first and best glorified man’s authority that was granted to Christ by the Father because of His life and death in the flesh (or as a man).

Now the reason I’m taking such pains to stress the humanity of Christ in a passage (and even in a whole book) that so emphasizes His divinity, is because it is Christ’s shared humanity with His people that makes the promise here at the end of this letter understandable.

Jesus promises that “the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 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” (Rev. 2:26-27).

Ok, so now we can understand that Jesus is not saying that faithful Christians will rule the universe (in the new creation) as demigods or even as some kind of angel. But what He is saying is that (in some profound and real sense) those who repent and believe (and those who remain faithful to the end) will share in Christ’s own authority and rule alongside the glorified Messiah.

And whatever that might look like in the new heavens and the new earth, we can know what it looks like now… in the present world as it is. We know that Christ has given His people authority right now to speak and to act with His own authority on earth. Christ’s reign is both already and not yet, and so too is the authority He has given and will give to His people.

When the Apostle Paul urged the church of Corinth to make right judgments about who was in and who was out of the church, and even to make right judgments to resolve conflicts between Christian brothers and sisters, he wrote, “do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?” (1 Cor. 6:2).

On the whole, Christians do not and have not ruled or judged the world. From my perspective, Christians have no reason to expect to do so until the last day. But Christians (specifically those covenanted together within the boundaries of a local church)… Christians are most certainly to make Christ’s rule and authority known (with the authority of Christ Himself)… and that is what the church in Thyatira was not doing… And Jesus rebuked them for it! He told them to get their church in order and to stop “tolerating” a false teacher who was described as a woman producing “children” of death among them.

3. Commanded to Judge (v19-25)

Now, we’ve done a lot of biblical and theological work to get here, to the meat of our passage this morning. This letter to the church in Thyatira is primarily about Christ’s word of judgment about what was going on in their church, and it’s primarily a call for them to repent of their unwillingness (for whatever reason) to “tolerate” false and deceptive or “misleading” (NIV) or “seductive” teaching from someone who apparently had the ear of at least some inside the church (Rev. 2:20).

Last week we read that the church in Pergamum was in danger of calling down the sword of Christ upon them because they had some unrepentant church members who “held” to a similar kind of false teaching (Rev. 2:12-17). But in Thyatira, they not only had unrepentant church members (they were guilty and in danger the same as the church in Pergamum), but they also had at least one unrepentant teacher or leader or “prophetess” in their midst (v20).

As I said, we’ve already stretched our minds a bit, thinking about the person of Christ (His godness, His humility, and His exaltation) and thinking about the authority Christ has and that same which He shares with His people (both now and in eternity). Because I’ve already done a lot of theological talking today, I’m going to try to make this last point of my sermon a lot more practical with application. I believe this will also serve us well, as we think through how we ought to apply this text in our own church and lives today.

Let me make 3 observations about what was disordered in the church of Thyatira, and I will try to counter each of these disorders by showing what the Bible commands about how to become rightly ordered as a church.

First, they were not “working” or “holding fast” to Christ’s commands to live holy lives and to require holiness among their membership.

Christ clearly says here that He intends to “give” rewards or punishments to the members of this church “according to your works [or “deeds” (NIV, NASB)]” (Rev. 2:23). I know that some of us may have a hard time thinking this way, but the Bible could not be more adamant about the necessity of good works or righteous living or obedience… and that goes for individuals as well as churches.

The Scripture commands believers to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). And “whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (Jn. 3:21). And “my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).

The Scripture teaches that “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead;” therefore, faith is shown or demonstrated or proved “by… works” (James 2:17-18). Now, this does not mean that any sinner is saved (or specifically justified) by his or her works or deeds. On our best days, we are still sinful and wretched people. And Christ even adds a caveat to His rebuke here in our passage (I think) to remind them of such a thing. He says, in v24 and 25, “to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this [false] teaching… I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come” (Rev. 2:24-25).

