The Church That Tolerated Sin - Rev. 2:18-29

I believe that many in the church have forgotten or are unaware of what God has called the church to be.  God has called His church to be Holy and maintain purity by dealing with sin.  I know that terms like holiness, purity, and sin are not popular terms in this generation.  And many in the church who are aware of sinful lifestyles are willing to compromise God’s standard of living holiness for the sake of just having people fill the church from Sunday to Sunday.  Did you know that Jesus Christ himself gave the very first instruction to the church on how to confront sin?  In Matthew 18:15–17 Jesus commanded,

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

The purpose Jesus instituted church discipline in the church in order to maintain holiness among His followers was twofold: First, it would cause sinning believers to repent and restore them back to righteous behavior, and secondly, it would purge from the church those who stubbornly cling to and embrace their sin. 

Jesus cannot and will not accept any church. The church represents His bride, and His desire is to have a pure bride presented to Him at His glorious appearance. Eph. 5:27 tells us that Christ … loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

Today, many churches are living like the church at Thyatira, tolerating sin despite knowing what the Bible says about it. No wonder many churches are tolerating sin today, for sin is not spoken against, the consequences of sin are not taught, and people are only preaching and teaching what makes them and the people feel good.

We are living in a time when people are just looking for a motivational boost. They don’t want to be told how they should live according to the scriptures. No, they want to know how they can feel good about themselves, how they can have success now, and how they can be made to feel good about their immoral lifestyle. It is their belief that they should never be broke, never have problems, and never get sick, as long as they speak things into existence. And this is just not biblical.

This letter to the church at Thyatira is the longest of the seven letters. It is an important message to the churches today, and that message is that false doctrine and sin cannot be tolerated. Someone might be asking now, Pastor, are we not supposed to open the door to the sinner? Yes, we are, but if they remain unchanged, then that same door that led them in is the one that must lead them out!!

THE DESCRIPTION OF JESUS TO THE CHURCH v.18

In each of the seven churches that Jesus addresses, He introduces Himself by describing His character. Each description of His character is tied to the church’s failure and need.

Here, Jesus describes Himself as “the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass.”  

Jesus emphasizes His deity as the Son of God, which shows that He is one in essence with the Father. Jesus wanted the church to know that He and God were equal. Because He is equal with God, the divine judge of this world, Jesus has the right to judge and discipline, as well as authority over the church.

As the divine Son of God, Jesus has eyes like a flame of fire. These piercing, laser-like eyes see all, and nothing can be hidden, covered, or disguised from Him. 

John 2:24-25 “But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

You cannot get caught thinking you can do whatever you want because nobody can see you. The one you should be concerned about is the one who can see you, and that is Jesus. As the divine Son of God, Jesus has feet like fine brass. As I mentioned earlier, brass represents judgment. This brass would shine and reflect anyone looking at it, symbolizing how our sin is seen and revealed for judgment.

What a sobering thought. It is fearful and humbling to think that Jesus knows all our hidden sins and that we cannot hide anything from Jesus. What is more frightening is that Jesus stands ready to bring judgment upon all those who remain in sin.

I Peter 4:17 turn there for a moment:   For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.

We must commit our souls to Him to avoid His promise of judgment.  Each day, we must commit to living for Him in all that we do. 

As Peter says, “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”  2Pt. 3:14

1 John 2:28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

To abide means to continue living our lives so we will not be ashamed when He arrives. Jesus is our compassionate, loving Savior, but He is also a righteous judge. He alone knows the intents of our hearts, and He desires that we who call ourselves Christians live knowing that He sees and knows all, and that we should live as though He might return at any moment.

The Church at Thyatira was another city in the Roman province, located 40 miles from Pergamos. It was a small city with no more than 25,000 in population. Unlike Pergamos or Smyrna, Thyatira was not an important religious center. The primary god worshiped was Apollo, the Greek sun god. The pressure faced by the Christians in Thyatira came from the guilds (like unions, comprised of merchants and craftsmen, who were dyers, Lydia in Acts we are told was a seller of purple, potters, leather workers, metalworkers, and bakers). 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. The Thyatira 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 COMMENDATION 2:19

Jesus begins, as He did with the other churches, with a positive commendation before voicing His concerns. Jesus, who is all-knowing, tells the church that He commends them for their works, unlike the church at Ephesus whose love had grown cold, the Thyatiran believers are the first of the seven churches to be commended for their love for God and others, they are commended for their service (diakonia/ministry) they were active in helping and caring, and were charitable towards others, faith, and their patience ὑπομονή/hypomone/hupomone/hoop·om·on·ay/steadfastness/perseverance/endurance/in faith while under pressures they faced; and that they were not a stagnant group of believers for their works had increased more than they had at first.

