Thyatira-The Tolerating Church
Well I'm behind with two chuches to get to. The next church on our journey in Revelation is the Church of Thyatira. It covers Rev 2:18-29 and is considered the smallest church of all but God has much to say here about this tiny church. It's called the "Compromising Church." Here's the text:
18“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: 19“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. 20“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. 21“And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. 22“Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23“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. 24“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. 25“But hold fast what you have till I come. 26“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
27‘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; 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 do know from Acts 16 that Lydia, the seller of purple was from this city. In the other cities we heard of heavy worship of Emperors. That was not so here although Apollos, the Sun God was worshipped in Thyatira.
This city was a working class city as in the trade industry. From inscriptions discovered we learn it had a large amount of trade guilds associated with it. These guilds or unions were associations for mutual profit and pleasure of people employed in certain trades. There were guilds of workers in wool, leather, linen and bronze, dyers, potters, bakers and slave dealers.
Belonging to these trades you were expected to go the the annual meetings where both wine and immorality flowed freely. Not a place for the Christian to be. The pressure to go was immense. To refuse to join one of these guilds would be much the same as to refuse to join a trade union today. It would mean to give up all prospect of commercial existence.
We see from the passage here the Son of God has eyes like fire. We see this often. He sees what's going on. His eyes can penetrate. We cannot hide from him. When we put on the pretense of church, God sees it all.
His feet, like bronze speaks of judgment and his immoveable power. A letter that starts like this cannot be one to sooth the minds of the reader.
Looking at v19 we can see it's not totally a bad church. Their works are better than when they started. It's a working church. He sees the love they have; more than we saw in Ephesus who lost their first love. We must remember that service is the outcome of love and patient endurance the product of loyalty. This is seen here. There is energy in this church. On the surface this church appears to be flourishing. But, there is a warning here. A church which is crowded with people and a beehive of energy is not necessarily a real Church.
They have "allowed" Jezebel to take control. Who is she? A specific woman? Perhaps. There are many thoughts here on who this person could have been. Some believe this Jezebel could stand for an attitude of false teaching, leading the Church into sin. The historic story of Jezebel can be found in 1 Kings. She was a horror to behold and her influence was so strong that even Elijah fled from her at one point in his life. Either she had come in the spirit of Jezebel or her teaching was prevalent here.
False teaching in a church starts small. It usually doesn't start outright. This Church tolerated it to happen. They didn't take the steps to stop it from happening. This warning is to all Churches NOT to teach false doctrine.
Paul warned the church to be on guard for ravenous wolves that would infiltrate the church. Here we see this happening. It's happening today as well leading us astray. We must not fall for compromise and tolerance that leads us away from true doctrine.
The #1 topic today for the tolerant Church is homosexuality. There's a blasting against churches who don't accept this. We are being coerced to that end with Legislation now being used to force the churches to comply.
False teaching comes in subtle ways. It's ok to accept Jesus as Savior and then go on merry way. It's not being taught in many churches today that not only is he to be our Savior but he's also to be our Lord. In the church of Pergamum the false teaching was creeping in, here it's more serious.
In our chuches today we see man centered theology not God centered. It's all about "what is God doing for me" not "what am I going to do for God." We see this in many of the reading material and even in some of the music. It's all about "me." Some praise choruses do not have a God focus but a man focus. Everything we do as Christians should have God as our focus, especially in our worship of him. Paul addressed this when he warned Timothy in his letter 2 Timothy 3:
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
We see in V21 that God is a patient God, but eventually even God's patience will evenutually run its course and a day of judgment will replace his longsuffering. We see that there awaits a day of judgment for them that do not repent. There are two paths to take. One leads to rewards and the other to punishments. Jesus said in Luke 13:3,5
“I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 5“I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
We see she reclines in a sickbed of sin which only brings tribulation and death. All those associated with her share her fate. Is this reference to be taken literally or in the symbolic sense which is so commin in Scripture to sexual immorality or to spiritual infidelity?
We know that in Scripture infidelity to God is expressed in terms of adultery. In the OT Israel is the Bride of God and in the NT the Church is the Bride of Christ. The Israelites were said over and over again in the OT they "played the harlot after strange gods." In the NT the age which is unfaithful is an "evil and adulterous generation." So it could be said that the teaching of Jezebel is the teaching that Christians need not to be exclusive in their worship of Jesus Christ alone. They need not refuse to say "Caesar is Lord." But the true believers know that the claim of Christianity is not that Jesus is one of the Saviours but that he is the ONLY Saviour.
We see followers of Jezebel know the depths of Satan (v24). This is the pits. The bottom of the barrel. This would involve the worship of pagan idols or compromising with them following after the things of Satan, rather than God. Paul wrote about the real Christians knowing the deep things of God ,but here we see Jezebel and crew actually know the deep things of Satan. Those who knew this were those who had deliberately plumbed evil to its depths.
Basically what we can gather here is that Jezebel was teaching that a Christian ought to accommodate himself to the world. She was leading the church into spiritual adultery against the God they had once been faithful to.
V26 is directed to all Christians even in this church that is for the most part following the teachings of Jezebel. To those who are faithful the promise is made and it's twofold. The first part comes from Psalm 2:8-9 which says:
Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ ”
In Jewish belief this is the conquering Messiah who would smash the heathen and extend the rule of Israel to the whole earth. As Christians, it's the beginning of the Millennium Rule of Christ.
The second promise is the promise of the morning star. The promise of the morning star is the promise of Christ himself. We read in 22:16:
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.
So we need to consider two things. We need to think about this. How does this apply to us?
1. What do we tolerate?
2. What do we hold fast to?