THE UNREPENTANT CHURCH OF THYATIRA

This past Sunday evening I watched the most boring Super Bowl of all times! During the Half-Time show they featured a rock band which I had never heard of: Maroon 5. I made a comment on Facebook that I had never heard of any of the people that were performing at the Super Bowl. And of course I received a lot of comments about my lack of knowledge. Finally I stated that I guess I just am not in sync. Then an old h.s. friend piped in and said the N Sync was a completely different rock group altogether!

In today’s electronically driven world we often sync our devices to one another. My Kindle Fire tablet, my LG smartphone, and my computer all sync together. The result is that whether I am on my tablet, my Smartphone, or computer I can see what I searched for on the web with any of these devices. They are all synced to my Google Chrome account.

My reason for bringing this up is that a similar thing, called syncretism, seems to have been a problem in the church of Thyatira. As a matter of fact it has been an issue ever since as well. When we speak of syncretism as it relates to Christianity it has to do with the blending of the teaching of the Bible with the worldly teachings in a particular area.

An extreme example of syncretism is related by missionary John Cross. He had a horrific experience of watching a trial by ordeal in a Christianized village in West Africa. This particular village had been evangelized decades previously. They had Bible verses and Christian symbols hanging all over the place. And so this missionary was absolutely shocked by the event he witnessed.

In this village, the chief was taken ill, and a lady, who had put herself forward as a prophetess, claimed to have had a vision from God in which she was informed that the Village Chief’s illness was caused by three men poisoning him. These three men vigorously asserted their innocence. But the tribe reverted back to an ancient tribal right known as a trial by ordeal. The prophetess made a poisonous potion which the accused were forced to drink. One of the three immediately vomited it up, and he lived. The other two did not, and were dead within a few hours.

The villages’ conclusion was that the one who lived was innocent, while the two who died were guilty.

The missionary spent some time trying to figure out what had happened. In doing so he interviewed the pastor of the local assembly. And this pastor found nothing unusual in this trial by ordeal. And he was convinced that the “prophetess” was correct.

One of the things the missionary learned is that the original missionary who had evangelized this village used the common trade language instead of the local dialect. And the folks in the village only partially understood what they were taught. Then they took their “new religion” and synchronized it with their “old religion.” The result was the creation of a third religion.

The folks in this village equated a witch doctor with a prophetess. They filtered everything they learned about Christianity through the lens of their pagan religion.

Sad to say, this is not really that uncommon of a thing. And it is not peculiar to third world countries. It can, and probably has happened frequently here in the United States of America.

A current example is the trend among contemporary churches to make the church as “user-friendly” as possible, so as not to offend people who are lost and heading to hell. But even traditional churches can become syncretistic as far as I can see. When biblical Christianity is equated with the American way of life, it is syncretistic, as far as I can see. When second amendment rights (which is something that I really appreciate) are put along side of the authority of the Bible, it is syncretistic.

As a side note, I don’t recall the Bible ever teaching any sort of right for believers in this life, and yet we have incredible rights and privileges that await us in the life to come. But for this life we have the promise of persecution — and I would classify that as a warning and not a right!

If you have not done so, please take your Bible and turn to . This is the letter to the unrepentant church in Thyatira. This church was being duped by a false teacher who was apparently teaching this congregation to synchronize their belief in Christ to the culture in which they lived.

Of the seven churches that Christ addressed in the Book of Revelation, Thyatira was the smallest community. And yet it received the largest letter. Originally Thyatira was built as a military outpost whose purpose was to slow down enemy armies that were heading to Pergamum. This city did not have the various temples that were present in the previous cities that we have looked at so far. But they did have strong trade guilds similar to our labor unions. And each of these guilds had their own patron deity to whom the members of the guild were required to worship. And apparently a so-called prophetess within this church or least within the community was teaching the people of this church to synchronize Christianity with the various deities so that they would not be ostracized by the trade unions.

