Revelation 2:20-22

Revelation 2:20-22

Several years ago, I made a mistake in trying to separate two fighting cats and ended up getting bitten by one of them. Now, I’m not referring to a little bite, this cat sunk its teeth right into the side of my hand. After the bite, I just washed it off and puts some bandages on it. The next day at work, my hand was quite sore from the bite. And in the profession, I was in, many of my customers would shake my hand. Well, when one of my customers shook my hand, it felt like a car had just drove over it and I was about to scream. I had a friendly co-worker tell me that I needed to go to the doctor. What I was not aware of, until I went to the doctor, was that cat bites are very toxic to us. The bacteria had infected my hand and the poisons were slowly destroying the tissue in my hand. If I hadn’t listen to my friend and had left it alone, I could have lost my hand or my life.

In the Church of Thyatira, we find a poison within the congregation that is destroying them as well. And if left unchecked, it was going to destroy this church. However, there was a message sent to this church, by the greatest friend of all, Jesus Christ. And His message is directed at the problem and the root of the poison.

“Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee,”

· Like the other churches that Jesus has spoken too, He focuses his attention to the problems that this church had and didn’t seem to realize.

· Sadly, churches are not perfect places, what may had started off in the right direction has slowly got off the mark and began allowing things to take place that was destroying the church.

· I believe that as good as our church might be in our eyes, in the eyes of Jesus he says, “I have a few things against thee.” Now a positive to take from this, was the fact that he said few, what if he had said I have a lot of things against thee.

· Well, we should strive in the church to have church the way the Lord intended it to be and not how we deem it should be. Anytime we start putting our ideas and intentions before what the Lord has said, then we are out of the will of the Lord.

“Because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess,”

· Now here was the source of their heresy, they were allowing a woman, evidently a very influential woman, to go and speak before the church and assume leadership of this church.

· Evidently, the church had some weak men within its congregation, because they were not stepping up and leading this church like they should. And here is a woman, that the Bible identifies as Jezebel. Now was this her name or just symbolic of her nature, well, I believe it is describing her character.

· The name Jezebel is referencing the wife of the old wicked king Ahab, where this woman was running the country through the weakness of her husband. She was a horrible person, who was out for her own interests, and even threaten the life of the Lord’s servant Elijah.

· She was so wicked, that her name has become synonymous with debauchery. And we even refrain from naming our children after her. A woman who is called Jezebel is like calling a man Judas.

· Well, here is a woman in this congregation who had an idea of what church ought to be in her eyes, and she forced her will on the congregation. She was assuming the leadership and becoming the head of the church, when it was to be Jesus who was to be the head of the church.

· She claimed to be a prophetess, but she was no more a prophetess than I am a billionaire. She hadn’t been called to be a prophetess; God was not giving her the message. She was just a wicked woman trying to make church after her image than the image of God.

· Now we have to be careful, because people like this still exists. There are those within the church that try to assume the role, and God hasn’t called them. They distort the message and they take the church and make it about themselves, rather than about Christ.

· Now what was this woman doing?

“To teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”

· This Jezebel, came into the church and she began to claim that God was giving her a message, and she was teaching occultism. She was bringing on her own religion.

· Some of the occults that are prominent today were founded by women. Spiritism, Christian Science and Theosophy, were founded or promoted by women.

· Now listen, I’m very thankful for women, if it weren’t for a woman, I wouldn’t be here today. If it weren’t for my wife, I wouldn’t be the man I am today. But the scripture teaches that a soman is susceptible to error in spiritual things, and for that reason the woman is refused permission to teach in the church.

· This woman was twisting the role, and she was teaching in the church that it was okay to fornicate. That sexual relations she be open and free. And she even got some of the church leaders to buy in to her teaching.

· The role of a pastor, deacon or church leader, is one that should be held to the highest integrity. Yet, we see where this role is often abused even today by those who tell those they are leading that it is alright. It is these individuals that we see later in life that have abused their position for their own sinful deviancies.

