Lets get started. Today, were going to talk about a lot of sensitive topics that are very relevant to our context. I dont think I even need to re-frame the culture and times of Thyatira because when we read the passage, it becomes so evidently clear that although this society existed 2,000 years ago, nothing has changed about humanity that needs to be translated and re-appropriated for todays culture. But because I dont want you to leave out of church without a little bit of information on the history of the place, well, the city was a place where artisans thrived. Archaeology suggests that there was a significant artisan population in the city. Now imagine living in a place with a lot of artisans and youll have your cultural context. 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. In verse 18, John immediately links the citys interests in the arts to an image that they would love to seea sculpture, so very beautiful that they know the intrinsic beauty of God from within it. Look at how he describes Jesus to these artisan Christiansthe Son of God has eyes like a flame of fire and feet of burnished bronze. The one amazing thing about the Bible and about these cities that John writes to is that there all addressed to a certain type of person. Just like this church is filled with creatives, the church in Thyatira was overflowing with abundance with these types of people. Verse 19. Jesus starts off by complimenting the church here. The church here was thriving. It was a great church by the sounds of this passage. They had works, they were loving. They were faithful in serving other people. Most of all, they systematically and regularly overcame things that would hinder what they were doing in faith. I just want to say that, some of us, need to get to this level. Some of us are at this level. I dont want to downplay the sacrifices you make in the name of God; however, I want us to be keenly aware of the sacrifices we dont make anymore. I want to reiterate what Im saying from this verse right here: We must look at ourselves and ask ourselves if we are doing more now, as maturing Christians, or are we doing less now than we did when we first became Christians. By doing Im talking about tangible works of faith that are not necessarily tied to some type of community service. Im talking about the actions we take to love each other and grow our faith, in addition to keeping God in our minds and hearts as the reason we do the things that we do. I want to stop for a second and imagine with you all right now, what would that look like if we lived as if God knows our works, our love and faith and service and patient endurance that constantly grew from where it was previously. What would that look like? What would our lives look like? What would our church look like? What would our community and spheres of influence look like? Lets keep going, verse 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. 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. Verse 20. This prophetess was probably not really named Jezebel, but then again, dont see why she wouldn’t have been named Jezebel. What John is trying to get across to his readers is that there is a prophetess, not that there is anything wrong with prophetesses, but that there is something wrong with people who are calling themselves prophets or prophetesses (mouth pieces of God) and leading the people of God into the wrong direction. The implication here is that there are some people who would choose the Christian faith that comes easily, but at the same time comes in the form of a lie. Let me explain what that means: they only choose the parts of Christianity and the Bible that they choose to follow in convenience. Like we learned this morning, for those of you who participated in this mornings service; people didn’t want God, they wanted the things of God. Therefore, we find a situation where people who say they belong to the church are just really trying to use God for what He offers. The risen Jesus makes no distinction between prophets who condone idolatry and immorality and those who practice such things. This was the problem these Thyatiran Christians faced. In order to make a living they had to belong to a union, but to attend the union was to become involved, or to be sorely pressured to become involved, with the worship of idols and with licentious and lascivious debauchery. So they had to make a choice. It was difficult to live in Thyatira for this very reason. But apparently Jezebel had begun to teach that it was all right for them to go along with the requirements of the guild, that they needed to submit to the pressures of the world around in order to make a living, and that God would understand and overlook this. Her philosophy was what you often hear today: “Business is business.” If business practices collide with your Christian principles, then your principles have to go — because you have to make a living. Have you ever heard that argument? This whole scenario is paralleled in many churches today that accept the easy going lack of standards that is so widespread in our society. This is a problem that church leadership has to face in our day just as it had to face it in the 1st century. Look at what it says in verse 21: I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Heres what that means, Jezebel seems to have justified her freedom from traditional restraints by appealing to the spiritual maturity of herself and her followers. They made use of the name of God to oppose the truth of his doctrine and worship; this very much aggravated their sin. They abused the patience of God to harden themselves in their wickedness. God gave them space for repentance, but they didnt. She may even have quoted Paul to the effect that “God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” and “the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (1 Cor 2:10). Possibly with Paul’s statement in view, the risen Jesus announces, not just to Thyatira but to all the churches (v. 23), that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds, adding that the “deep things” of such groups as this are not the profound truths of God, but the deep secrets of Satan himself (v. 24). If people deliberately reject the Lord’s authority, he is no longer their God. The result is, they must find another god, for it is impossible for the human spirit to live without something to live for. That is what a god is. Whatever you are living for, whatever makes life worthwhile to you, becomes your god. It may be the god of pleasure. It may be the god of wealth. It may be the god of power, a lust for power and ambition. It may be the search for fame. The point that is being made here is that wherever you work is the place of greatest temptation in this regard. It is right where you work that you will be under pressure to compromise, and to go along with the standards of the world around. Look at the judgment of God that results in throwing Him out with our half parsed value systems. I know Im going backward and forward within these four verses, but it only makes sense when we deconstruct the logic this way. The result of judgment and discipline within the church is that the church is purified, strengthened, and helped. People begin to take note of evil tendencies and become careful not to drift into the pattern of society around. They are willing to stand against the tide or swim against the current. 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 angel at Thyatira is, if anything, even less implicated with the false prophets than was the angel at Pergamum. He is not charged with any of Jezebel’s crimes, only with excessive tolerance of her and her partisans. This is really important because this is where we live in our current age of relativity. Verse 24 tells us that Jezebel and her clan may not have been an actual part of the congregation, but a separate community trying to entice away its members. This is important because some people are much more happy when they go to the right church, that is, when church is convenient with them and their supposed value systems than when church is what it really is, the body of Christ coming together to make each other holy in the name of God. There is a distinction between progression and progressive. When our progression comes at the cost of our faith, values and love, then we are not being progressive, but regressing into the ways we were before we were Christians. Thats why, it says in verse 25 that the Christians need to just hang on. Consequently, the “coming” of the risen one is not a threat (as in 2:16), but a hope. I want to finish up here in verse 26 through 29. Jesus will appear for his own, for those belonging to him, who are true Christians, who have been held and kept by the Spirit of God from the evils of the society around. It is not that they cannot, and do not at times, fall, but they invariably recover, and repent, and turn back to him. That is the sign that our faith is real. Those who have real faith will repent. Someone has well said, “If your faith fizzles before you finish, it is because it was faulty from the first!” True faith holds on to the end. Write that down. Finally, the Lord says, “Listen to all the letters of the churches.” Not just to this church, but to all the churches. These promises and warnings are needed in our individual lives, no matter what our local church may be like. Ephesus tells us, “Do not let your love for Jesus grow cold,” (Revelation 2:1-7). Smyrna says, “Do not fear the persecution of the world,” (Revelation 2:8-11). Pergamum says, “Trust the Word of God to keep you strong and faithful,” (Revelation 2:12-17). And Thyatira tells us, “Keep your moral standards clear.” These are tremendously practical letters for the age in which we live.
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