Untitled Sermon (2)

Jesus’ Letter To The Church In Thyatira: No Compromise!

Revelation 2:18-29

Main Idea: The Lord attends the church in Thyatira and commends their hardworking diligent faith but warns that tolerance at the expense of holiness leads to judgment.

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.’

The Preeminence of Christ - v.18

The Son - Son of God

The Flame - Eyes like a flame of fire

Jesus says I am walking among my churches judging the heart seeing the real you

The Feet - Feet like burnished bronze

His bronze feet are of a metal far superior to any made in Thyatira (where military-grade brass was made), and no one can stand before the feet of him who tramples those who do evil (cf. comment on Rev. 19:13)

In Daniel’s great vision of the last days (chaps. 10–12) the celestial being appearing to him has “eyes like flaming torches” and “legs like the gleam of burnished bronze” (Dan 10:6).

The blazing eyes suggest the penetrating power of Christ’s ability to see through the seductive arguments of Jezebel and those who were being led astray by her pernicious teaching. Feet (or legs; cf. on 1:15) like burnished bronze6 convey the idea of strength and splendor.7

The Compromise of the church (part 2)

We got to make a living!

Compromise for the sake of business and “making a living” (active or passive)

Go along to get along

The issue is holiness in our every day go out and make a living life.

“We sometimes tend to think of the early church as pristine, pure, and untroubled by serious error. The truth is it wasn't that way at all. From the very beginning, the enemies of truth launched an effort to infiltrate and confuse the people of God by mangling the truth and by blending lies with Christian doctrine. Attacks against the truth regularly came only from persecutors on the outside but also from false teachers and professing Believers within the visible community of the church.” (60, The Truth War)

“The sobering truth in this truth war. God has a zero-tolerance policy for false teaching” - J mac.

The longest letter to the churches is to a city with the least significant of all the seven towns

In 290BC Thyatira emerged as a key military center because of its location it was the stopgap from enemies attacking Pergamum.

Thyatira was not a religious center but it was of great commercial importance.

With the coming of stable conditions under Roman rule, Thyatira was destined for growth and prosperity as a center for manufacturing and marketing.

Thyatira, not a major city, was nevertheless known for its trade guilds, especially in the fields of metalworking and textiles.

Remember Lydia was from Thyatira and was a seller of purple fabric.

Some believe she returned home and planted the church but were not sure.

Believers were clearly tempted to compromise in order to belong to such guilds.

The issue was that no merchant or trader could hope to make it unless they were a member of one of these trade guilds. (46)

This would be like an employee of a business that voted in the union and refused to join.

He had little hope of getting or keeping a job

So why should believers not join these trade guilds?

These trade guilds were intimately connected to the pagan worship

People who rejected the trade guilds were committing commercial suicide and faced poverty of not only them but their families.

The church has always been clear on this issue

Believers cannot work for any place that promotes or supports idolatry.

This is considered James 1:27 - keep your garments unspotted from the world

Jezebel insisted that believers should join these trade guilds & participate without fear or guilt

The Lord Commends - v.19

19 “ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

These four qualities are paired together (Cause & effect)

Love for others had produced service; faith in Christ had assured perseverance in their commitment to him.

Your love is producing service

They are faithful and engaged in service to one another.

Gal. 5:13 - In love… we serve - cause & effect

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Your faith is producing endurance

1 Tim 6:11 - The church in Thyatira was pursuing the right things & practicing the right things

11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith.

“The possession of a virtue can only be proved and guaranteed by a life that fits it.” (50)

Your faith is growing

They are saluted for their works—they are not a church sitting idly by, doing nothing.

While the love of the Ephesian church had decreased (2:4), the practical expression of love at Thyatira had grown (“you are now doing more than you did at first”).

2 Thess. 1:3 - Are we growing in faith, love, service and perseverance?

3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing

Criticism is most effective when it begins in praise.

The Lord Criticizes

You tolerate “Jezebel” - v.20

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.

