861 Rev.2.18-27 Thyatira - The Compromised Church
Seven Churches of Revelation • Sermon • Submitted
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- When we think of the word compromise some, I imagine, will consider it a positive word & others a negative word – it can be both
- Compromise can be seen as a solution to conflict – an attempt to find a win-win solution
- Politics is, indeed, the art of compromise in this respect
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- However, compromise can cause the death of values
- To compromise on say, abortion – perhaps, in the raising or lowering of the accepted “fetal viability limit” - doesn’t change the fact that babies are still going to be killed in the womb
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- Compromise is easier in a postmodern environment since there is no truth to fight for, other what people claim as their own truth
- No ultimate truth means only opinions & who is going to war over opinions!
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- Thyatira is the least prominent of the 7 churches, as far as a city is concerned, so Caesar was not so concerned about them in respect to worship of the Emperor
- However, Thyatira was the Tradesman's town & these tradesmen had, what they call, guilds
- We could consider them a rough parallel with the union movement
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- If you wanted to survive economically, you had to be part of these “Trade Guilds”
- I remember when I worked on a high rise building in QLD
- I was not permitted to keep working there unless I was part of the Union – they would shut the job site down if the Employer allowed me to work & not be part of the union
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- Thyatira is positioned on a main trade route & was a major manufacturer of an early form of brass – which is a mixture of copper & zinc
- It had a number of uses, especially, in the military
- Interestingly, Jesus is depicted here with feet like burnished or polished bronze which is, of course, like brass
18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this:
- Burnished or Polished bronze, meaning brass – Trumpets, Trombones, Tubas – these musical instruments are made of brass – they have a nice polished shine
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- Another famous trade in Thyatira was the making of clothing & in dyeing them – in part to supply the military with their uniforms
- They extracted the purple dye from the madder-root plant
- Lydia, the lady who had travelled to Philippi to trade her purple cloths was a resident of Thyatira
- We know that she became a Christian through the preaching of Paul in Philippi
14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.
- Again, the pattern we see here in this letter, as also in each of the 7 churches, is: Commendation, Chastening, Counsel & Challenge
1. Love, Faith, Service, Perseverance – all on the Increase!
1. Love, Faith, Service, Perseverance – all on the Increase!
- Jesus begins by commending the church for its ever increasing good deeds
- Unlike the Ephesian church that had become battle hardened by its constant war against false teachers & in the process, lost its first love, this church – Thyatiran Church - seems happy to let the loony false teachers go for their life while they go about doing their good deeds of love
- All the way through this book, love & faith are characterised by Jesus as deeds of love
- The Ephesians had lost their first love since they had slowed in their acts of love yet the Thyatirans had even advanced in their deeds of love since they first became Christians
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- They have love, faith, service & perseverance, but what Jesus highlights here is that their deeds of late are greater than at first
- In other words, they hadn’t grown weary in doing good
- You think to yourself, how is this possible
- Well, I’d like to say that they were just a particularly good people – but that’s not the reason necessarily
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- So often the church follows its society & this is what seems to have happened with them here too
- Part of the structure of these “trade guilds” was the doing of good deeds in society which promoted & helped to keep good public order – perhaps akin to the various clubs, like the Lions, Rotary & Apex clubs
- We know that these clubs get themselves involved in doing projects for the community, like putting up swings in parks
- They are voluntary organisations that raise funds & do the work to enhance a community
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- Trade guilds were into this too – perhaps on a personal level as well as the pubic level, but it was expected of all its members
- I know I can be cynical at times but, throughout history, often the church has jumped on to the band wagon of the popular
- Sometimes that can be a good thing as in this case here
- But it can also be a bad thing
- Culture ought never be the gauge of what is godly or what is God’s will
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- Nevertheless, Jesus commends the Thyratiran church for their loving deeds & that is something that we too, as a church, should look to emulate
- If it is something Jesus finds praiseworthy then, if we followed suit, He would find it praiseworthy in us too
2. Overcoming Compromise with Conviction
2. Overcoming Compromise with Conviction
- As per the usual pattern, chastening follows commendation
Q. What is happening here that arouses the displeasure of the Lord?
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- I have set conviction over compromise as a way for us to avoid succumbing to that which the Lord would condemn
VIDEO – NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM
Q. What did William Wallace (Mel Gibson) mean in this scene here?
- That “bully’s” can take everything – even your lives – but they cannot take away your freedom to say “NO”
- That you have a choice to either capitulate to the bully’s or to be prepared to lose all because of your values
- His values was the absolute right of a people to self-governance
- Your values are the values of Jesus – you have a choice – but that choice will not be firm if your convictions are as weak as water
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- A conviction is a firmly held belief or opinion
- Firmly held in the sense that you are unwilling to let it go
- As we understand what is the Lord’s will, a person of faith & conviction will seek to stay in His will no matter what
- But conviction is necessary
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- The whole notion of conversion feeds into the place of conviction
- To Nicodemus, Jesus says, you must be born of God, born from above
- The old must go, the new must come
- A half-hearted person makes for a half-hearted Christian
- This person will be considered by the Lord as worse than an unbeliever
- Look what Jesus says to the church at Laodicea...
