In our culture, I think there is sometimes a tendency for us to look around at all the mega churches, even some right around us, and to begin to think that a smaller church like TFC really isn’t all that significant to the kingdom of God. But Jesus’ message to the church in Thyatira certainly refutes that idea. Although it was the smallest of the seven churches in Asia Minor, Jesus’ message to that church is longer than any of the other six messages. If nothing else, that shows us that every single local body is equally important to Jesus and that He is concerned about the testimony of every single local body, regardless of its size.
So if you turn to Revelation 2, we’ll read the message to the church in Thyatira, beginning in verse 18:
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.’
Once again, this message follows the same outline that is common to all seven messages, so we’ll use it to examine this message.
1. Church - Thyatira
Due at least in part to the fact that it was the smallest of the seven cities, we have less historical and archaeological evidence about the city of Thyatira than for any of the other six cities in Revelation 2 and 3. The city was located about 40 miles southeast of Pergamum on the road from Laodicea to Pergamum. Since it was in the midst of a large valley with no natural fortifications, it was vulnerable to the attacks of the prevailing military power of the times and had been under Roman control since 190 BC.
During the late first century, Thyatira was a center of manufacturing and marketing. As a result one of the striking features of the city was its large number of trade guilds. According to Scottish archaeologist Sir William Ramsay, there were guilds for “wool workers, linen workers, makers of outer garments, dyers, leather workers, tanners, potters, bakers, slave dealers, bronzesmiths and shoemakers.” As a result, it would be nearly impossible for anyone to make it financially without participating in one of the guilds. As we’ll see, this presented quite a dilemma to the Christ followers there since these guilds all had their own pagan deities who were the focus of their fraternal activities.
As with several of the seven churches, we don’t have a lot of information about the history of the church in Thyatira, although there is an account in the Book of Acts which may give us some clues about the origin of the church.
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. And after she was baptized, and her household…
Acts 16:14, 15 (ESV)
Lydia was in Philippi to sell some of the famous purple cloth that was produced in Thyatira. She ended up among a group of women at a riverside, where she heard the preaching of Paul and she and her family committed their lives to Jesus and were baptized. It’s certainly possible that she returned to Thyatira and was instrumental in establishing the church there. It is also quite possible that the establishment of the church was aided by the missionary efforts of the church in Ephesus during Paul’s three year stay there.
Sadly, the church there apparently failed to heed the counsel of Jesus and it disappeared less than one hundred years later.
2. Christ
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…the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
As is the normal pattern, Jesus describes Himself using elements from John’s vision in chapter 1. In this case, He focuses on His eyes like a flame of fire and His feet of burnished bronze. As we discovered in chapter 1, these were pictures of the purifying work of Jesus within His church and, as we’ll see, that is certainly appropriate to the situation in Thyatira.
But Jesus adds another element to the way He describes Himself, a description that we don’t find anywhere else in the Book of Revelation – the Son of God. That was particularly relevant in a city that believed that the Roman emperor was the incarnation of Apollo and where both Apollo and the emperor were acclaimed as “son of Zeus” and “son of the high god”. Domitian’s only son, who died in childhood, was named “son of god” by his father. And his image appeared on the reverse side of the Roman coins holding seven stars. Jesus is making it clear that He is in fact the only Son of God.
3. Commendation
19 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
We are introduced to a theme that will run consistently throughout this message – that of works. That word is used five times throughout the message and two of those occurrences bookend this verse. The Greek word used here is “ergon” It is the basis for our English word “erg”, which is a measure of work, and “ergonomics”, which is the science of work. It is a word that indicates action.
Jesus commends the church in Thyatira for their action. In fact, their present works even exceed those that they did at first. In particular, Jesus commends them for four specific areas in which they are excelling.
• Excelling in works:
o Love
Unlike the church at Ephesus, the church in Thyatira had not abandoned their first love. They excelled in their love for Jesus and for each other and that love was demonstrated by their actions.
o Faith
Much like the churches in Smyrna and Pergamum, they had remained faithful to Jesus in spite of the outside pressure they faced in their culture.
o Service
This comes from the same Greek word from which we get our word “deacon” and it could also be translated “ministry.” The church was taking care of the needs of its members.
o Patient endurance
As we’ve seen with the other frequent uses of this word throughout the Book of Revelation so far, this word indicates that they were abiding or remaining under pressure. We’re reminded once again of the overall them of the “Day of the Lord and the Book of Revelation:
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Matthew 24:13
As we’ve seen with each of the messages, the commendation that Jesus gives provides us with practical applications for us as a body and as individual Christ followers. We would do well to follow the example of the church in Thyatira and excel in our actions in the areas of love, faith, ministry and patient endurance.
