The Church at Thyatira
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Good morning church it is so good to see you this morning, please open your Bibles with me this morning to the book of Revelation, as we listen to the Lord speak to His church. We will be in the second chapter of Revelation beginning with the 18th verse.
Revelation 2 beginning with verse 18.
We are looking at the words the Lord speaks to his church in a hostile world. We have seen that the world has always been hostile towards the church but we ares seeing this begin to play out more and more in our world everyday.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ writing Himself to 7 actual churches in Asia Minor which would be modern day Turkey. Each of these letters have several key features.
Each letter contains a commendation (what they did right) Condemnation (what they were doing wrong) and a Cure for the issues they were dealing with as the people of God.
These churches are actual churches historical churches but they also demonstrate to us the various kinds of churches that exist in all ages.
Each of these letters deal specifically with each of one of these indivudual churches. 5 out of the 7 identify serious problems that the Lord addresses He gives serious warnings and even threats.
Not all churches are alike they are different in denomination beliefs they are different in how they worship, they are different in style, they are different in doctrinal conviction.
But they all can unite on many things, and one of those things is the desire to be Holy before God. If the church is going to have any influence in the world it is going to have to represent Heaven on Earth in the world.
It has to be the place where God is honored
If the church is anything in the world it is supposed to be God’s holy people.
Churches should be known by how they exalt righteousness and how they condemn unrighteousness. Churches should be known for how they confront sin, and how we do not shy away from what is righteous and what is wrong.
This wasn’t the case for the church at Pergamum as they compromised their convictions and gave in to certain teachings but it certainly wasn’t the case for the church we see this morning.
The church in Thyatira was a corrupt church.
The church should be a place where the Lord Jesus Christ is lifted up. Jesus wants His bride to be holy chaste and pure.
The church is to be intolerant of sin, we shouldn’t make excuses for it or shy away from it or ignore it but the Bible commands us as the people of God to expose darkness.
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
But churches can make the grave error of caving into the world system, allowing ideas and behavior that the Lord never condones to infiltrate and become accepted.
This ought to never be true but sadly it is.
This was the case with the church at Thyatira.
This church was the only church in town, people were stuck with whatever it was, it wasnt what it should have been. There are still churchrs like this, in fact there are countless churches in America like Thyatira. Church that tolerate sin, and tolerating what God has called sin in any degree is a serious issue with our Lord Jesus.
What we see in the church at thyatira the issue of Idolatry, and sexual immorality. But they not only allowed these things but they encouraged them. This church had strayed so far not just to allow sin, but even to encourage it. This si a huge deal and we will see just how serious the Lord views these things as we read the text.
These things are called the deep things of satan.
This church is like any church that tolerates sin.
There were some good things about the church at Thyatira but there was a fatal flaw and this letter was sent to them to address this issue and this letter is sent to our church, but also to each of us personally to examine ourselves before the Lord and get things right with him before its too late.
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write,
‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.
“Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron;
They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—
as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’
If the church married the world in the city of pergamum there are now celebrating anniversaries with excitment.
This church shows what happens when we compromise with the world. It leads to full out idolatry and immorality, this is not a church filled up by the world this is a church that has absorbed sin and error and lived in happiness with it.
This church is common today as it has been througout history. This church is in direct vioaltion of the laws of God and they see no problem with it.
Just so we can understand what is happening here we see a change happening. As we travel the road with Jesus looking at these different churches, when we look at Ephesus, and SMyrna they were loyal to Christ. Now Ephesus had become ice cold in thier love of Jesus but they had not yet denied the faith or gone against Gods word.
In SMyrna thier loyalty to Jesus had been tested by the fire of persecution but they did not bow the knee to the world or shy away from standing up for the Lord Jesus christ and his word.
Not true for the church in Thyatira and the churches of Sardis and Laodecia.
The issues there are very much worse, now they have allowed and basically gotten on board with these false ideas and doctrines. These problems seem to come from woman who was a preacher or teach in some capacity who had succeeded in leading the corruption of this church.
