False Prophets

Thyatira

Thyatira is the least of the seven cities that received these letters. Thyatira’s only real claim to fame is that stood as the gateway on the road to Pergamum, the capital city. It was an armed outpost in an open valley with no high point in which to fortify. It was really an outpost to delay attack on the capital. As a result of its location at the gateway to to capital and on to the larger cities of Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, it became a major place for trade and commerce. It was reported to have an extraordinary number of trade guilds. These associations for mutual profit and pleasure held great power in this city. To not join a guild would mean commercial exile and ruin. But to join a guild meant partaking of common meals, often held at temples and would begin or end with the formal sacrifice to the gods and the consumption of meat sacrificed to idols. Likely there were very loose standards of conduct, both drunken revelry and sexual pursuits.

Jezebel

Revelation 2:18–29 (NIV)

“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give that one the morning star. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The first thing that we take notice of is that the threat of Jezebel comes from inside the church. She is said to be a prophetess but her teaching stands in the face of the faith upon which the church had been saved.

Her teaching brought acceptance to worldly practices within the church. So at first glance, this church looks active and vibrant, but there is a false teaching that is undermining the fruit and maturity of the church.

The teachings of Jezebel blurred the line between Christ and the world. It was acceptable to dive into the revelry of the world for the salvation of the Lord covered the church. The danger in this thinking was the continued reinforcement that the provision of man could come at the hands of another other than the Lord.

The Promise of Christ

Revelation 2:22–29 (NIV)

So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give that one the morning star. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The Lord will search the heart of the believer. If our reliance is on the world, He will give us over to the judgment standards of the world. We will be judged by the works of our hands instead of the work of Christ.

Jesus promises to the faithful his provision. We will rule and reign for Christ rules and reign. We will be given the promise of the morningstar: that just as the morningstar rises after the darkness of night, so will we rise after the darkness of this world. Christ is the morning star of Revelation 22:16.

Revelation 22:16 (NIV)

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

We receive Christ as our reward.