But even though things looked pretty good from the outside, Jesus, from His position in the midst of the churches, discerned that there were some serious problems with this church, and so He has quite a lengthy word of…
4. Condemnation
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.
In a sense, this sounds a lot like the problems Jesus encountered in Pergamum. But the problem of false teaching was much more deep seated and pervasive here in Thyatira. I really like the way that John MacArthur describes the difference between the two churches, using the analogy of marriage:
If the church married the world in Pergamos, in Thyatira they were celebrating anniversaries. If compromise had begun in Pergamos, it had taken over in Thyatira…This is the church that tolerated sin, the church that absorbed sin, absorbed error and lived happily ever after with it.
This particular section of Jesus’ message provides us with a number of relevant and practical principles which we can apply to both our individual lives and to our life as a body of believers. So let’s take a few moments to make sure we understand what was going on here and then focus on a few of the principles that we can derive from that understanding..
Apparently, there was a woman in this church who exercised considerable influence. Jesus refers to her as Jezebel, which was probably not here actual name, but rather a description of her character. We still use that name today to describe an evil woman, don’t we? We might say something like, “She’s a real Jezebel”. This is quite similar to the way Jesus used Balaam to describe the nature of the teaching that was infiltrating the church at Smyrna even though Balaam was obviously not the name of the person doing the teaching.
So in order for us to understand the problem this woman was creating in the church, we need to go back to the Old Testament and see what we can learn about Jezebel. Although we obviously don’t have time to do that in detail, one key passage reveals all we need to know:
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. 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.
1 Kings 16:29-31 (ESV)
In that account we find an amazing accusation against Ahab. He did more evil in the sight of God than all the other kings before him. That’s quite a statement given what we know about the wickedness of some of his predecessors. And we find that the dominating influence in his life was the fact that he married Jezebel. If you go back and read the account of Ahab and Jezebel, you’ll find that Ahab actually did very little himself. But what he did do was to let Jezebel usurp the power that should have been his. It was Jezebel who brought in false prophets and had the prophets of God killed. And as a result of her influence Ahab joined his wife in worshipping Baal and the other pagan deities that she served.
And the church in Thyatira was allowing this woman, whoever she was, to do essentially the same thing there. Although she claimed to be a prophetess of God, her teaching and her actions were both inconsistent with the clear teachings of Scripture. And so, just as we saw in Smyrna, the people were being enticed into eating food offered to idols and engaging in sexual immorality.
In Thyatira, much of that activity took place in the social gatherings of the trade guilds there as the people would come and honor the patron deity of their trade by eating, drinking and engaging in sexual immorality. And apparently this influential woman was rationalizing how the Christ followers there could go ahead and participate in those activities and still hold on to their faith in Jesus. Perhaps she used the same kind of logic that we might hear today in our culture: “Business is business. And you have to earn a living. After all, if you don’t do that, how will you be able to take care of your family or have money to give to the church?”
And just as we saw in Smyrna, Jesus not only condemns this Jezebel, He also has some harsh words of those who are following her teaching as well as those who may have refused to give in to her, but were still tolerating her teaching in the church.
For the woman herself, it was now too late to repent. Jesus had given her an opportunity, but she had chosen not to repent, so she was about to reap the punishment for what she had sown.
The second group, those who had followed her teaching, are described here as those who have committed adultery with her. Since this whole passage is clearly symbolic, the adultery here does probably not involve sexual immorality, but is rather describing the spiritual adultery that Jezebel and her followers are engaging in. Jesus is going to subject those people to a time of great tribulation. That tribulation will give them an opportunity to repent and to prove the genuineness of their faith in Jesus. But those who refuse to repent will identify themselves as children of Jezebel and will be struck dead – literally Jesus says “Her children I will kill with death.” Although that may involve physical death, there also appears to be a reference here to the “second death” in the lake of fire that awaits those who do not have a genuine faith in Jesus.
