THE CHURCH OF THYATIRA

THE CORRUPT CHURCH

THE CORRUPT CHURCH

Recap

The Loveless Church

The Persecuted Church

The Compromising Church

The Dead Church

The Message to the Church in Thyatira

NLT

18 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Thyatira. This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze:

19 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.

20 “But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn away from her immorality.

22 “Therefore, I will throw her on a bed of suffering,[c] and those who commit adultery with her will suffer greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you whatever you deserve.

24 “But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them—depths of Satan, actually). I will ask nothing more of you 25 except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come. 26 To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end,

To them I will give authority over all the nations. 27 They will rule the nations with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots.[d]

28 They will have the same authority I received from my Father, and I will also give them the morning star!

29 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

In vs 18 we read, Christ sees everything and here his eyes are flaming - He is angry with what he sees.

His feet are also of bronze. Bronze was the hardest metal known of at that time and is often used of to speak of judgment. Christ was angry - so angry that he was preparing for judgment? We’ll talk of this more in a minute, but before we do, God recognized that there were some good things in the church of Thyatira.

COMMENDATIONS FOR THE CHURCH (vs 19)

Christ says that this church was to be commended for

1) They were a loving church

2) They were a serving church

3) They were a faithful church

4) They were a growing church - their patience and works were more now than ever.

Sounds good doesn’t it. Sounds like an ideal church - what could Jesus have been angry with? What could have prompted the use of the name “Son of God” and the images of fiery eyes and feet of bronze?

The answer is in the next verse (vs 20)

20 “But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn away from her immorality.”

CONDEMNATION OF THE CHURCH (vs 20-23)

Despite the growth and the apparent faithfulness, love and ministry seen in the church, they were being misled doctrinally. There was a woman who Jesus called Jezebel who was calling herself a prophetess but was misleading the people and not representing God properly.

JOKE?????

There is a story of a farmer once walked into a restaurant and asked the owner if he could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner thinking of putting frog legs on the menu more frequently, the owner asked the farmer where he could get so many. The farmer said, "My pond is overflowing with them. Their croaking is driving me up the wall and I’d love to get rid of them." The owner told the farmer to bring him as many as he could. A week later the farmer returned with an embarrassed look on his face. He held up two scrawny frogs and said, "I was wrong about a million frog legs. These two frogs were making all the racket. I never knew two frogs could cause so much noise

How a small group can affect a whole lot of people

PRAYER AND THE BIBLE OUT OF SCOOLS

On June 25, 1962

Use of the Regent's prayer was initially upheld in both New York State Court and in the New York Court of Appeals, prompting Engels to petition the US Supreme Court in the Engel v. Vitale case in 1962. With its 8–1 vote to make public recitation of the Regents' Prayer in public schools unlawful, the U.S. Supreme Court made its first-ever decision on prayer in public schools. It made its second in 1963—the Abington School District v. Schempp ruling, which made the corporate reading of the Bible and recitation of the Lord's Prayer unlawful in public schools.[3]

On June 26, 1962 56 years ago this last Tuesday prayer …..

The Spies that were sent into the promise land

" Just one person was corrupting the whole church in Thyatira - but one is all that it takes.

What is a prophet? .... The simplest definition of a prophet is one who speaks for God. This can either be foretelling the future or forth telling the Word of God. A true prophet has authority because their words come from God either through direct revelation or straight from the Word of God. A false prophet has mislaid authority which does not come from God. This so-called prophetess in Thyatira was not a prophet of God at all. Why? Because what she was proclaiming as coming from God was contrary to God’s word.

Like an apple with a worm in it. This church looked good on the outside, but inside it was rotten. We as the Church of Jesus Christ need to be cautious even if our churches look like God is really doing something in our midst – we are loving. Look at all the people flocking to the services. We are reaching out to the community and really making an impact. People are changing. But you can’t always judge a book by a cover. But we need to be careful in all we do lines up with the word of God.

So what was this wrong doctrine that this prophetess was teaching? We read in Vs 20 that it led people to practice fornication and eat food sacrificed to idols - both of which were clearly condemned in the Word of God. It is likely that this prophetess was teaching that it was alright to be part of the - “After all,” she’d say “Don’t be worried, - God has told me it’s alright - It is alright to go and be a part of the things of this world and participate in the immoral and idolatrous worship that occurs in their meetings - after all we live by grace and are not under the law anymore.” And who were the rest of the church to disagree with what was being said - they weren’t prophets were they?

Further indication of what was going on is indicated in the fact that Christ called her Jezebel. The name Jezebel conjures up thoughts of a very seductive women using her flair to entice men into her bed. The real Jezebel was a queen of Israel at the time Elijah was a prophet. She was a wicked woman and was the pagan daughter of a pagan king and had no business being married to Ahab, the King of Israel. When she became queen, she turned first the heart of her husband, then the hearts of Israel, to the worship of Baal. Her first official act, as recorded in Scripture, was to kill the prophets of the Lord (). Her ways were blatantly against God. She did away with God’s spiritual leaders and replaced them with the prophets of Baal. She was definitely not to be mess with. While Elijah was happy to face up to 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mt Carmel, you might remember that he fled when he heard Jezebel was after him. She was a serious scary evil woman.

