The Letter to the church in Thyatira (Part 1)

Text: Rev. 2:18-29.

Intro: At no other time in church history could you look at the prophecies of Revelation 2-3 concerning the church age, and see all seven of them like you can today. As we continue our study, may it be that it is with the anticipation of that perfect ending and with the understanding that we are in the last days! Paul said, (“Philippians 3:1 “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”) As we near the end, let us be so much the more focused on Him and on His eternal purpose!

Ephesians 3:11 KJV 1900

According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

In our study of church history, we see God’s plan and purpose in and through His church. We see that the devil opposes that work by either countering it, or counterfeiting it. Through the first three churches ages we have seen how Satan countered the work of God with a work of his own. The church through Christ offered life, so he countered that with persecution and death. When those efforts only resulted in the church growing, he responded by counterfeiting the church with a look alike. Through these first churches we saw how the “church fathers” (men that loved God, and would have died for the cause of Christ) but… they had left their first love. We saw how in their writing they used words that were not Bible words, and in the name of righteousness, they practiced things that were not declared as righteous in the Bible, although they seemed “good”. Satan used each and everyone of these deviations and it is not a coincidence that every false doctrine practiced today is rooted in what is called “church traditions. Of course that church could not have the name “Universal Church of Satan” but by the name “Universal Christianity” (Catholic Church). Ultimately we see the attack go from a counter that was physical in nature, to a counterfeit that is spiritual in nature.

Commission: (Rev. 2:18a) “And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write...”

With each church we have considered their name as one given by God, and we have looked at the significance of the meaning of each name. The name of each church represents in ________ word, a description given by God of that period. Only God could do such a thing, and have it be with such meaning!

Ephesus: _____________ ____________________.

Smyrna: ______________ (bitterness & death)

Pergamos: ____________ __________________. (Where we get our word polygamy from.)

The name “Thyatira” means ________________ of _____________________.”

Through these God given names we get a glimpse of each church age from the view of God. Ephesus was the beginning and represented a church that was fully engaged in the purpose of God. Satan countered that work with persecution and death, and the church suffered greatly. Through that great persecution, an opportunity presented itself, and rather that the church stay a chased virgin unto Christ, it played the harlot and married the world. Through this the bitterness and death ceased for those called “Christians”. Through Thyatira, the odor of affliction now came upon those who refused to identify with this now married church and her new husband…

Thyatira covers a church period from: _____________A. D. to ____________ A. D.

The word means “odor of affliction” but it is based on two words, ________________ & ____________________.

It begins with the time which history commonly refers to as the ______________ ages and it ends at the beginning stages of the crusades.

As bad as things were for the church under a pagan Roman government, it only scratched the surface of how bad it all would become under the papal Roman government. Which is why God calls this period of time Thyatira.

Through this period our Lord is going to describe in very graphic detail the false doctrine that comes out of Satan’s counterfeit system through this period. That teaching is that Christ didn’t actually finish the work of salvation on the cross. That was a work of grace, and it began a work that god’s people have to continue the sacrifice through mass, the keeping of the seven sacraments, and prayers to the dead, and burning of candles. It is during this time period that the Roman system which brings the world in the dark ages, and of all things takes on and promotes the name “Christian” and through it dominated the world.

Psalm 119:130 KJV 1900

The entrance of thy words giveth light; It giveth understanding unto the simple.

Very simply stated, it is during this period that the Roman Catholic Church dominated the world. They took the word of God out of the churches, out of the hands of the common man and the lights went out on the earth…

Today the term “dark ages” is being changed in an attempt to rewrite it’s meaning…

“In the 19th century the early Middle Ages were often labelled the Dark Ages, a characterization based on the relative scarcity of literary and cultural output from this time. The term is rarely used by academics today.”