The mention in verse 24 of the DEEP THINGS OF SATAN is a picture for us of the plunge the church took deeper into the things of the world. the church of Smyrna was dwelling in a place known as the synagigue of Satan, Pergamum literally was at the throne of Satan but Thyatira had plummeted into the deep things of satan.
There seem to be a progression here with the churches do you see it?
When love grows cold (EPhesus) comprimise follows, when you love your Lord less you love the world more. it begins infiltrate your life and you go down to the places Satan dwells, then the longer you stay there, you begin to get closer and closer to his throne in the kingdom of darkness until if you are not careful you are like Thyatira and you plunge into the deep things of Satan Himself.
This is the longest of the 7 letters.
This letter needs to be read again and again in every church.
There can be lots of good things in churches like these alot of numbers and people coming in there has been a growth in deeds in verse 19 he says He says their deeds are greater than at first. In other words you are doing more things but sadly evil has established itself, and this church is in serious trouble.
I. The Perspective that the church needs to have
“Write to the angel of the church in Thyatira:
“The Son of God, the One whose eyes are like a fiery flame and whose feet are like fine bronze, says:
God gives us here a picture of Himself.
Eyes like a flame of fire able to pentrate down into the souls of men and women. It is so comical that we try to hide our sin from others as if they are not already known by God himself.
God sees your heart and for us to try to hide is foolishness which is why God asked Adam that question all the way back in Genesis 1
ADAM WHERE ARE YOU?
IT wasn’t because God didnt know where He was He knew on the contrary He wanted Adam to realize where he was and what He was doing.
His feet are like fine brass ready to trample out judgment
We saw in chapter 1 this was a picture of judgement. But the picture is different here than in chapter 1 and what our Lord says here.
IN chapter 1 the one identified was identified as the SON OF MAN here, he is called as the Son of God...
Whats the difference?
Being identified as the SON OF MAN speaks about His humaness and this speaks about His compassion and his care and interest in us, and his understanding of our weakness failures and flaws.
But now the language changes calling Himself the Son of God this emphasizes His holiness, this emphasizes His authority and His diety and also His judgement. This is not an encrouaging intro. He is warning them that divine judgement is about to be launched on an immoral idolatrous congregation.
This is not comforting
When it says His eyes are like a flame of fire we see it later in Revelation at His second coming when His time as Savior is over He will then come as a judge His eyes will be set ablaze with righteous judgment.
His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.
His omiscnience His searing vision penetrates everything every evil will be swept away under the fiercness of His wrath on all who refused Him while He offered forgiveness.
His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.
Now this was written thousands of years before John recieved His vision and they are a complete match because the Holy Spirit was the one giving the vision.
Now you know you are in trouble when the Lord sends you a letter and starts it like this. The Son of God sees through every mask that we wear and anyway we try to hide our sinfulness.
We can fool others but we cannot fool God.
He sees the hidden things in every soul, in every heart and we cannot hide that from Him.
Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
This is a picture of devastating judgment
No one would want to get this letter, this church has begun to tolerate the deep things of Satan. So when we see churches who stand with organizations that are evil at thier core, when we se Christians who stand for things that God never stood for such as choice and I spoke about these things last week I will not belabor them here.
This is written to them!
It is written to us GOD WILL NOT TOLERATE SIN WITHIN THE BODY OF CHRIST!
What was going on that was so wrong?
Now one thing that was interesting was that in this city they were known for thier purple dye which they sold clothing and rugs made with it.
They were spoken of in the book of Acts tied to a woman named Lydia who was known for her purple dye from Thyatira.
The city of the place of Thyatira was not a particularly important place. How did it start?
Well in
And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
So we know that the gospel was spreading all over Asia and so maybe Lydia had travled there on business and heard Paul and got saved and maybe she went back and told everyone about the Lord.
Luke tells us in Acts that not only did she get saved but that her whole family got saved and maybe that is the main leadership of the church.
This church is mixed up
Now I know that all churches are a mizture of true believers and those who are not really saved Jesus told us as much. But in this case there was a group within the church that wanted to accept whatever the culture wanted to feed them.
