The Church at Thyatira
Letters to the Churches • Sermon • Submitted
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Destination—Thyatira
Destination—Thyatira
THE TOLERANT CHURCH
(How much is Jesus worth to you?)
Notes from John Macarthur
Shows what compromise with the world leads to. Fullscale idolatry and immorality.
First 3 churches had not yielded the faith
Not so with the next 3. False teaching had penetrated the souls of the people.
Love left behind, compromise follows, leads to tolerance of sin
This is the longest of the 7 letters written to the smallest city.
Chapter 1 “The Son of Man”—speaks to his humanness. His care, his intercession for us, his identifying in our weakness and struggle
In this letter “The Son of God”—His holiness, his trancendence, his judgement
Same image in —eyes like torches of fire
Jezebel—review history on who she was. Mention how she died
This woman was probably not named Jezebel but she was Jezebel-like
She called herself a prophetess—one who claims to speak for God
Antinomianism—dualism. All that is flesh is evil. Doesn’t matter what happens in the flesh. it doesn’t matter
She probably convinced the church that paganism and its expression of immorality was OK.
We are saved by grace so you can live any way you want. these are the “deep things of Satan”.
They felt that they could tamper with the things of Satan and it not have any consequence for them.
“her Children” All who follow her patterns, her teachings.
“I will kill them”—See
Why? “So that all the churches will know” vs. 23
Must have been a lot of other churches in the same condition.
Victorious ones—will rule the nations—rod of iron; protection--
Morning Star—Jesus
Whoever has ears—are you listening? Are we listening?
My Notes
We move on today to the Church at Thyatira
We are nearly half way through our journey and I wonder what you are thinking by now?
Have you been inspired? Encouraged? Convicted? Scared? Confused?
Has your view of Jesus changed at all?
Perhaps you are like me and would prefer for Jesus to be someone safe.—someone whom you can have absolute confidence in--
That best friend, the gentle shepherd,
He is ALL of that and MORE
But after reading some of His strong messages to the churches, (and we have another one today) maybe you are starting to feel confused and unsafe.
Exerpt from “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”
“Is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr Beaver sternly. Certainly not. I tell you he is King of the wood and the son of the great emperor-beyond-the-sea. Don’t you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great lion.”
“ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake” said Mrs Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
And as the stories progress, we see this to be true
He is safe enough for the children to ride on and curl up to when they are scared
But he’s fierce enough to deal harshly with those who rebel against him.
I think C.S. Lewis did a fantastic job of giving us a picture of Jesus. This is the Jesus we see in the Bible.
He’s safe enough for children to come and sit on his lap
But he’s fierce enough to deal harshly with those who are in rebellion against him.
We can quote verses about fearing the LORD. But I wonder if we really believe that we should actually be scared of Him.
I think that there should be an actual fear of Him. That there will be consequences if we defame Him, if we compromise the worship of Him, if we are permissive of things that break His law.
And the Jesus we are meeting in Revelation is one who has no tolerance for sin
He is one who will deal with sin and wants His church to have the same passion for holiness and the same zeal in getting rid of sin.
This is not a popular message. This is not one that will get me millions of dollars on TV
18 “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. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
20 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. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 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. 23 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.
24 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, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—27 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. 28 I will also give that one the morning star.
Revelation 2:18-28
Town of Thyatira—not very significant compared to the others
Originally established as a military garrison by Alexander the Great.
He and his soldiers worshipped Apollo. They called him “the son of god”.
This was a prosperous town.
Not a world class city like the first 3, but a nice town. Maybe like Iowa City.
We don’t know much about the history of this town, but there is something interesting that sheds some possible light on this letter
Had many “trade guilds” represented—kind of like a workers union.
Not like we know today—not so much concerned with wages, hours, benefits etc
These guilds were almost purely social.
Get together for meals or parties, or just dicussion
It had many different artisans and craftsmen here.
One of the most notable was the making of purple and red textiles. The dye was so rich that it was covted around the world
—Lydia, dealer of purple from Thyatira
but also wool, silver and bronze.
Jesus introduces himself as having eyes like blazing fire and feet like burnished bronze. Rang a bell with these believers
No d
Brought to their minds pictures of the glowing fires for refining metals and the polished bronze that was the product.
Guilds had a religious function—each one had a patron god that represented it
And each patron required worship. and with that worship was the activity that went with it
Eating the food that was offered
Sexual immorality
And so what were the Christians to do?
One commentator said that once a part of the guild, always a part of the guild. You couldn’t leave it.
And your children were what you were for generations
Kind of like the dynamics in Mozambique.
So this pressure hit the Believers where it counts—right in the pocketbook.
Introduce Jesus
Son of God. In first chapter he was the Son of Man (emphasizing his humanness, compassion, empathy)
Son of God—emphasizes his deity, his power, his holiness,
So He is coming in all His power and authority
Not as a simple carpenter’s son, but as The Son of God
Eyes like blazing fire—torches that shine into all the dark places—that see all
Feet like burnished bronze—a picture of purity and brilliance
Commendation
“I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverence, and that you are now doing more than you did at first”
They had made some progress—they weren’t stagnant (that was a problem another church had, not them)
Love: better than Ephesus
Faith: without faith it is impossible to please God
Service and Perseverance: the scriptures talk about having patience and perseverance.
These are all good things. In fact, they were doing more than they were at first.