Jesus is going to do all this so that all the churches will understand that He is the one who searches the mind and the heart. In Greek, it literally reads the “kidneys and the heart” – a phrase was used in that culture to describe both the emotions and the intellect.
And then as a result of searching out what we are like deep within, Jesus promises to give to each person according to their works which reveal what they are really like deep inside. That is a principle which is reinforced frequently in both the Old and New Testaments:
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.
Jeremiah 17:10 (ESV)
For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
Matthew 16:27 (ESV)
He will render to each one according to his works:
Romans 2:6 (ESV)
Before we go on to the next section, let’s pause for a moment and see what practical and relevant lessons we can learn here.
Some lessons to learn:
1) Jesus is a God of grace – up to a point
As evil and harmful as this Jezebel woman was, Jesus still extended the possibility of His grace and provided an opportunity to repent. That is certainly consistent with what we learned about the Day of the Lord from the Old Testament prophets. And here, He is still extending an opportunity to repent to those who are following the teaching of this woman. He is even going to bring a period of tribulation for the purpose of encouraging them to repent. He is also providing the same opportunity for grace to those who are tolerating that teaching and behavior in the church.
But as we saw consistently in the Old Testament prophets, there comes a point where one’s heart becomes so hardened to God that repentance is no longer possible. And that point has now come for this Jezebel. She is the perfect illustration of the principle that we find in the first chapter of Romans:
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Romans 1:24, 25 (ESV)
Because she has refused to repent, Jesus has now given this woman over to the lusts of her heart. There is actually a great deal of sarcasm in how Jesus addresses this woman. In effect He is saying, “You want to lie on a bed and commit sexual immorality. Then I’ll put you on a bed alright.” Perhaps this is even the source for a familiar French proverb form the 15th century:
As you make your bed, so you must lie upon it.
If you’re here this morning and have never committed your life to Jesus, He is still extending His offer of grace to you. Just the fact that you’re here is a pretty good indication that you haven’t hardened your heart yet to the point that you’ve permanently refused to accept that grace. But there will come a point, known only to God, where it will be too late for you to respond to Him and you will end up lying in the bed that you have made for yourself.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can receive that grace, then I urge you to fill out the Care Card on the flap of the bulletin and place in the offering plate or to talk to me or Pastor Dana or one of the elders after the service so that we can help you follow through with that decision.
2) Our works reveal our spiritual condition
As I mentioned earlier, there is a focus on works in this passage. While the Bible is absolutely clear that we can never earn favor with God or enter into a relationship with Him based on our works, the Scriptures also consistently point out the importance of good works.
I think this passage actually helps us to reconcile those two concepts. What we find here is that our works are a very accurate indicator of our spiritual condition inside. That is exactly what Jesus taught His disciples during His earthly ministry:
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
John 15:8 (ESV)
Jesus said that when the disciples bore good fruit through their works, that fruit would prove that they were truly His disciples. The works and the resulting fruit didn’t make them His disciples; it merely revealed who they were.
So when Jesus promises to give to each according to his or her works, He is just reinforcing the idea that a person’s works are the best indicator of who they really are. Ultimately, it’s just not possible to be a real Christ follower and then not repent of our sins once they have been brought to our attention.
3) When we fail to follow God’s ways, we open ourselves up to being deceived
Jezebel was able to operate within the church there in Thyatira because the church was not operating according to the clear principles of Scripture. Although there may have been a number of ways in which the church was not following the ways of Jesus, there is one issue in particular that is evident in the text.
There is little doubt that the church there was familiar with this passage:
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man…
1 Timothy 2:12 (ESV)
Although this particular passage has created a great deal of controversy within the church, it seems clear that at a minimum, the face value of the text would prohibit a woman from an authoritative teaching position in the church. We obviously don’t have time to explore this in any detail at all this morning, but the surrounding text, as well as other supporting passages, make it quite clear that the male elders in the church are responsible for determining doctrine of the doctrine of the church and then ensuring that the teaching of the church is consistent with that doctrine.
Apparently here in Thyatira, the church elders had failed to exercise that kind of spiritual oversight. And as a result, the church body was being exposed to false teaching which was being used by Satan to deceive them.