As far as we can tell this church dissapeared at somepoint in history.
The problem was this woman preacher or teacher who brought in immorality and idolatry.
“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.
this is not such a bad start
But there is no mention of sound doctrine, they had love, they had faith/loyalty, they served, they persevered these are all good things!
They seemed to be growing in thier service their latter deeds were greater than their former
There was life there there was good things there.
Here sin was tolerated by the majority, love wasnt their problem, faith wasn’t their problem, ministry wasn’t thier problem, endurance wasn’t thier problem their problem was they were tolerating sin.
Active flourishing busy church
But they were in danger that danger came from sin.
Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
My slaves, my servants you have lead astray bc Jezebel the church tolerated this woman I don’t know why or how in the world they did.
The dangers to this church wasn’t coming from the outside like persecution, their danger came from within!
They had been influenced by a false teacher!
She was an idol worshipper, she introduced immorality and idolatry into the church. She called her self a preacher or prophetess which means she thinks she speaks for God.
God says she leads my sheep astray!
She was Jezebel like
She literally made the children of god comfortable with thier pagan culture and basically told them it pleased the Lord.
And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.
How was this possible?
It was possible bc they allowed teachings of the world around them to change them they thought it seemed good and acceptable to the culture and therefore they rejected sound teaching and instead went with whatever seemed to feel right
This happens today, where churches adopt things that are clearly not Biblical and they focus on those things rather than the revealed word of God.
(times have changed and so we have to adapt scripture to fit with our day and time)
Somehow she convinced the church that idol worship and immorality was ok after all were all sinners anyway its ok.
There will always be people who think that the Grace of God once saved always saved means we have a license to sin, but they are sadly mistaken and it will cost them.
God even gave her a chance to repent but she didnt want to repent. So God is going to now punish her
Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.
Adultery?
As aChristians we are the Bride of Christ adultery is the act of cheating on your spouse.
Understand this if you tolerate sin, in your life or in the lives of others then you are guilty to some degree of cheating on God. Did you know that
that when we sin it is the equivalent to God as though His wife cheated on Him.
He says he will kill her children wiht her, this is not literal children these were adults who followed in her pattern.
All in every age who fall into this type of life with no repentance. He says He will kill her children with pestilence. hmmmm
Interesting words for the time we live church
We live in the most “tolerant” society in history when it comes to the church they are tolerant of transgenerism, they are tolerant of LGBTQ, they are tolerant of PLANNED PARENTHOOD
People with authority to stop evil stand by while trafficking of women and children happen around the world and what is the world dealing with?
PESTILENCE/PLAGUE
Coincedence?
I think not
Now what I am not saying is that if someone got Covid they are one of these people my wife had covid and I know she loves the Lord and stands firm on the convictions of her faith.
No I am simply saying that one reason this thing even exists may be to get the churches attention that we need to become pure once again!
Christ wants his church pure and he may allow this in order to show us our frailty.
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that.
The message of thos ein this world that says it doesnt matter what you do in the flesh are lying.
Why would the Lord do this?
I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.
ALL THE CHURCHES WILL KNOW
This means there was alot of churches that were headed the same direction and He wanted them to know how serious this was.
He says repent!!!
The Lord says I am warning you DO NOT ALLOW FALSE TEACHING!!! YES SOUND TEACHING MAY BE BI+ORING TO SOME BUT YOU BETTER ENDURE IT AND LEARN FROM IT AND APPLY IT!
When we follow Jesus and obey to the best of our ability we will be rewarded but for those who refuse to repent there is coming a day of judgment and we need to take this seriously!
“Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden.
But hold fast what you have till I come.
The Lord knows those who are His
He says I know that you dont follow this junk
(explain the teaching)
But there those who dont hold this teaching if you teach that God doesnt care if you sin you literally are in the deep things of Satan
Your teaching something that is Satanic
And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron;
They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—
as I also have received from My Father;
and I will give him the morning star.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’