But there was something wrong. Tolerance
This is one of the biggest buzz words today.
Society says that we have to be tolerant. Certain churches say that we must be tolerant.
Aviation: tolerance for engine or airframe parts. New parts tolerance or overhauled part tolerance
But in social circles tolerance means, “You may not agree with me but you have to accept me.” If you disagree with me, you are showing that you are intolerant.
We don’t want to be known as intolerant
In fact, I think that tolerance is a good thing to a certain point, although I don’t really like the word.
To me, it implies a certain amount of eye rolling “There he goes again..”
It implies that we just leave each other alone:
You do what you want and I’ll do what I want
Without tolerance, relationships would suffer.
However, as the Church of Jesus, there is a certain point at which tolerance has a limit.
What about unbelievers in the church? They are not part of the Church and cannot be held to the same standard
We are talking about those who call themselves believers
This church was tolerating a person who was teaching something utterly detestable to Jesus
Jezebel: probably wasn’t her real name. probably not a popular name for little girls in those days for a very good reason.
Most wicked queen in Israel, wife of Ahab, the Sidonian daughter of Ethbaal, King of Tyre.
She brought Baal worship to Israel and outlawed the worship of Yahweh.
Baal worship—somewhat generic term for the worship of different gods
She came to a horrific end—fitting for such a wicked person as her
This woman in the church—calls herself a prophetess
Claims to speak for God
People are following her because she claims to speak for God
She was leading them astray. vs. 20 “By her teaching she misleads my servants...
Jesus has harsh words for those who cause others to sin.
19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:19
42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.
In this case, His words are equally as harsh
What was she teaching?
We can speculate that
She was teaching a form of Gnosticism—That matter is evil. That the flesh is evil: the spirit is inherently good
Result—you can live however you want. Even the grossest sin is of no account. Real life exists in the spirit realm
They also claimed to have “elevated knowledge” known only to a certain few.
Not from Scripture but from some mystical higher plane of existence
Vs. 24--”Satan’s so-called deep secrets”
Don’t ask questions: I know best
We can speculate
that given their situation of the pressure to be in the guilds she was teaching that one could indeed do that, and be a part of all that went with it and still be a believer
Basically saying, “You take care of you first”
God doesn’t want you to be in need so do what you have to in order to take care of yourself
Your pocketbook should come first.
And since what happens in the flesh really doesn’t matter, you can do whatever being a part of the guild requires
Instead of teaching that ALL aspects of life should come under the lordship of Jesus, she was telling the Believers that this is one area in which they could retain control and even live on both sides of the fence.
Basically making their jobs and their way of making a living into an idol
Today
Does this hit a little too close to home?
How many times have we heard the message whether spoken or implied that
our lives should be about our careers, the gaining of wealth, the making of money
We want advancement, responsibility,
Our whole identity is tied up in what we do for a living and how well we do it.
We feel kind of bad about it so we spiritualize it.
8 Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
1 Timothy 5:8
So we work longer and harder
And our wives, our children, our church, and most importantly, our LORD get the leftover dregs of whatever energy we have left over.
Before we know it, we wake up to realize that we are calling ourselves Believers, we love the LORD, we desire to live for Him, we have faith and are persevering,
But our real allegiance is to other gods
We probably dont have idols set up on our mantle and we might not have temples dedicated to our gods
At least not objects that we would call idols and not buildings that we would call temples
But we do have other gods that we have pledged our allegiance to.
Wealth, money, others expectations, our own pride and self-identity.
We may react to society calling us to be tolerant
But before we react too much perhaps we should examine ourselves to see if there are things that we are tolerating.
But this kind of living is acceptable to us . This is something we can tolerate.
But god calls this kind of living immorality
Warning
I have given her time to repent of her immorality but she is unwilling
Do you think God is harsh and impatient?
God always gives His children time to repent.
But there are always consequences for wickedness
I will cast her on a bed of suffering
I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely
Again, a desire to show mercy (unless they don’t repent)
I will strike her children dead!
What? Death? Where is the mercy?
See also “some are sick among you and some have died”
Reveals a side of Jesus that isn’t often talked about.
Rather than have a person in the body of Christ continue to promote sin and damage the Body, He will take that person out
Death why?
So that all the churches will know that I AM HE who searches hearts and minds
Encouragement and Reward
There were some who had not fallen into the trap of believing these “deep secrets of Satan”
She was teaching a form of Gnosticism—That matter is evil. That the flesh is evil: the spirit is inherently good
I know it is a burden to live faithfully and I won’t impose any other burdens on you
Result—you can live however you want. Even the grossest sin is of no account. Real life exists in the spirit realm
“HOLD ON!” Don’t be discouraged! Don’t be drawn in by this trap.
They also claimed to have “elevated knowledge” known only to a certain few.
You may live in poverty. You may live in uncertainty but hold on
And there are rewards for those who are faithful and who do His will to the end
Authority over the nations
This struggling band of believers, this insignificant church
will join Christ is his millenial reign
The Bright and morning star
Jesus himself identifies himself as the Bright and Morning Star
who needs to strive for worldly wealth and prestige when you can have Jesus himself?
Paul talks repeatedly about the riches in Christ Jesus
Freedom the law, freedom from fear, freedom from condemnation
grace
Eternal life
forgiveness
Acceptance, love, etc
So the question is, “How much is Jesus worth to you?”
Not from Scripture but from some mystical higher plane of existence