Revelation 2:18-29: The Letter to Thyatira
Revelation - The Lamb is Victorious • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Scripture
Scripture
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.’
Outline
Outline
Revelation 1 - Introduction
Revelation 1 - Introduction
Revelation 1:1-3 - Prologue & Benediction
Revelation 1:4-8 - Epistolary Introduction
Revelation 1:9-20 - A Vision of the Son of Man
Revelation 2-3 - The Seven Churches
Revelation 2-3 - The Seven Churches
Revelation 2:1-7 - The Letter to Ephesus
Revelation 2:8-11 - The Letter to Smyrna
Revelation 2:12-17 - The Letter to Pergamum
Revelation 2:18-29 - The Letter to Thyatira
Revelation 2:18 - Address
Revelation 2:19-28 - Message to the Church
Revelation 2:29 - Command to Hear
Purpose of Book
Purpose of Book
The purpose of Revelation is to challenge/encourage believers, who are expectantly awaiting the reign of Christ, to live faithfully for Him despite worldly circumstances, persecution, and the cosmic battle between God and Satan.
The purpose of Revelation is to challenge/encourage believers, who are expectantly awaiting the reign of Christ, to live faithfully for Him despite worldly circumstances, persecution, and the cosmic battle between God and Satan.
Main Point
Main Point
Jesus commands those who are faithful in Thyatira to hold fast to Him. He also calls the false prophetess “Jezebel” and her followers to repent of their sins before He renders judgment.
Jesus commands those who are faithful in Thyatira to hold fast to Him. He also calls the false prophetess “Jezebel” and her followers to repent of their sins before He renders judgment.
Revelation 2:18 - Address
Revelation 2:18 - Address
“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.
And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
To the angel of the church
Celestial being responsible for oversight
There is help for them in the heavenly realm
Thyatira
Lexham Geographic Commentary on Acts through Revelation Chapter 50: The Social and Geographical World of Thyatira (Revelation 2:18–29) (Mark Wilson)
Key Points
• Thyatira is the third city of the seven churches of Revelation.
• The city was a Lydian fortress later refounded by the Macedonians as a military colony in the third century BC.
• Thyatira was situated at a major intersection with intraprovincial and interregional connections.
• Trade guilds played a major role in civic life with Lydia being a purple dealer in Philippi.
• Eating food sacrificed to idols at pagan temples was a major issue in its Christian community.
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
Write
Command given to John
The words of the Son of God,
The words of the Son of God,
Son of God
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”
The Gospel of John also emphasizes Jesus as the Son of God
Son of God/Man were used interchangeably in Jewish and Christian history
Who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze
Who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze
The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.
Eyes were like a flame of fire
“As I looked,
thrones were placed,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat;
his clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames;
its wheels were burning fire.
Penetrating discernment and nothing is hidden from Him
Feet like burnished bronze
His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.
No one is able to stand against/conquer the Son of Man who is morally pure
Thyatira - military-grade brass was made here
Christ is the ultimate judge and none of the false teachers can stand against him as he protects his faithful
Revelation 2:19-28 - Message to the Church
Revelation 2:19-28 - Message to the Church
“ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 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. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 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, 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. 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. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 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. And I will give him the morning star.
I know your works,
I know your works,
I know
Jesus intimately knows His church
Your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
Your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
Love, faith, service, and patient endurance
Love
Love for God and for others
Faith
Faith in Christ and faithfulness to His people
Service
Proclamation of the gospel and providing for those in need
Patient endurance
Remaining faithful despite persecution and false teachings
These describe the works Jesus is familiar with
Latter works exceed the first
Unlike the Ephesians
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Encourage the faithful to continue in their works
But I have this against you, that you tolerate Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
But I have this against you, that you tolerate Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
But I have this against you
Ephesians
“ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.
Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
The Ephesians had prevented false teachers/teaching in the church
Tolerate Jezebel
And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria.
And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
Ahab’s queen, who favored the cult of the Phoenician Baal in Israel and persecuted the prophets of Yahweh (3 Km 16–4 Km 9), and who was also addicted to whoredom and magic (4 Km 9:22).
