Introduction

Even though the calendar says that summer is not over till September 21, in reality Labor Day marks the end of summer for most of us. Since summer doesn't end till tomorrow, there is no point in going back to 1 Samuel today.

The letter to the church in Thyatira is the middle letter of the seven letters given to the apostle John directly by Jesus.

I. A Word about All the Seven Letters.

§ They are addressed to the angel of each church who is the leading pastor of each church; the messenger of God to that church.

§ They have one element of the great vision of the glorified Christ in chapter 1.

§ They have commendations from the Lord of the church.

§ They have admonitions from the Lord of the church.

§ They have a blessing for those who listen to Christ's admonition

§ They end with an exhortation to listen to what the Spirit has said to the churches.

§ The letter to the church in Thyatira is no exception to this structure.

I. Thyatira in History

A. Thyatira was a prosperous manufacturing and trading town but otherwise is the least remarkable of all the cities in Revelation 2-3.

1. It was not the seat of the regional government.

2. It was not the center of imperial worship.

B. It is interesting that the longest and most difficult to interpret letter is addressed to the most historically insignificant church.

C. One of the most significant things about Thyatira was the dominance of trade guilds over the local economy.

1. Every imaginable manufacturing industry was strictly controlled by the guilds.

2. For those who may not know, the guilds would be equivalent of unions today or perhaps strong professional associations that get to dictate how things are done in a particular field and who can do them.

3. In order to work in a trade, you had to belong to the appropriate guild.

a. Thyatira was the equivalent of a "closed shop."

b. You must be a union member to work there.

4. The problem for Christians was that to be a member of a guild meant also to participate in the worship of false gods.

a. Each guild had its patron god.

b. The guilds held their meetings and common meals in the pagan temples.

c. Two central aspects of the pagan worship required by guilds were eating meat sacrificed to idols as such and sexual immorality.

5. You can see that Christians had a problem in this city.

"Any Christian who worked in a craft or trade was thus presented with severe problems: his faithfulness to Christ would affect his calling, his livelihood, and his ability to feed his family." David Chilton

6. Perhaps we don't live in the worst time ever.

D. The local god, the city patron, was Apollo, the son of Zeus.

1. Apollo was considered in Thyatira as the incarnate son of Zeus.

2. This explains why Jesus identifies himself as the Son of God, meaning the true Son of God.

a. He is the one who can know all things (eyes like flame of fire).

b. He is the one who can judge the enemies (feet line fine brass)

E. So Christ speaks to the pastor of the Christians living in this context.

II. The Christians in Thyatira Were Growing in the Lord despite the Circumstances, 19.

A. Their experiential Christianity was warm and growing – love, service, faith.

B. When looking back when they first started their Christian walk, they have grown and are moving in the right direction – the last are more than the first.

C. All these pronouns and verbs are in the singular, referring to the angel/messenger/pastor, but he stands as the representative of the church.

III. Despite This Growth, There Was a Serious Problem: Tolerance, 20

A. The word translated allowin the NKJV is better translated as tolerate.

B. The problem is not necessarily that the majority of the Christians in Thyatira were involved with the problem.

C. But they tolerated it, they didn't do anything about to the point that some of the Christians were now being persuaded by the false views.

D. What did they tolerate? Sexual immorality and worship of false gods.

E. The teacher of this false doctrine is called Jezebel.

1. Notice that she calls herself a prophetess

a. She is claiming to be one of them.

b. She is probably teaching this and saying that it is from the Lord.

c. Perhaps she was teaching that there is only one God, so it doesn't matter how you are worshipping as long as you are worshipping him.

1) "Do you want to worship him by going to the pagan temples? Great!"

2) "Do you want to worship him by commit adultery and fornication? Go right ahead!"

2. Whether her name was actually Jezebel or Christ is using it evoke memories we don't know, but her teaching sure looks like old Jezebel's teaching.

1 Kg. 21:25-26 – But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up. And he behaved very abominably in following idols, according to all thatthe Amorites had done, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

2 Kg. 9:22 – Now it happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?"  So he answered, "What peace, as long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are so many?"

F. Their toleration was putting the entire church in jeopardy and the Lord will not tolerate it.

"Orthodox, Biblical Christianity is intolerant. A church that tolerates evil and false doctrine is a church under judgment; God will no longer tolerate her." David Chilton

1. There is perhaps nothing more counter-cultural than to say that one must be intolerant.

2. Intolerance is the only "sin" in our cultural that is universally acknowledged as deserving of punishment.

3. Yet, we are not called to tolerance, but to obedience.

4. On the other hand, some Christians go out of their way to be offensive so that they can say they have been "persecuted" for the sake of the Gospel.

