"Thyatira Church - Where Did You Go?"

Thyatira Church – Where Did You Go?

This morning we will finish chapter two and the first four letters to the seven churches to whom this book was addressed. As I have already stated these seven churches represent all the churches during this time that we call the church age, from the formation of the church at Pentecost until the Lord’s returns to take the church to be with Him. This morning we will look at a church that appeared to be doing all the right things, but within they had slipped and were tolerating apostasy in their church. Apostasy is a departure from the truth, a departure from the faith that they had once accepted, a departure from the sound doctrines of the church to believe in another doctrine or teaching. This is what happened to the church in Thyatira. Turn in your Bibles to Revelation 2:18-29, this is the longest of the letters to the churches.

Read Revelation 2:18-29 (NASB95) “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this: ‘I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them—I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

THE AUTHOR, THE CHURCH, THE CITY (Revelation 2:18) This letter begins like each of the letters and we are going to look at each component of verse 18, we will begin with the author of the letter, then look at the church and finally a little background on the city. The author identifies Himself with these words: “The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this:” The author first identifies Himself as the Son of God, which we know right away to be Jesus Christ. This title emphasizes the deity of Jesus Christ, stressing the fact that He is of one with God the Father. This is a distinct wording change from chapter one where John described for us his vision of Jesus Christ. There John described Jesus as the Son of Man. The title “Son of Man” views Jesus Christ in His ability to sympathize with the trials, the temptations, the needs of the church. By being identified here as the “Son of God,” which appears in Revelation only once, Christ’s deity is the emphasis because He is approaching the church as the Divine Judge. The church’s diversion from true worship to the Son of God was of such a serious nature that it called for a reiteration of Christ’s deity, the fact that He was, is, and always will be God; the one and only true God.

As God, the Head of the church, He is also the Judge of the church and will bring judgment upon sin in the church if it is not dealt with. The description goes on to say that He has eyes like a flame of fire which speaks of burning wrath against sin and purifying judgment. The piercing vision of the Lord Jesus Christ sees all. From the outside, the church may seem that it is doing well, has a good testimony in the community, and has a good reputation with other churches. But the eyes of Jesus Christ see how things really are. His feet are like burnished bronze. This phrase refers to a brilliant appearance that emphasizes the purity and holiness of our Lord as the glorious judge about to trample out impurity. I wonder if when this description of Jesus Christ was read in the church of Thyatira if they were shocked and forced to realize that Christ will judge ongoing, unrepentant sin in the church. The recipient of this letter, as already noted, is the church in Thyatira. We do not have any information about the founding of this church. The only other reference that we have of Thyatira is in Acts 16 when Paul was in the city of Philippi and he went out by the river on the Sabbath and there were a group of people assembled there for prayer. In Acts 16:14-15 we read,

Read Acts 16:14-15 (NASB95) “A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.’ And she prevailed upon us.” It is possible that Lydia and the members of her household who came to faith in Christ were instrumental in starting the church in Thyatira upon their return. The city of Thyatira was a small city and did not have any of the prestige of the first three cities. It was founded by one of Alexander the Great’s successors as a military outpost guarding the north-south road. The city of Thyatira was in a rich agricultural area and was famous for the manufacture of purple dye. Thyatira was also known for numerous guilds, similar to our present-day trade unions. Its main industry was wool and dyed-goods, but secular literature also mentions guilds for linen, bakers, slave dealers, and bronze smiths. Unlike the cities we have already looked at, Thyatira was not an important religious center. The primary god worshipped in Thyatira was Apollo, the Greek sun god.

The Jewish population was also very small in Thyatira. The pressure the Christians faced in Thyatira came from the guilds. To hold a job, to operate a business, it was necessary to belong to a guild. Each guild had a god or goddess in whose honor feasts were held, this included making sacrifices to these gods and goddesses and the sexual immorality that was a part of Greek and Roman idolatry. As a Christian, you had to decide to participate in the idolatry of your guild or lose your job. It was how some in the Thyatira church were handling the situation that caused the Lord Jesus Christ great concern. THE COMMENDATION (Revelation 2:19) Jesus Christ again begins His letter to the church in Thyatira with some words of encouragement. He commends them for the things they are doing right. He begins by assuring them that He knows their righteous deeds and He divides these into four categories. First, He commends them for their love for God and for one another. The deeds they were performing were done out of their love for God and because of their love for one another. In contrast to Ephesus, Thyatira was strong where Ephesus was weak. Thyatira is the first of the seven churches commended for its love.