The jezebelites were very similar to the Nicolatians

The original Jezebel of the Old Testament (1 Kgs. 16:31–21:25; 2 Kgs. 9) passionately promoted the worship of the Canaanite deity Baal. Judged by God, she met a violent death.

The “modern Jezebel” in the church of Thyatira was also leading people away from the true God. She had done the following:

She claims to be a prophetess (spokesman for God)

She was a teaching God’s people

She was deliberately leading believers into sexual immorality & idolatry

Jezebel symbolizes the polluting powers of false religion that infiltrates the people of God.

The church was weak and spineless just like Ahab was to his wife.

“Spiritual terrorists and saboteurs within the church pose a far more serious threat than manifestly hostile forces on the outside. From the very start of the church age, all the spiritual deadly onslaughts against the gospel have come from people who pretended to be Christians - not from atheists and agnostics on the outside.” 82 - the Truth War

The issue is spiritual adultery

Her teaching encouraged both idolatry and sexual sin but keeps a form of religiosity.

Revelation picks up the imagery of spiritual adultery, a common temptation of OT Israel (cf. Jer. 3:8–9; Ezek. 16:1–63; 23:1–49; Hos. 1:1–3:5)

Jer 3:20

20 Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,

so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,

declares the Lord.’ ”

Rev 17:1-6 - Babylon’s harlott

17 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”

Remember Moses delays on the mountain and the people fashion an idol and try to fool themselves its a symbol of God.

the biblical text narrates it, “they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry” (Exodus 32:6).

Sidebar: Does this passage teach she’s false because she is a woman or false because she teaches falsehood?

We may tend to think a woman was not allowed to speak (1 Cor. 14:34) or a woman shouldn't teach (1 Tim. 2:12) but women prophetesses were not uncommon in both OT & Nt context.

When Paul issues his warning it is to one of the most licentious cities in the world at that time.

The explicit teaching is the office of the elder is reserved for men to reflect headship that comes from the trinity into the home and His church.

Acts 21:9 - Philips daughters

Luke 2:36 - Anna’s the prophetess

OT = Mirriam (Exodus 15:20) , Huldah(2 Chronicles 34:22) & Deborah (Judges 4:4)

Women shared the work in the early church.

This woman Jezebel was a false prophetess, a false teacher that's the issue not her gender.

The Lord commands

It’s too late for “Jezebel” - v.21

21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

I gave her time - The Lord is patient but even God’s patience has limits

But she refuses

Punishment is sure v.22

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,

Very likely the phrase “cast her on a bed” is intended as irony: her “bed” as the place of harlotry is now a place of illness, since she is playing the role of a harlot with regard to the truth.

Severe punishment is about to be meted out17 to Jezebel and her adulterous associates.

She is to be cast onto a bed, and they will suffer intensely.

The bed is not a “funeral-bier”18 or a dining-couch of the guild-feasts,19 but a bed of present sickness and pain.20

The killing of Jezebel’s children may reflect the bloody occasion when the rulers of Samaria murdered the seventy sons of Ahab and sent their heads to Jezreel in baskets (2 Kgs 10:1–11).

It’s not too late for her followers and those deceived by her - v.22b- 23

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.

Repent and live -It appears that her time for repentance had passed (v. 21) but that “they [still had the opportunity to] repent of her works” (italics added).22

These verses identify three kinds of persons associated with the congregation.

First are those who commit adultery with her. V.22

This does not mean that Jezebel had literally opened a brothel, but that some church members were struggling with her teachings, falling into some degree of moral compromise either passively or actively.

They were joining the trade guilds and being pulled into the idolatry and immorality connected to it.

The second group is called her children. - v.23

Again, this is not literal but refers to those who had wholly committed themselves to Jezebel’s doctrines. She had become their spiritual mother.

Like their mother they were unwilling to repent, so Christ was about to strike them dead.