Jezebel replaced God’s word as given through his appointed prophets with a counterfeit one given by the prophets of Baal and Asherah. She sought to replace the worship of God completely with the worship of other gods and introduced idolatry once again to the people of Israel.

Do you see the similarities here between the Jezebel of Old Testament times and the prophetess in Thyatira? Both tried to replace God’s authoritative word with a poor substitute. How often do we do this same thing today?

There are some other similarities between the two. Both were given opportunity to repent. Jezebel had Elijah proclaiming the truth about God, but she refused to listen. The prophetess of Thyatira also was given the chance to repent, but she refused. God is a gracious God, even when it comes to such vile offenders who do so much damage.

Another similarity exists in their judgements. Jezebel of the Old Testament was condemned by God - listen to it in

And also concerning Jezebel the LORD says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’ “Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country.”

She was sentenced to death and those who followed her and her husband were also condemned to die. Compare the judgements pronounced on the Jezebel of Thyatira () .

“Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23“I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

The prophetess is condemned to sickness - some interpret this as death. Her children - those who grew up following this doctrine would eventually find punishment and death because they were following a false gospel or may have been referring to her actual children. Serious stuff isn’t it?

I heard of a story;

A sailor on duty fell into the cold and rough sea of the Atlantic ocean

After hours being in the sea,

He was saved,

And was hoisted aboard the Titanic

Which we all know how that turned out

It is no good getting saved by a ship that is bound to sink and it is no good following teachers whose doctrines are bound to be condemned and lead to destruction.

How can we tell whether a teaching or a doctrine is from God or from a Jezebel? Here are some things we can look for...

Firstly Jezebel doctrines teach that something evil can be good. Any relationship that is not line up to God’s word, like the world looks at relationships and marriages are okay as long as they are based on

What the world calls love. Accepting the world’s view and not God’s view of what is right and wrong, and God’s view of what is sin and not what the world says is not.

Doing away with what the bible says is okay or it’s ok to picking and choose what scriptures are to believe and to follow and trying to justify our sinful action to feed the flesh. And when thigs are evil and we try and make them good in our carnal minds instead of using the Word of God for a benchmark of what is good or evil.

Paul warned the Ephesian elders against such false teaching in -31NLT

29 I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. 30 Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. 31 Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you—my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you.

Secondly, the doctrine of Jezebel hates God’s true Word. Jezebel hated Elijah and tried to destroy all the true prophets who faithfully spoke God’s word. Christians who are bound by Jezebel’s doctrine similarly have no regard for God’s word. But there is guidance, power comfort and peace in God’s word and His word last forever Jesus tells us in Mathew 24:34 NLT

34 I tell you the truth, this generation[j] will not pass from the scene until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.

Thirdly, the doctrine of Jezebel misleads people completely. Ahab, when he was trying to determine whether to go to war against Ramoth Gilead consulted God’s prophet Micaiah and all the other prophets in the land who were led by Zedekiah. We read what Zedekiah said in

10 King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah, dressed in their royal robes, were sitting on thrones at the threshing floor near the gate of Samaria. All of Ahab’s prophets were prophesying there in front of them. 11 One of them, Zedekiah son of Kenaanah, made some iron horns and proclaimed, “This is what the Lord says: With these horns you will gore the Arameans to death!”

12 All the other prophets agreed. “Yes,” they said, “go up to Ramoth-gilead and be victorious, for the Lord will give the king victory!”

BUT God’s prophet Micaiah a different prophesy that Ahab did not want to here and sought counsel elsewhere. I wonder if we are honest with ourselves how often do we do this, instead of seeking God and His word for guidance or seek a friend for advice, or the internet, or social media for guidance and comfort, or maybe even when an illness comes upon us do we seek and pray to the Great Healer first.

But Ahab instead of listening to the prophet of God Ahab listened to all the false prophets.

But their prophesies did not come from God and they did not come true at Ramoth Gilead for there Ahab was killed and his army routed. Ahab shouldn’t have listened to Jezebels false prophets.

Christians bound by the Jezebel doctrine believe they are 100% right. They cannot see the deception at all. It is like members of other cults or religions - they believe sincerely that they are right - but this doesn’t make them any closer to the truth. Scary isn’t it!!!! It is scary, because how do we know what is right and wrong. Who is telling us the truth and probably more critical to us individually is how do we tell what is the truth?

So, there is a horrific consequence for false prophets and if we follow false prophets or false things or advise that leads us to sin BUT there is also another way the way of the Lord that leads to a victorious powerful life here in this world and for eternity and we also leave a Godly heritage behind.

And there is really only one answer to this and it is to discover what is found in the Bible. The word of God and no other special revelation is needed.

We’ve got all we need in this book right here. It is God’s word - complete and finished. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. ()

PROMISES TO THOSE THAT OVERCOME (vs 24-29)

Let’s read again what the promise was that Jesus told the Church of Thyatira and it is for us and every other last day follower of Jesus Christ in vs 24-29

24 “But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them—depths of Satan, actually). I will ask nothing more of you 25 except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come. 26 To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end,

To them I will give authority over all the nations. 27 They will rule the nations with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots.[d]

28 They will have the same authority I received from my Father, and I will also give them the morning star!

29 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

PROMISES TO THOSE THAT OVERCOME (vs 24-29)

Let’s wrap this up. We have seen that Christ has condemned false prophets or teachers and those that follow them. But for those who overcome God has some promises