This is reminiscent of the letter that went out to Gentile Christians from the church of Jerusalem when they were debating whether or not good Christians needed to obey all of the OT commands in order to be counted among the NT church. That letter said, “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden” (Acts 15:28). In other words, “Christians are those (whether Jew or Gentile) who repent and believe… and we give you no other command than to follow Christ in keeping with your call as Christians.”

And yet, there is a way that Christians (individually and collectively) are to live… namely, in keeping with Christ’s commands. And the specific command that the church in Thyatira was disobeying was Christ’s command to “purge the evil person from among you” (1 Cor. 5:13; cf. Deut. 13:5).

They ought not to have been “tolerating” or permitting a false prophet to teach (Rev. 2:20)! And they ought not to have been “tolerating” or permitting many of their fellow church members to “commit adultery with her” (v22). The Bible very often uses adultery as a symbol of sinful believing and sinful living, and that’s exactly what some of the church members were doing… And the faithful ones were not speaking up and calling them to repentance!

Friends, it is not loving to let someone continue in sin without saying something. It is not loving to know that a brother or sister in Christ is dabbling in sin and to leave them alone while they self-destruct. And it is not loving to keep on affirming someone as a Christian while they give all kinds of evidence that their faith is dead… that their soul is dead… that they are barreling toward hell.

One day (on the last day), we will receive “authority over the nations,” and we shall “rule” and judge them right alongside Christ (if we are found faithful). But today, Christ has already given the church (i.e., the assembled body of believers) the authority to make judgments about the souls of men.

Obviously, we cannot know what is in a person’s heart. But we can and should most definitely judge a person’s words and deeds. Are they living in keeping with the faith they say they have? Are they speaking in ways that demonstrate an understanding of the true gospel and basic sound doctrine? Are they showing genuine love for Christ by turning away from sin and turning toward holy living?

If the answers to these questions are “No,” then we must speak a word of judgment over people like this.

If they do not hear our word of judgment in this world, then they are grave danger of hearing the word of Christ’s judgment in the next!

And His eyes are “like a flame of fire,” and He “searches mind and heart,” and He has promised to “strike” or “kill” those who follow after false teachings and who live in disobedience. And we who know the seriousness of what is at stake must speak up! If we do not, how will they (or we) ever avoid the judgment that is to come?

Brothers and sisters, if we are to be a rightly ordered church (if we are to be a church that reflects the reality that Jesus is now the righteous judge), then we must embrace our responsibility to make right judgments about who is in and who is out of our membership… we must make right judgments about who should and who should not teach and lead among us… and we should make right judgments about what is and what is not right teaching and right living.

A second observation of disorder in the church of Thyatira is that they were allowing a woman to lead or teach in the church, which is expressly forbidden by Christ in the Bible.

It has been noted recently that “gender is where the world today arguably opposes Christianity the most… [and] disagreements [even among Christians] over female [pastors or leaders] in the church root most fundamentally in our culture’s all-out war against the fact that God created us male and female.”[3]

But the war against God’s defined order for the church, for the home, and for our lives as men and women is not new. Since Genesis 3, men have been inclined to be both tyrants and delinquents, and women have been inclined to subvert the authority of their husbands (by manipulation or by direct confrontation). And all people (young and old, men and women) are inclined to rebel against good authority in every area of life. This is why submission to authority and the need to exercise authority well are so emphasized in the Bible!

This is so deep within us, and this is such a chaotic conversation in our culture today, that it is almost impossible to say much of anything publicly about the proper role of men or women in the home, in the church, or in society without being misunderstood. The applications of clear biblical commands on this issue require shared terms, shared definitions, and shared assumptions about God’s design and intention. But many of us (certainly most of our friends and family) simply do not share such things.

At the risk of being misunderstood, and with a deep desire to talk more and not less about this, I believe I must be clear about what the Bible says. God’s commands are for our good, and Christ’s rule over us as King is not to steal our joy… but to amplify it beyond what we can know or understand.