THE CONDEMNATION (20-23)

Hearing their commendations would make them feel good about themselves. But Jesus needed to rebuke them for being a church that had become tolerant of a false self-proclaimed prophetess named Jezebel, who had taken leadership (some scholars believe she may have been the wife of the pastor) and was teaching (a violation of 1 Tim 2:12 that prohibits women from leadership and teaching over a man) and seducing His servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols, a practice common in cultic prostitution.

The name Jezebel wasn’t this prophetess’s real name, but her actions were likened to the literal Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, spoken of in 1 Kings 16:31-33 and 2 Kings 9:30-37. Just as Jezebel in the Old Testament seduced God’s servants to abandon their loyalty to the Lord and take part in her idolatrous practices, so this woman of Thyatira was seducing believers to abandon their loyalty to Jesus Christ and teaching them it was okay to commit sexual immorality and offer sacrifices to idols, since they were, of course, saved Christians whom God has forgiven and free from the law and could live how you like, this is called antinomianism. Just recently, I saw a pastor teaching that all his sins have been forgiven and that he doesn’t need to repent.

The Scriptures teach that in 1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

The Bible also teaches that believers can fall into sexual immorality (1 Cor 6:15-20) and even idolatry (2 Cor 6:15, 16). Anyone whose teaching leads believers to commit sin is in terrible danger (Matt 18:6-10). The Jezebel of the Old Testament life came to a tragic end. She was thrown down from her window, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses. Jehu and horses trampled her underfoot.

There are Jezebels today calling themselves prophetesses, leading thousands of people astray. Stealing their money for their own selfish gain. The bible warns that believers need to test every spirit (1 John 4:1).

Here in our text, we read that Jesus offered His grace and gave Jezebel time to repent of her sexual immorality (v.21), but she refused to repent.

Because of her refusal to repent, Jesus said he would cast her into a sickbed, meaning she would be given some form of physical sickness that would leave her bedridden until death, along with those who committed adultery with her, into great tribulation right then, not the future great tribulation spoken of in Matt 24:21 and Rev 4-19, but server punishment which could be sickness until death unless they repent. Their sin of adultery that the believers committed with Jezebel was both physical adultery by their engagement in cultic prostitution and spiritual adultery because believers are promised in marriage to Jesus Christ (2 Cor 11:2; James 4:4).

When Jesus says in v.23 I will kill her children with death, these children were not her biological children; these were the believers of the church that followed her teaching and engaged in adultery and ate things that were sacrificed to idols. If they didn’t repent, their judgment of death would cause all the other churches to take notice that Jesus searches the minds and hearts, and will give to each one of them according to their works (Rev 20:12,13).

JESUS’ COMMAND TO THE FAITHFUL (v.24-25)

After Jesus had issued His judgment against those who were apostate (meaning those who fall away from belief in God and true biblical Christianity), He now addresses and exhorts the faithful remnant in the church. 

These faithful few are the believers who did not follow Jezebel’s teaching.  This faithful few were much like the faithful remnant of Malachi’s day, who received a Word of comfort from the Lord. 

Mal. 3:16-17 Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. “They will be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. (Note that the Lord always has a comforting Word for His faithful.)

The faithful who made up the church at Thyatira could have followed the crowd and adopted the sinful practices of the majority, but their knowledge that the Lord searches the minds and hearts and will judge them harshly gave them the fear of the Lord, which kept them from sinning against the Lord. Beloved, anyone who persistently sins against God is someone who has no fear of the Lord.

Jesus then defines who is a true believer in v.24: “who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them.” Since Jezebel and those who followed her believed that they were delving into the deep things of Satan, all the while remaining free from sin, because they believed that as long as you committed sins of the body, you did no harm to the spirit, since the spirit belonged to God. 

Gnostic teaching said that one was free to engage the realm of Satan and participate in the sins of the body without harming the spirit. Since the spirit belongs to God, they believed that it didn’t matter if the body attends idolatrous feasts and engages in sexual immorality.