15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
- Unless, you live by your convictions, founded on the word of God, you will end up a lukewarm person
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- The problem for Thyatiran Christians is not that they are lukewarm, they are compromisers
- They lack conviction of the truth & are like those who, as Paul warns the Ephesians against, are tossed about by the waves of the sea that are blown about by the wind
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
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- In Thyatira, these “Trade guilds” had a strong association with religious practises, duty & devotion to the gods
- The god Apollo was the patron god of the “guilds” in Thyatira
- If you didn’t go along with these “religious guilds” who forced their collective will upon its members, then you were in serious danger of being ostracised
Q. How would you earn your living if they ganged up against you?
Q. What would it have been like for Lydia, after her business trip, arriving back at Thyatira, but now as a Christian?
- So can you see their problem
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- These religious trade guilds strongly encouraged their members to be involved in their religious feasts – Apollo the patron god of the guilds had to be honoured you see
- They had to sacrifice to him in order that the guilds continue to prosper & if you refused to do this, then you were akin to a traitor
Q. Does this sacrificial feast involve physical immorality or does Jesus speak here only of “spiritual” immorality?
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- Often times, God talks through the prophets to Israel & condemns them in terms of adultery & immorality when they have gone after false gods & broken their marriage vow to Him – Yahweh God – described as their “husband”
31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
- We know this marriage imagery has been carried over into the NT since Jesus is the church’s bridegroom & we look forward to the wedding supper of the Lamb
31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
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- Worshipping other gods & the notion of being “spiritually unfaithful” to Jesus is a given – it is spiritual adultery/immorality to go after other gods - so it is certain that we can include spiritual immorality as part of the Thyatiran sin
- However, there is good reason to see that they were also involved with literal physical immorality – as in involvement in religious prostitution as part of the worship of the heathen gods
- This happened in the days of Israel & is fairly typical in heathen worship as well
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- But what helps us most here is a declaration made by the Jerusalem council, we find in the book of Acts
29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
- This “ruling” came in because some Jews, we call, Judaisers were trying to impose the Torah – the Jewish Law – on the Gentile churches
- After much discussion, they came to the conclusion that the law does not bind the Gentiles – but…
- The Gentiles were to repent of certain cultural practises which sinned against God as well as offending the Jewish population in those parts
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- Notice, that in that list was the word, “sexual immorality”
- All the other things they were to repent of were physical things – no metaphors there
- My point is that here we have an example where literal immorality was practised & it would be of the sort that involved pagan worship practises
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Q. What do you need in times like these?
- For many people, the televangelist or popular preacher who will tell you what the itching ears want to hear
- They will feed you what is comfortable & what will ease your conscience
- Compromise is not far out of reach for people who want to listen to preachers who will make the gate wide & the way broad!
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- A number in the church found it in the woman, Jesus names, Jezebel
- You have heard of her haven’t you
- She is the woman who Ahab married – a woman from Phoenicia who was a committed Baal worshipper
- She became an evangelist in Israel for Baalism & her teaching & influence corrupted her husband & nearly all Israel
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- This should be a warning to every person considering marriage to someone who has diametrically opposed values from you – don’t think you will change them – at least, don’t be foolish enough to think that if you marry them, you can then change them – it doesn’t always happen
- Apart from the wisdom of that – it is disobedience to God because a Christian is not to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever
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- Like Jezebel, this woman encouraged the church to compromise on the matter of their values & to adopt the values of the trade guilds
- This Jezebel of a woman must have taught that going along with the trade guilds is quite acceptable
- That compromise was something she believed was consistent with the nature of being Christian
- She claimed to have special insight & understanding into the “deep things of Satan”
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- Perhaps, like Lydia, Jezebel was a businesswoman who had a business interest to protect
- It seems that she taught that the only way to defeat Satan was to beat him on his own turf
- To use your Christian freedom to experience sin & evil in order to conquer it
- You don’t defeat evil by immersing yourself in it – you defeat it by fleeing from it
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- Jezebel is probably not this woman’s proper name but an apt name because she follows the ungodly path the Jezebel of Israel followed
- She must have been rebuked by a fellow prophet but took no notice
- She is going to face judgement for her promotion of ungodliness & immorality