In the context of writing about the qualifications for those who ought to lead in the office and function of pastor or overseer or elder or leader in a church, the Bible says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man” (1 Tim. 2:12). Rather, it is godly men with good character who are able to teach and who aspire to take responsibility for the care of souls… these are who the Bible teaches us should be recognized as elders or pastors or leaders in the church… and these are the ones we ought to encourage and follow (1 Tim. 3:1-7).

The church in Thyatira didn’t have to hear any teaching at all from whoever the woman was that Christ called “Jezebel” (Rev. 2:20). Even if her doctrine was sound and her life was commendable, the very fact that she was “calling herself a prophetess” and “teaching” in some formal capacity among the church of Thyatira was already a disorder… and it was bound to lead to other disorders and sins.

In fact, the record of history shows us that this is exactly the trajectory to be expected. When men do not live up to their godly responsibilities as men, and when women step outside of their God-given role as women, all manner of other sins and dysfunction and rebellion against God’s word are sure to follow.

Brothers and sisters, if we are to be a rightly ordered church (if we are to be a church that reflects the reality that Jesus is now the righteous judge), then we must embrace the instructions Christ has given us for how a church is to be structured, how it is to be led, and how it is to function. We must work to raise up godly men to serve as pastors among us… we must pray that Christ would give us such good gifts… and we must be careful to avoid the temptation to compromise with the world on this fundamental order of our homes and our church.

A third and final observation I’ll make today is that the church members in Thyatira (at least some of them) were listening to and living according to false teaching that promoted immoral living, which is adultery against Christ.

Oh, brothers and sisters, how easy it is to hear false teaching today, and how good it feels on our ears when someone says that we can live as Christians and at the same time put down our guard against sin in our lives and in our church. Everywhere we turn, some “Christian” celebrity or talking head is telling us that calls to holiness and obedience and good order are legalism… they are cult-like rules… they are bigotry… they are outdated traditions that are best left behind.

Even some of our friends and our family members might heckle us or make fun of us or even accuse us of being too judgmental or prudish… if we commit ourselves to lives of increasing holiness and according to Christ’s rules.

But, brothers and sisters, don’t listen to that lying tongue of the devil that has been wagging since the beginning. The world, your own desires, and the devil himself will tell you that your best good is something God is withholding from you… and what you need to do is throw off His limitations in order to have real joy. But we know better! We know that Christ is the righteous King who shares His own authority to judge with His faithful people… so we strive for faithfulness, and we aim to judge rightly… even as we await that coming day when Christ shall promote us to the seat beside Him.

Endnotes

[1] See Democratic Religion on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/ehw9fQZ

[2] Our picture of Jesus here keys in on a feature or description of Daniel’s vision that actually includes yet another of Daniel’s prophetic reports. In Daniel 10, he received another vision, which is cited nearly verbatim here. When Daniel was lamenting the present and coming devastation of God’s judgment upon His people, a mysterious figure appeared to him – “one” in the “likeness” or “appearance” of a “man” (Dan. 10:5, 16, 18). The strange and frightening messenger spoke of a time that would come when there would be great “trouble” but also of great “deliverance” (Dan. 12:1). He said there was coming a day when “everyone whose name shall be found written in the book” would be “delivered” and “awakened” to “everlasting life” (Dan. 12:1-2). But the rest of the world would be “awakened” to “shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). And the one who spoke of such things – this “one” who was in the “likeness” or “appearance” of a “man” (Dan. 10:5, 16, 18) – Daniel described Him as having a “face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude” (Dan. 10:6). In other words, Jesus is evoking the imagery of this mysterious figure from the past, and He is telling the church in Thyatira that He is the fulfillment of Daniel’s vision… Jesus is the one who will bring about that coming judgment and deliverance… and Jesus is standing over and with them even now (as it were) to make them feel the weight and awe of that reality.

[3] See this article written by Juan Sanchez and Jonathan Leeman on this particular issue that is a major point of contention among the Southern Baptists Convention right now. https://www.thebaptistreview.com/editorial/stand-where-the-world-stands-against-us

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