There is a strong connection between the letter to the church of Pergamum and the letter to the church of Thyatira. Of course the problems addressed were not necessarily limited to one location or church. Many of these churches had things in common. One distinction though is that in Pergamum there were some who had strayed, whereas in Thyatira there were some who remained faithful. In other words it would seem that most of the church in Thyatira was apostate. But the Lord had preserved for Himself a faithful remnant.

As we go through this letter this morning we will look at it in the form of a letter: salutation, body, and closing. I have not yet used this format for this series because if I did we would have the same outline for seven straight messages. But with this being the longest of the letters it seems fitting to do so this morning.

The Salutation — Revelation 2:18

Let’s read this letter together.

The Salutation —

Recipient

The Recipient

One thing we have noted previously is that each of these letters is addressed to the angel of the assembly, which we have defined as being a representative of the church. Most likely the pastor or teaching or leading elder.

Once again the significance of this has hit me this week. We who are in leadership within the local church bear a heavy weight of responsibility for it. And when a church is led astray by false teachers Christ holds the leadership responsible. No wonder James wrote:

James 3:1 NASB95PARA

Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.

James 3:1 NASB95PARA

Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.

I purchased a new commentary this week, actually several new commentaries, and it was pointed out in them that in verses 19-20 it is the representative of the church that is being addressed. “Your” from the phrase “I know your deeds” is singular in verse 19. And “you” from the phrase “I know have this against you” in verse 20 is singular.

Author

This is the only time in the Book of Revelation where Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. More common is the reference to Son of Man. This reference is perhaps in contrast to the cult of emperor worship in which Caesar is referred to as the son of god. It also may be in preparation for the quotation from in verse 27. refers to Messiah as being the Son of God.

As with the salutations in these letters, there is a reference to the vision from chapter 1. Note

Revelation 1:14 NASB95PARA

His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.

Revelation 1:14 NASB95PARA

His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.

This illusion to Jesus’s eyes being a flame of fire probably points to His penetrating discernment of the false prophetess who was plaguing this congregation.

Compare this with the vision that Daniel saw in .

Daniel 10:6 NASB95PARA

His body also was like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a tumult.

Daniel 10:6 NASB95PARA

His body also was like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a tumult.

The Body —

Commendations

Christ, having intimate knowledge of the church for which He died, commended the representative as well as the church for four things:

Their love

Their faith

Their service

Their perseverance

Their deeds

And notice that Christ acknowledged that these things were greater now than they had been at first. Unlike the Ephesians whose love had dimmed over the years, the faithful remnant within this assembly had grown in love as well as these other “deeds” that were mentioned.

May our little assembly be commended for a growing love, faith, service and perseverance.

Condemnation

In the previous messages I have referred to Christ’s concern regarding the church and its leadership. But the language is much stronger in this letter, and so I am referring to it as a condemnation. And what is being condemned is the tolerance of an evil influence within the church.

In his letter to the Ephesians Paul referred to Jesus being the husband of the church, if you will. And as a husband He is concerned with the purity of His bride. Note

Ephesians 5:25–27 NASB95PARA

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also 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.

Ephesians 5:25–27 NASB95PARA

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also 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.

Jezebel

Within the assembly in Thyatira there was a woman who promoted herself as a prophetess. Jesus referred to her “Jezebel” not that this was her real name, but so as to compare her with the wicked wife of King Ahab. You will recall that Ahab was the most evil of the kings of the northern tribes of Israel. And the most evil thing that he did was to marry Jezebel who was the daughter of a Sidonian king. She was the one who pushed for the worship of Baal and Ashteroth to take precedence over the worship of the One true God of Israel. A huge part of the cult of Baal was sexual immorality with cult prostitutes as a part of their act of worship. And that is just what this so-called prophetess was leading this church into.

Now I must note, as I should have last week, that there is disagreement among commentators as to whether this referred to the act of sexual immorality or whether it was a reference to idolatry. The OT prophets frequently referred to idolatry in the terms of marital unfaithfulness. I tend to think that it is a double reference here. Because of the mention of eating things sacrificed to idols I do believe that there is a reference here to idolatry. But since sexual immorality was a strong part of many pagan cults it seems to me that both are probably included here.