- But so will those who follow her – her children mentioned here are not her literal children but those who accept what she is saying & are following in her wicked ways
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- What is really patently consistent in these 7 letters to the angels of the 7 churches is the fact that the apostolic Gospel can never be advanced
- You cannot profit from or advance yourself, by going ahead of the cross
- This teaching she was promoting was something similar to the Corinthian Christians who were trying to obtain the wisdom of the world to advance their Christianity
- The literally cross & resurrection of the “in the flesh” Jesus who has come from God must remain as the bedrock of the church – this is the only safe place to reside
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- Another thing to note here is the grace & patience of Jesus – He has given her time to repent of her immorality, but she refuses
- Popularity & numbers should never be the gauge in determining the truth of a matter – but we do it all the time
- That Jesus lets this woman continue for a time might suggest, had we not known His patience here, that she was on the right track
- This is very clear here that it is the Lord’s patience that is being exercised in the hope that she would turn from her deviant ways
- Do not let popularity or bottoms on seats be the measure of Jesus’ pleasure or displeasure – always be grounded in the word of God
3. Tables Will Turn – We Will Control
3. Tables Will Turn – We Will Control
- In the face of pressure to conform, we can be excluded & punished by society – remember what happened to Israel Folau – for whatever you think of the way he handled himself & what he said, you cannot condemn him for posting what the Bible says on social media
- Give him credit for being unafraid & challenging people to repent
- In fact, I would argue that he has paved the way or, at least, made a mark for Christians in standing up against the bullying of our secular society to our beliefs in the Lordship of Christ
- Yesterday, Mark Latham, a former Federal Labour Opposition leader (not a Christian) said this on Twitter...
It is vitally important the new CEOs of Rugby Australia and NRL do not discriminate against players on the basis of their religious beliefs. Christianity has been a pillar of our civilisation for many centuries and no player, no citizen should be targeted for quoting The Bible.
-- Mark Latham (Twitter Comment 25/04/2020)
- In the light of the Israel Folau fiasco, the CEO of Rugby Australia has had to resign
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- In the face of bullying, we can take the option of those Scotsmen in the snippet of the Braveheart video who said to run & live
- But one day you will die says William Wallace – you have the chance now to hold to your convictions even if they may take your life
Q. What is most precious to you? For William Wallace, it was freedom from tyranny & if tyranny takes his life, then so be it
- He lived by his convictions – at least, that is the line given us in the movie “Braveheart”
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- The feeling of powerlessness is terrible & we want to look good & fit in with our secular society
- Most times we can do that, but there are moments when we cannot
- For the person of conviction, who stands their ground Jesus promises this...
26 ‘He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; 27 and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; 28 and I will give him the morning star.
- The promise is of power over those to whom the Thyatiran are being bullied into obeying
- But also, for all those who hold fast the deeds of Jesus
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- The morning star analogy, seems to come from the book of Daniel
3 “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
- The star & the sceptre (the rod of Iron) are the emblems of the Messiah’s authority
17 “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth.
- This is an authority Jesus the Messiah will give to the overcomer – it’s not an authority to the compromiser for only judgement & pestilence awaits the compromiser
- In one sense, to be ruling with Christ is the reversal of the Union thuggery that those Christian tradesmen & women in Thyatira were experiencing
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- My take home is expressed in this bit of prose from Charles Krauthammer:
Will it be coffee, tea or He? Religion once a conviction. Now it is a taste!
- As I checked in for an outpatient test at a local hospital last week, the admissions lady...inquired, “What is your religious preference?” I was tempted to repeat what Jonah said…
”I am a Hebrew, ma’am. And I fear the Lord, the God of Heaven.…
But that would surely have got me sent to psychiatry rather than X-ray. So I desisted.
In ancient times, they asked “Who is your God?” A generation ago, they asked your religion. Today your creed is a preference.…
- According to Chesterton, tolerance is the virtue of people who do not believe in anything....
“When it is believed that on your religion, hangs the fate of your future existence, the Inquisition follows easily; But when it is believed that religion is a breezy consumer preference, religious tolerance flourishes....After all, we don’t persecute people for their taste in cars. Why for their taste in gods?”
Oddly, though, in our thoroughly secularised culture, there is one form of religious intolerance that does survive...a disdain bordering on contempt...[for] those for whom religion is not a preference but a conviction Every manner of political argument is ruled legitimate in our democratic discourse. Call on Timothy Leary or Chairman Mao — fine. Call on the apostle Paul, and all hell breaks loose
-- Charles Krauthammer
- That’s what happens when Christians get serious about their faith
Questions:
Questions:
- Once in your breakout group, nominate someone to lead the questions through, remembering that we have 10 minutes to discuss both questions.
1. Discuss the difference between conviction and compromise.
2. What is the solace found here in Rev. 2:17-27 when attempts are made to pressure/corner you into going against the Lord?