The goal of this judgment on Jezebel and her children is that all the churches will know (clear evidence that the letters are intended for all to read) two realities about the risen Christ.

First, he is the one who searches hearts and minds.

“I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind” (Jeremiah 17:10).

Flaming eyes & bronze feet - Seeing & Responding

he will repay each of you according to your deeds.

One should not miss the sudden change of personal pronouns at this point in the letter. What began as “unless they repent of her ways” is then followed with “all the churches will know,” which in turn is followed by “I will repay each of you according to your deeds.”

The point is unless the church acts they will be judged along with Jezebel

Participation in this spiritual adultery may be active or passive. Both bring judgment.

Third, Christ spoke to the rest of you in Thyatira.

To the rest - v.24-25

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.

These are the faithful believers who do not hold to her teachings.

Don't compromise!!

Christ is so pleased with these believers that he will not impose any other burden. No other corrections

They are to hold on to what you have until I come.

Those who persevere to the end, those who endure until Jesus returns, will be saved ( Col. 1:22–23;).

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

This verse captures the message of Revelation as a whole: to receive the final reward, believers must continue to be faithful until Jesus returns.

“Both right Doctrine and right living are absolutely essential and totally Inseparable for the true child of God. That is the consistent teaching of Christ himself.” (37, The Truth War)

V.24 - Satans deep secret?

It is more likely. however, that knowing Satan’s “deep secrets” is a reference to the view that in order to appreciate fully the grace of God one must first plumb the depths of evil.

Cults and “mystery religions” flourished in the first century.

A common feature was the delicious promise that after persons were initiated into the cult, they gained “deep secrets” or special wisdom. No doubt this was part of “Jezebel’s” allure.

So What?

The Lord rewards those who refuse to compromise truth for comfort V.26-28

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.’

We cannot promise any believer that standing on truth will not be costly.

We can promise you it has always been costly but it is worth the cost.

Real Authority - Daniel 7:14-27

In Daniel 7:14, dominion and authority are given to the Son of Man so that all peoples everywhere will serve him. The remainder of the vision in Daniel 7 reveals the Son of Man sharing his rule with the saints.

The saints will possess the kingdom (Dan. 7:18, 22, 27) and rule with Jesus as the Son of Man.

18 But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.’

Believers who gave their lives for the Lord Jesus will sit on thrones and rule (Rev. 20:4). Paul says that saints will judge the world (1 Cor. 6:2).

This is not a special reward reserved for special Christians; all believers will enjoy this authority over the nations

Real Ruling - v.26

The theme of the rule of the saints continues with the wording of Psalm 2:8–9: the saints will rule with a “rod of iron,” and those who rebel against them will be shattered like clay pots.

8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

and the ends of the earth your possession.

9 You shall break them with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Jesus received his authority to reign from the Father, and believers receive their right to rule from Jesus.

Rule here should not be identified with millennial rule, for the reward is comparable to the reward given to those who conquer in the other letters, i.e. , rule in the new creation, the coming heavenly city.

Real Reward - v.28

The morning star = Christ Himself

16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

More likely, the morning star points to Venus, which shines even before the sun rises, and here it refers to Jesus himself, as Revelation 22:16 explicitly says.

Real lifelong perseverance is needed!

The Christian life does not consist of one victory over sin, or one victory over temptation; it consists of a lifelong faithfulness that is constantly engaged in the battle of sin.

The Christian life is not a battle, it is a campaign (Barclay, 54)

Real Holiness required

Holiness of life and character is another indispensable mark of a true church

A review of the letters so far reveals the mark of a true church is love, suffering, truth & holiness.

Holiness is not only God’s will but his purpose (1 Thess 4:3-8; Eph. 1:4; Titus 2:13-14)

This is holiness that follows us to work, to our hobbies and to our homes for it is there what we truly believe is lived out.

The call to the Church this morning is to hold fast to Truth and refuse to compromise no matter the cost for as Christ is faithful so are His children called to be.