God’s ways have been given to us for our own protection. Jesus doesn’t prohibit women from assuming authoritative teaching roles in the church because He doesn’t like women or because He views them in any way as inferior to men. In fact, the Scriptures clearly allow women to teach in the church in appropriate situations under the oversight of the elders. Jesus has established these practices for His church because He knows, in His infinite wisdom, that following them is the best way to protect His body from being deceived. And when we begin to compromise God’s ways with those of the world, we open ourselves up to being drawn away from the truth.
Once the church in Thyatira had compromised God’s ways by allowing this woman to have an authoritative teaching role in the church, they had embarked on a slippery slope that made it a lot easier to compromise with their culture when it came to issues like eating food offered to idols and sexual immorality.
5. Counsel
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.
• To the faithful remnant:
Just as we’ve seen in the other churches here in Revelation and in our Thursday night study on church history, God has preserved a faithful remnant here in Thyatira. They have demonstrated their faithfulness to Jesus by failing to hold to the false teaching in the church. That teaching is referred to here as “the deep things of Satan.” No doubt that is a sarcastic term used to contrast the teaching they were following with that of God, which is characterized by Paul as the “depths of God”:
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
1 Corinthians 2:10 (ESV)
From what we know from historical records of the time, it is also quite likely that the church was exposed to the prevalent teaching that in order to truly appreciate that which was good one first had to experience immoral evil. We know that Paul had to address that same idea of Christian license in Romans 6:
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Romans 6:1, 2 (ESV)
To this faithful remnant, Jesus has only one word of counsel:
o Hold fast
Jesus tells this faithful remnant that he will place no other burden on them other than that of holding fast to what they already have in Jesus. But the nature of what Jesus says here makes it clear that won’t be easy. The process of holding fast is going to be a burden, one that is going to take constant vigilance and effort on their part.
Even though they have not yet fallen prey to the false teaching the in the church, they are certainly not immune to that possibility, as Paul reveals in this verse:
Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
1 Corinthians 10:12 (ESV)
So Jesus counsels them to hold fast what they already have – their relationship with Him and the Scriptures, so that they will be found to be faithful at the return of Jesus.
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6. Challenge
In this message, Jesus provides a further definition of what it means to overcome:
…and who keeps my works until the end.
This certainly reaffirms how we’ve described the process of being an overcomer in the previous letters. The way we overcome and receive the rewards that Jesus has in store is by keeping His works – by being obedient to the commands of Jesus. And to those who do that Jesus makes…
Two promises to those who overcome:
1) They will co-reign with Jesus
…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.
Jesus actually quotes Himself here:
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.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
Psalm 2:7-9 (ESV)
That Messianic Psalm obviously applied to Jesus, but now Jesus promises to take the authority that is given to Him by his Father and to share that with His followers.
The word for “rule” in verse 27 literally means “to shepherd’, so the rule that is described here is not just that of judgment but also of administering mercy and direction.
So when exactly is this going to take place? We know that it certainly won’t occur here on earth prior to the return of Jesus. Like all of the promises made to those who overcome in the seven messages, these are future rewards that follow the return of Jesus.
We also know that this can’t be in heaven or in the new heavens and new earth. Since there will only be believers there, there will be no need to rule in the sense that Jesus describes here since there is absolutely no evidence either here or elsewhere in Scripture that Jesus is speaking about ruling over other believers.
So the only other option is the thousand year reign of Jesus here on the earth that is described in Revelation 20. That would certainly be consistent with the Jewish understanding that Psalm 2 describes the millennial reign of the Messiah. And other Scripture texts, particularly Zechariah 14, make it quite clear that there will be unbelievers present on the earth during that time.
2) The morning star
I am frankly surprised at the Bible gymnastics that many commentators seem to engage in to try and explain what Jesus means here. All we have to do is to go to the end of Revelation and let the words of Jesus guide us:
“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.”
Revelation 22:16 (ESV)
This is really consistent with what we’ve seen in the other messages so far. The morning star, like the related pictures of the tree of life and the hidden manna describe the presence of Jesus and our intimate relationship with Him that will go far beyond that which we experience right now because we will then be physically present with Him.
Although TFC is certainly not the biggest church around, we are still important to Jesus – so important that He exhorts us to hold fast to Him and His Word and not to compromise with and tolerate the infiltration of the world into our body.