Real woman who was deceiving the congregation
Her name is not literally “Jezebel”, this functions as a typology like Balaam
Calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants
Claimed to speak on behalf of God as a prophetesses
The emphasis here is on false prophecy, not false teaching like Pergamum
She did not claim total abandonment of the Gospel, but syncretism
Practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols
Spiritual adultery against Christ just as Jezebel did in the OT
I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
Time to repent
Somehow, “Jezebel” was given time to repent by Christ
She had gone through the process of church discipline
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
She refuses to repent of their sexual immorality
Despite the loving call to sinlessness, she refused to repent
She is currently opposed to Christ and influencing in an evil manner
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, and I will strike her children dead.
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, and I will strike her children dead.
Behold
Imperative - Special attention given to her judgment
I will throw her onto a sickbed
Physical sickness as a lack of repentance
That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.
And those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation
“Jezebel’s” followers have committed spiritual adultery on Christ
Very difficult physical distress/suffering
Unless they repent of her works
The door is still open for repentance for these false teachers
They do not have to suffer death
And I will strike her children dead
Death is their end
Their consequences are like those who are unbelievers because they are proving themselves not to be of Christ
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.
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.
All the churches
The seven and all others
Searches mind and heart
Christ alone is the true judge who can search the mind and heart
He alone knows the motives of all
I will give to each of you according to your works
Christ will give righteous judgment according to each person’s works
“I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Punishment issued to false teachers who practiced idolatry for self-gain
Likewise, "Jezebel” led others astray for self-gain
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.
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.
To the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching
Here is an exhortation to those who have not been deceived by “Jezebel”
Who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan
Her teachings were diabolical evil by nature
Deceiving others by blurring the lines between God and idols
Understanding the demonic
To you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden
These faithful were responsible to confront the false prophetess, but they do not face the same judgment as her, her co-leaders, and her spiritual children
Only hold fast what you have until I come.
Only hold fast what you have until I come.
Hold fast what you have
Command
The latter works and resisting idolatry by “Jezebel”
Until I come
The second coming of Christ
The one who conquers and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broke in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
The one who conquers and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broke in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
The one who conquers and keeps my words until the end
Those who stand against the false teachings of “Jezebel”
To him I will give authority over the nations
15 “As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me. 16 I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things. 17 ‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. 18 But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.’
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
And he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broke in pieces
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
Ending with Psalm 2 is fitting given the Son of God title he used to start the letter
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
Even as I myself have received authority from my Father
13 “I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
14 And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
Those who persevere will receive the ability to share in rulership over the renewed world with Christ
And I will give him the morning star.
And I will give him the morning star.
Morning star
I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab
and break down all the sons of Sheth.
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
The future eschatological/messianic ruler will be like a rising star over all the nations
Jesus is the ultimate prize for the one who overcomes
Revelation 2:29 - Command to Hear
Revelation 2:29 - Command to Hear
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Let him hear
Command
Meant to provoke to get the church to hear and obey
And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
And he said, “Go and say to this people, ‘You will hear by hearing and not understand; and although looking, you will look and not see.’ For the heart of this people has been thickened; and they have heard heavily with their ears, and they closed their eyes in case they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I will heal them.”
Reality that there are believers and non-believers who hear this message in the churches
Some will be enlightened, some blinded
Spirit
The Spirit is active and at work through Jesus’ letters to the seven churches
To the churches
Both to the church in Thyatira, but also to the churches of all ages
Application
Application
Christ is the ultimate judge who protects his church from false teachers/teaching
Christ is the ultimate judge who protects his church from false teachers/teaching
Repent if we are engaged in anything leading us away from Christ
Repent if we are engaged in anything leading us away from Christ
Be on guard against false teachers/teachings until Christ returns
Be on guard against false teachers/teachings until Christ returns
Main Point
Main Point
Jesus commands those who are faithful in Thyatira to hold fast to Him. He also calls the false prophetess “Jezebel” and her followers to repent of their sins before He renders judgment.
Jesus commands those who are faithful in Thyatira to hold fast to Him. He also calls the false prophetess “Jezebel” and her followers to repent of their sins before He renders judgment.