5. We are called to faithfulness, which will resemble our Lord Jesus Christ who did not tolerate sin but dealt with it lovingly.

IV. Christ Will Not Allow Sin to Go Undealt with, particularly the sin of tolerance, 21-23

A. The Lord points out that he is not being harsh or ungracious, 21.

1. Opportunity was given for her to repent and she chose not to.

2. What the opportunity was, we don't know; perhaps the preaching of the Word.

3. Lessons for us:

a. When God gives us the opportunity to repent, we must grab it and do it because he will deal with sin.

b. Unrepented sin will caused hardness of heart and seared conscience.

Heb. 3:12-13 – Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

1 Tim. 4:1-2 – Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…

B. But punishment will come, 22-23a

1. Jesus is doing a play on words here: since she is so eager to jump in bed with everyone, I am going to throw her into bed; but this one will be a sick bed that will lead to death, 22a.

2. Not only her but all who follow her (her children) will be thrown in bed with her to die with her unless they repent, 22b-23a.

a. The redundancy in v. 23a represents a Hebraism and means I will surely kill them.

b. When this will happen or if it has already happened, it is impossible to figure out.

c. But we know it is certain because Jesus said it.

1) We may be tempted to think that God is not going to do anything about sin.

a) We see the wicked prospering.

b) We see the name of God being reproached.

c) Yet, as far as we can tell nothing is happening to them.

d) It seems that God is not really going to do anything.

2) The Christians in Galatia found themselves in the same situation

a) They were being mocked because they were calling people to repentance, to flee from sin.

b) And the people around them were saying, "What is God going to do? Nothing."

c) They were shaken up by that because it seemed they were right.

d) So Peter writes to them:

2 Pt. 3:1-9 – Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day isas a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

e) Peter is just repeating what our Lord had previously taught.

Mt. 24:36-38 – But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark….

C. Christ's dealing with Jezebel will be a wake up call to the church, 23b.

1. The church will know that there is nothing hidden from Christ (fiery eyes imagery).

2. I think there is something to do also with the people who received the judgment from Christ.

a. Perhaps nobody else knew that they were involved with this type of sin.

b. Yet they were punished by Christ.

c. So Christ knew something that nobody else knew about these people.

d. That is sobering thought for all of us.

1) There is nothing we can hide from God.

2) There is nothing that we do that God doesn't care.

3) We can't run away from God's judgment – Amos 9.

4) On other hand, we can't run away from God's blessings either – Psalm 139.

D. Then the middle, 23c

1. This last sentence is the middle sentence of the middle letter.

2. It is an overlooked sentence because it seems to go against the most beloved doctrine of the Protestant Church: Justification by faith in Christ alone.

3. Yet it is here and God said it, so it must be dealt with.

4. Somehow in a way completely agreeable with the notion that our standing before God is solely based on what Jesus Christ has done for us, he will reward or punish every work we do.

a. So our obedience or disobedience matters.

b. We don't obey just because it is a nice thing to do, but because that matters to how Jesus is going to relate to us.

c. Paul brought these two thoughts together in Romans 5-6

Rom. 5:21-6:2 – … so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

V. Christ Always Blesses Those Who Obey Him, 24-27

A. In the same way that there is a real cost in disobeying Christ, there is a real blessing in obeying him.

B. Christ wants nothing more from them than that they remain faithful, 24b-25.

1. The coming here is not the final, eschatological coming of Christ, but the coming in judgment upon the heretics mentioned in vv. 22-23.

2. Christ will bless them by removing Satan's servants from among them. But there is more…

C. The overcomer, that is, the one who remains faithful to Jesus to end will be co-heir of the nations with Christ, 26-27.

1. Generally amillennialists and postmillennialists take this to mean the rule of Christ through the church in subduing the nations.

2. But I think it refers to something else because of the reference of giving this to those who persevere to end.

a. That is only known at the end.

b. So it seems to be something that could only happen at death, at the earliest.

c. It seems to me that this is something reserved for the final, bodily coming of Christ.

Rev. 19:14-16 – And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

D. He will also receive the morning star, 28.

1. This is a promise of Jesus giving more of himself to those who persevere to the end.

2. This MUST be the greatest attraction of heaven, that we will have more of Jesus who is the morning star.

Rev. 22:16 – I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.

Conclusion

So if you have ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit has said to you. "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely."

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