Revelation 2:18-29 Part 1 Sermon
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
TEXT
TEXT
18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 “ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
We live in a world where “intolerant” is as big of a curse word as any.
If you are intolerant you are ear-marked and stereotyped and silenced or cancelled.
The opposite of intolerance, is tolerance.
Tolerance claims it’s rights to moral perfectionism found in an openness to a person’s own subscription of ethics or beliefs.
Tolerance for anything and everything is seen as justice.
But the great hypocrisy here is of course… that tolerance for everything leads to intolerance for the respect of other’s convictions.
So you could say that open and unlimited tolerance leads to the deepest forms of intolerance… my liberty for the sake of others.
The enemy has craft-fully taken away anyone’s ability to stand up for what’s right in the name of morality, or God.
This is a limit in any society to the freedom of speech, religion, or ideals.
The idea here is if you’re held system of beliefs do not allow for all other systems of beliefs then your system of beliefs is discriminatory and flawed.
This bias flows from a place of hate.
And there must be intolerance for those that are seen as intolerant.
Intolerance threatens unity, or so they say.
TOLERANCE IN THE CHURCH
TOLERANCE IN THE CHURCH
So what does this look like inside the Church?
Should the church be accepting and tolerant of all things?
Only if it seeks its own demise.
False teaching and sin are not allowed, even under the pretense of toleration and unity.
A church may appear on the surface to be effective and growing, but if unconfronted immorality or false teaching is involved, it will bring judgement on the church.
That’s what we see in the Church of Thyatira.
THE CORRESPONDENT
THE CORRESPONDENT
18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
This is the only place in Revelation where Jesus is referred to as “Son of God.”
This is important because it speaks to His deity.
Christ is approaching this church as the divine judge.
Here it describes Christ as one whose, “eyes are like a flame of fire.”
A church can have a good reputation in the world, but Christ sees all.
Christ’s feet being like burnished bronze points to his purity and holiness and the fact that He stomps out impurity.
Imagine with me for a moment you hear that Jesus was written your church a letter.
And this is the way He describes Himself.
In such a way that derives great divine respect and fear.
It’s almost a… well this isn’t going to go well… type of initial greeting.
**HAVE YOUR HOUSE CHURCH WRITE DOWN THE THINGS THAT THEY THINK JESUS MIGHT SAY ABOUT THEIR CHURCH.**
THE CHURCH
THE CHURCH
18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Let’s talk about the church.
There is no information in the Bible concerning the founding of the church in Thyatira.
14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
Lydia from Thyatira was converted under Paul’s ministry at Philippi.
It’s likely that members of her household came to Christ as well as helped start the church in Thyatira.
More than likely it was founded as a result of Paul’s ministry work in Ephesus.
10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
THE CITY
THE CITY
18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Thyatira was located in a long north-south valley connecting the valleys of two rivers.
The city itself was flat, but the city in its entirety sat on a hill.
This fact was their only defense.
They didn’t have walls or a tall border to keep them safe, but the fact that the city sat on a hill was good protection.
Incoming threats would have to climb great lengths to get there, and by then they were weakened in battle.
Thyatira was the gateway to Pergamum.
The whole goal of the city was to delay attackers heading towards Pergamum.
In 190 B.C. the city was conquered by the Romans and they took over the area.
Unlike Pergamum, Thyatira was not an important religious center.
The primary god worshipped there was the Greek sun god, Apollo.
There was also lacking a large population of Jewish people in this city.
The pressure for the Christians in Thyatira came from the worker’s guilds… similar to the industry worker unions of today.
To hold a job or run a business, it was necessary you became a member of one of these guilds.
Each guild was represented by a Roman god and held feasts in honor of that god that required attendance from it’s members.
These feasts included eating meat sacrificed to idols and engaging in sexual immorality.
Christians either participated or they lost their jobs.
Discerning their situation based on Christ’s response… there were some doing a good job at handling this, but others not so much at all.
THE COMMENDATION
THE COMMENDATION
19 “ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
Jesus seems to be very consistent when delivering a message.
He talks about the good first.
Then he corrects the bad.
Then paints a picture of the reward for those that repent and do good.
So Christ here once again, points at their good deeds first.
LOVE
Thyatira was strong where Ephesus was weak.
Ephesus had lost their love, but Thyatira was holding onto it firmly.
This is the first of the 7 churches commended for their love.
FAITH
The Greek for faith here is better translated faithfulness.
These Christians were dependable, reliable, and consistent.
SERVICE
Those who love will express it through helping others.
PERSEVERANCE
Those who are faithful will persevere in the faith.
Sounds like a really good church doesn’t it?
Not only were they good at these important things, but the text here says that “your latter works exceed the first.”
You’re doing better than at the beginning… you’re improving.
8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What can we learn from this?
It’s important to acknowledge the good.
Encourage each other in what you see in each other’s life.
If we don’t point at people’s actions and tell them… “that looks like Jesus” —> How will they know?
**PRACTICE HAVING EVERYONE GO AROUND AND RECOGNIZE THE GOOD IN EACH OTHER**
Now, this sounds like a good church, and in these respects they are doing really well… but Christ has much concern for them.