Second, Jesus Christ commends them for their faith, or their faithfulness. Those in Thyatira who remained true to the faith showed this in the faithfulness in serving the Lord. Out of faith and love grows service and perseverance which are the other two categories. Those who love, show it by helping others. Those who are faithful will patiently endure or persevere in their faith. Not only did the Lord Jesus commend them for these Christian virtues, but their righteous deeds were growing greater than in the beginning. It was becoming more consistent and they were faithfully persevering and growing in grace and advancing the testimony of Christ in their community. For this, the Lord commends them, but there was one thing that Lord held against them. It was a deadly cancer that was growing quickly, and it had to be dealt with most swiftly. THE CONDEMNATION (Revelation 2:20-23) Jesus Christ, the Divine Judge of the church says, “‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.”

The problem in Thyatira was not persecution from outside the church, but toleration or compromise inside the church. Jesus uses the singular pronoun “you” when He says, “I have this against you.” Jesus points the finger at the leader of the church. This was something that the leader had failed to deal with and the sin consisted of two parts. First, they had not followed the biblical teaching that women were not to be teachers or preachers in the church. Paul had instructed Timothy when he was at Ephesus in 1 Timothy 2:12, “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” By not following this teaching, this led them to tolerate Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess. This woman claimed she was a prophetess and was receiving special revelation from God, but God had not called her to be a prophetess and her teaching was not from God, but from Satan. By her claims, and because the leaders of the church did not follow the biblical teaching, this woman was allowed to teach error in the church. Jesus Christ says that the result of this sin is that she leads My bond-servants astray. Meaning, she literally seduces them or causes them to wander away from the truth. They had been led astray so much that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols thus remaining in their guilds. Jezebel was not this woman’s real name. Jesus Christ called her this because her actions were like those of the woman who was the wife of king Ahab in the Old Testament. Her name was Jezebel and she was a very vile and evil person, and through her evil influence she led the nation of Israel away from the true God and into widespread Baal worship. Likewise, this woman whom Jesus Christ labels as Jezebel succeeded in leading Christ’s bond-servants astray so that they were committing acts of immorality and eating things sacrificed to idols. We are not told the specific content of her false teaching, but it led a majority of the believers in Thyatira astray from truth and righteousness. True Christians can fall into sexual immorality and idolatry, and we see that happening even today. If these were not true Christians, the Lord Jesus would not have called them His bond-servants. To lead Christians into false doctrine or immoral living is sin and the Lord Jesus, the righteous judge will punish such sin. In the case of the Jezebel of the Old Testament, she died in a very gruesome death. God in His mercy and grace had given this false prophetess time to repent, but Jesus says she did not want to repent of her immorality. This refusal to repent meant that swift judgment would come upon her and Jesus says that He will cast her on a bed of sickness. This phrase bed of sickness most likely refers to her death and then hell, a place of torment, the ultimate place for those who refuse to repent.

Jesus also warns those who have gone astray with this Jezebel. Jesus refers to their following after her as committing adultery with her because they strayed from their relationship with the Lord Jesus, the covenant relationship He has with His bride, and the church. Because they are believers, He does not threaten to send them to hell, but to cast them into great tribulation, or into distress and trouble. Jesus, the righteous judge, continues to tell how He will purify this church by killing her children with pestilence. This refers to her adherents who were in the church, but I do not believe they were true believers because Jesus refers to them as her children. He would remove any that might rise up after her and carry on her work of false teaching. Jesus says that by this judgment, by this purifying of His church, all the churches would know that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is He who searches the minds and hearts, and gives to each one according to your deeds. He knows your heart. He knows if you are truly His and if you have fallen into sin and if you have repented. He knows the minds and hearts of each one of us and whether or not we have sin that needs to be dealt with. Just know that He will chasten us with tribulation to bring us to that place of repentance or He will remove us from this earth so that we do not tarnish the testimony of Jesus Christ. 

THE COMMAND (Revelation 2:24-25)