It was their belief that they could explore the realm of Satan and then come worship God as if it were no big deal.  Now, before we shake our heads and say shame on them, we must be real, because there are people today who act the same way.  They feel they can lead a sinful life and get a pass from God, or a get-out-of-hell-free card, just because they go to church, sit on an auxiliary, or sing in a choir.

News flash, the Lord is not concerned with you showing up to church; He only cares if Christ shows up in you.  The Lord doesn’t care if you have a position in the church; He only cares about the position of Christ in your life. Is Christ #1 in your life today?

To those faithful believers who did not follow after the crowd and seek to practice the deep things of Satan, Christ said this in the last portion of verse 24, “I place no other burden on you.”  Now that is some shouting, rejoicing words of comfort.  Jesus knew that the faithful few were under a great burden, living and worshipping among so many false believers who, I am sure, pressured them daily to follow after their sinful ways.  For there is one thing about sinners, and that is they are not happy unless everyone is sinning like them.

But the faithful resisted them because of their fear and love for the Lord, and their reward was that Jesus would not place any further burdens on them. Truly, the Lord will never place more on you than you can bear.

But Jesus, in His infinite wisdom, knew that He had to give them a command so that the faithful would not become complacent and overconfident. V.25- “What you have, hold fast until I come.”

Jesus says to keep doing the good you have been doing.  And this is where many of you falter.  You start off doing pretty well, and then certain things come into your lives, and you allow them to make you stop doing the right things.  To many of you, let your guard down and believe that you have your problems licked.  You say, I got this gossiping under control, I got this lying beat, I have this addiction in check. 

We are warned by Paul in 1 Cor. 10:12, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” 

Jesus uses a very strong word in His command to the church in v.25: hold fast. In Greek, the word is Krateo, which means to seize or take custody. Jesus is saying seize and take custody of the good you have been doing, take hold of teaching, and do them. 

Hebrews 6:8 “so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.”

Hebrews 4:14 “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”

2 Thess 2.15 “So then, brethren,  stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.”

Rev.3.11 “I am coming quickly, hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”

We are to cling to Jesus and never let go. Rom 12.9 tells us “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.”

Now, someone might be thinking, "Wow, this sounds like a lot of work!" I thought being a Christian was just accepting an altar call or joining a church. Well, this is where you are wrong. It takes determination, sacrifice, and work.

Christianity is about pressing through all types of adversity and temptation.  Paul said in Phil 3.14 “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Jesus said in Matt. 11.12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” This means that while some reject the kingdom or take it for granted, others see it advancing and do whatever it takes to fight vigorously for possession of the kingdom of God. It takes work to stay faithful, to study the Word, and to live out our lives according to the Word of God. 

JESUS’ COUNSEL TO THE FAITHFUL (v.26-29)

To those who overcomes, this is directed to true Christians, for true Christians don’t get overcome; they are overcomers. 1 John 5.5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:4 tells us that being born again and our faith enables us to overcome this world.  For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith.

Jesus’ counsel doesn’t stop there. He says to us, “he who keeps My deeds until the end.” You see, it is not how you start but how you finish. The Lord expects you and me to continue and maintain the works of genuine Christianity, not just on Sunday but every day. Jesus expects us to keep on doing what He has said in His Word. He expects us to continue to show the fruit of true repentance. Matthew 3:8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.

If you hold fast to what you have till Jesus comes, He promises two things.  First, Christ said in v.26-27 “To him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broke to pieces. This promise is taken from Psalm 2:7-9. And it is a promise of participation in the millennial kingdom.  Those of us who remain faithful to Jesus Christ despite being tempted by the world to practice sinful behavior, those of us who remain faithful to Jesus despite being rejected by friends and family, and those of us who remain faithful to Jesus despite being talked about and used by so-called believers in this life will one day rule with Jesus in His earthly Kingdom.

Then Jesus says… as also has received authority from His Father. Just as Christ received all authority from His Father, Christ Himself will delegate authority to us who remain faithful.

The second promise Christ gives is found in v.28.  I will give him the morning star. We, as faithful believers, already reflect the glory of Jesus Christ, but this is only a shadow of what is about to occur.  When Jesus says that He will give him the morning star.  Christ is promising to all who remain faithful that He will give Himself in all His fullness and glory. 

There is no greater divine blessing than receiving the fullness of Jesus Christ. As Christ reigns, we reign.  As Christ shines, we shine. And the glory that Christ has, we too will be given that glory if we remain faithful.