THE CONCERN
THE CONCERN
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
All is not well with this church.
The problem here is not external persecution, but internal compromise.
This church was allowing an evil woman that calls herself a prophetess to have significant influence in the church.
Some scholars believe she could have been on staff or teaching the church.
But because she was leading God’s people away from him and not to Him… that makes her a false prophetess.
Jezebel may have been her real name, but it’s more likely that it was a symbolic name applied from the character of the Old Testament.
Jezebel in the OT was a vile and terrible woman… wife of King Ahab.
Through her influence, Baal worship became wide spread in Israel.
30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.
Specifically, the people in the church, both men and women, but most likely the men were led into eating meat sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality… OR participating in the Roman Imperial Cult.
It’s likely that Jezebel convinced the church that it was the right thing to do… to merge their lives with the Roman Imperial Cult and participate in their pagan idolatry.
She likely leveraged her influence in the church and her leadership position to seduce the believers in that church.
This is why you must test all teachers, all prophets, and all pastors.
They may be working for the other team and you don’t realize it.
It’s a serious sin to fall into idolatry or sexual immorality… as we’ve said before the two often run together.
However, to lead someone into these things is a very serious sin.
6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
Just look at what happened to the OT Jezebel:
30 When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window. 31 And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, “Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?” 32 And he lifted up his face to the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. 33 He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down. And some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her. 34 Then he went in and ate and drank. And he said, “See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.” 35 But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. 36 When they came back and told him, he said, “This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel, 37 and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.’ ”
BEFORE WE GO JUDGING
BEFORE WE GO JUDGING
Now, before we go judging… let’s translate this temptation to a modern-day scenario.
It may seem strange that a Christian could be seduced by this idea of directly disobeying God’s commands just because a woman with a horrible name decided to convince them it’s a good idea.
So before we go judging these Christians, let’s think about this...
Have you ever been tricked into listening to a false teacher or prophet that actually led you directly to disobey God’s commands?
Have you participated in a movement that welcomed false prophets or teachers?
Maybe you’ve done things that entertain demons rather than serve a holy God.
I think we all have.
We all have the ability to be seduced.
Just because we aren’t eating charbroiled steak from the cow on the Baal altar and having sex parties doesn’t mean we haven’t been deceived.
What if you had a Christian business and you felt that business existed to support the church and evangelize the community… but in order to stay open you had to be a part of the guild and attend these festivals?
You can’t tell me that people didn’t justify their actions in going to these festivals using the name of God to do that, and you can’t tell me that Jezebel didn’t either encourage that or come up with the idea herself.
How many things have we compromised for the sake of “reaching people.”
You can justify anything if you say you’re doing it in the name of God.
DISCUSS CHURCHES IN CA CALLING THEMSELVES STRIP CLUBS TO STAY OPEN
** PLAY VIDEO **
It doesn’t matter what your justification is… God holds you accountable for what you tolerate. And great judgement awaits those that propagate the justification to others.
It is very clear that the Scriptures call us to intolerance.
Intolerance of sin.
Intolerance of evil.
Intolerance of idolatry.
Intolerance of sexual immorality.
Intolerance of false teachings and teachers.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Every Christian has a decision to make… how far should I go to adopt contemporary practices for the sake of reaching the lost.
On one hand, Christians must not deny their faith.
And on the other they must not exclude themselves as members of society.
Christians live in the same world as their neighbors and face the same challenges.
If you disconnect from the world you cannot reach the sinner.
But if you go too far in reaching the sinner in the name of evangelism you may end up like Jezebel and her followers.
What probably started as an attempt to keep their jobs, promote the church, and do well led them to repeated areas of compromise.
And before you know it the compromise led to straight up sin.
Then in response the church began to deal with it, and didn’t finish the job.
They ended up tolerating this behavior.
One of the biggest deceptions today is the phrase, “The Christian thing to do.”
The problem is not in the statement itself, but in the premise that it’s so vague, that whoever is saying it can apply whatever meaning they want.
14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
We cannot simply get along with darkness for the sake of unity… first of all… unity built on lies is not unity at all.
Unity must be built on Truth.
We are not to yoke ourselves with evil.
We MUST RUN!
RUN from teachers that don’t preach the cross and repentance.
RUN from books that tell you how to live your best life now.
RUN from sermons that feed your greed and idolatry.
RUN from music that feeds your feelings and not your soul.
RUN from compromise regardless of the perceived intentions.
Here is the “Christian thing to do.”
Stand on the Truth of the Word of God even when the world mocks, and those inside churches criticize.
Call out evil when you see it so other people can RUN and possibly escape damnation.
Call out teachers that preach false doctrines so they may repent.
Love is Truth, Love from the Truth.
Love IS warning you of a coming storm… it’s not pretending that nothing bad is going on and letting a train hit you… it’s a WARNING.
JUDGEMENT IS COMING
REPENT TODAY AND TRUST IN JESUS!
**In what ways have you maybe redefined what it means to do the “Christian” thing but maybe it’s not Biblical?**