Sermon Tone Analysis

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.