· When it comes to the role of leading and teaching a church, it is imperative that we live a life that has integrity of the Lord and that we avoid such temptations.

· This Jezebel is still prevalent in church today, it is reported that over half of ministers’ struggle with fornication. Her poison is slowly destroying the man of God.

· And it wasn’t just fornication she was using as a tool; it was saying that the things that are offered unto idols is okay as well. That its okay to look like everybody else.

· It saddens me when I see Christians, who say that it is okay to drink. It bothers me when they live like the rest of the world. Because we should know that we as Christians are to be different.

· Listen it is not okay for us to be like everybody else in the world. And think that it is okay to bring that kind of teaching into the house of the Lord.

· She was seducing people to go back to the old way of living, to live a called-out life. She was basically making church the way she thought it ought to be.

“And I gave her space to repent of her fornication;”

· Did the Lord hate this woman? No, he loved her, but he didn’t love the sin. And he was giving her a time to repent from it.

· Getting the old ways out of our mind, and trying to control the flesh and listen to the spirit is hard. Here was a woman that the Lord wanted her to give up her evil ways and give her heart to the Lord.

· God has been giving many of us the same space to repent as well, but have we made any effort?

· She was causing this church to be unfaithful to God, to go out and enjoy the worldly relationships and give themselves to pagan gods. But even through this atrocity, God was giving her opportunity to turn to him and leave the sin behind.

“And she repented not.”

· What sad words we find here in the scripture. How often do people do the same today? God gives them the opportunity to turn and they refuse too, and then destruction comes.

· God is patient with us, but here was a woman who perceived God’s slowness and softness, and thought she was not going to be punished at all.

· This woman, who was a part of this church, was given plenty of opportunity to repent and turn away from sin. But the problem, she loved her ways better than she loved the Lord, and continued on in her sin.

· This kind of living is becoming more and more predominant with people. That they think they can live their life however they want and not repent. Listen, we must turn from sin if we want to experience the blessing of God on our life and within our church.

“Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.”

· Jesus pronounces the fate of this woman and those who accompany her, she will be cast into a bed. Now this bed that the Lord is referring to is a sickbed. Her actions will catch up and punishment will be served.

· Sin is poison, and if not dealt with and removed, it will destroy and it can cause death prematurely. Here this woman was going to have some sickness that would destroy her life.

· She knew what she should have been doing, but she refused to live her life for the Lord. She wanted control, she wanted her way, but there will be no stamping of feet or spoiled tears that will refrain the hand of God from dealing with sin.

· Her sin, was going to bring sickness, and those that gave in to her would not escape punishment as well. They would go into great tribulation.

· Now, this phrasing is quite interesting, in that it is future in tense. Those who did not repent would go into great tribulation.

o This is like a big rock, that we see the surface but don’t realize how big the rock is.

o Now this begins to refer to the great tribulation, that seven-year period where the world will face great judgment and the reign of antichrist.

o This ungodly way of church would cause many to go into this period of trouble. Now this period has not come as of yet. So, what is this referring too?

o I believe that the church is being seduced by this ungodly teaching in this very time, and many people are buying right in to and living their life unholy and unrepentant. And there is going to come a day where those who go to church, who call themselves Christian, will enter into this tribulation period and face the judgment of God and the reign of antichrist.

o This is an apostate church, that does not turn to God, they just form their own view, they change the Bible to say what they want it to say, and they are getting people to believe in a lie!

· But, there is hope!! If they repent. I want you to know, that if a person repents, they would not be faced with such an outcome. They would be taken before that time comes. Before the great tribulation the Bible gives subtle references to the church being called away, I believe this verse to allude to that fact. That if we want to be ready for the Lord’s rapture of the church, we need to repent from ungodliness, fornication, and idol worship, and truly give our heart to the Lord. Otherwise, the peril of judgment will be upon us.