As horrendous as sexual unfaithfulness is, unfaithfulness to God is far worse.

The Unrepentant

In verse 21 we read that Christ had given this woman an opportunity to repent of her perverse teachings and actions, but she refused to do so. It appears that there was no longer an opportunity for her to repent.

In writing to the Corinthians Paul said:

2 Corinthians 5:20–6:2 NASB95PARA

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—

2 Corinthians 5:20–6:2 NASB95PARA

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—

The Penalty

The penalty for this “Jezebel” is that she will be thrown on a bed of sickness. He immorality is supposedly practiced on a bed of worship. But Christ promised to make it a bed of sickness. I can’t help but to think about the various physical diseases that are passed on to those who visit the bed of a prostitute; venereal disease and such.

The penalty for those who are being seduced by Jezebel is that they will experience great tribulation or suffering. This should not be confused with the last half of the seven year period commonly referred to as the Great Tribulation.

Whereas there is no more opportunity for Jezebel to repent, for those who are being seduced there is still an opportunity.

The penalty for Jezebel’s disciples is death. The NASB uses the term pestilence instead of death. There may be a connection with one of the horses of the Apocalypse mention in .

Revelation 6:8 NASB95PARA

I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

The Outcome

The outcome of the condemning judgment that Christ promised to bring on Jezebel and her entourage is that all the churches will know that Christ is the One who searches the minds and the hearts.

Jesus, being very God of very God, knows everything. There is nothing that escapes His wisdom or knowledge. There nothing hidden that will not be laid bare. Knowing every detail of every action, thought, and motive Jesus will give to each [one] according to [their] deeds.

The Exhortation to the Remnant

As I mentioned earlier, it seems that there was a very small group of people who had remained faithful to Christ within this church. Christ described them as those who have not known the deep things of Satan. What an interesting phrase!

In Smyrna the church was persecuted by the Synagogue of Satan. In Pergamum the church was located where Satan dwells. And now there is a reference to the deep things of Satan. A couple of ideas as to what that might mean:

It might mean some sort of secret knowledge of God reserved only for the initiates into the heretical teaching

If that’s the case then it could be a reference to an early form of Gnosticim

It could be that they were being taught that the only way to really understand the grace of God was to delve deeper into sin. This of course runs contrary to the teaching of Paul in

Romans 6:1–2 NASB95PARA

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

The exhortation is found in verse 25 where Christ said for the remnant to hold fast until I come. This is the first reference to the second coming of Christ in the book of Revelation.

What they were to hold onto was certainly they confession of faith without wavering. Along with that the things which Christ had commended them for, love, faith, service and perseverance.

The Closing —

One of the first things that I noticed last Sunday afternoon as I was beginning to meditate on this passage was that in this letter the format of the closing was changed. Previously Christ had began His closing comments with the statement: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And then He would go into the rewards for over-comers. But in this letter He changed that order around. Upon further investigation, I found that this changed order will be carried out through the remaining letters.

Notice that in this section about over-comers Jesus added an extra description. We have already learned that over-comers are those who are true believers in Jesus Christ. And now we learn that over-comers are also those who persevere to the end. In the terminology of the Doctrines of Grace this is referred to as the perseverance of the saints.

Christ promises two things for those who overcome:

Those who overcome will rule with Him in His millennial kingdom

Those who overcome will receive the morning star

The morning star is a reference to Christ Himself

As we close this morning I ask that you take time to reflect on the message to the unrepentant in Thyatira.

Have you truly embraced the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Have you embraced the true doctrine of the faith? If so, hold fast! Don’t let anyone fancy teacher seduce you with another gospel, which is really not a gospel at all!

Are you being led astray by some sort of false teacher? Perhaps one that tells you to embrace some sort of libertarian view that leads into licentious living. Perhaps one that tells you to embrace some sort of legalism. If so, repent while you still can.

Let’s pray.

Closing Song: No. 234 — Now Unto Him