FBC Morning Light – November 23, 2022

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. Here we are the day before Thanksgiving. Are you getting your Thanksgiving plans underway and all the preparations and so forth? Baking pies, cooking turkey, I don't know what all you do to prepare for Thanksgiving.

Maybe you just have a very simple, quiet Thanksgiving with not a lot of hubbub. But however you experience it, I hope it'll be a time of true giving of thanks and reflecting upon the Lord's gracious kindness and goodness to us in our lives.

Christ’s Self-Description in Revelation 2:18

Well today we're back in the book of Revelation chapter 2 for our scripture reading portion. And remember I pointed out that each of these letters to the seven churches, the Lord is highlighting some truth about himself.

So today, for example, in verse 18 to the church of Thyatira, says these things says the Son of God. There's something that reveals truth about Jesus, that he is the Son of God. In other letter openings, for example, in the first one, he doesn't say anything about him being the Son of God, says he holds the seven stars in his right hand.

To Smyrna, he doesn't say anything about him being the Son of God, but he says he's the first and the last. And he's also the one who is dead and came to life. To the church at Pergamos, again, doesn't say anything about being the Son of God, but it says that he has the sharp two-edged sword.

But now to the church at Thyatira, he says he is the Son of God. And he goes on to further description, who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass. Very descriptive phrases of the Lord Jesus, aren't they?

Eyes like a flame of fire, his feet like fine brass. What does Jesus want us to see about himself in that self-description? Well, I think a couple of things. The feet like fine brass may be a little less clear, but I think it has to do with, one of the things it does is it connects, it makes a connection with the people of Thyatira.

Jesus Sees Through Facades and Searches Hearts

The city of Thyatira was known for its metallurgy, and they had a great metalworks facility there, and so there would be a lot of fine brass being produced in Thyatira. But also, the feet of fine brass, I think would speak of power and authority, as one who, well, later on in verse 27, speaks of Jesus as he shall rule them with a rod of iron, they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels.

He could just step upon them and crush them. But what I want to really zero in on is this description of his eyes like a flame of fire. I think the imagery there is very clear. He has a penetrating vision.

I don't know about you, but I remember when I was a kid, one of the sci-fi things that was portrayed of superheroes is that they had x-ray vision, x-ray vision. They could see through walls, and they could see what was really going on behind even the most difficult thing to penetrate, that x-ray vision.

Well, Jesus has x-ray vision, eyes that are flame of fire. They penetrate through anything and everything. And he tells us later what specifically he's looking at. He says in verse 23, I am he who searches minds and hearts.

I search minds and hearts. So, his penetrating eyes don't just look through walls and so forth. He looks through all of the facade of our lives. He looks through the works of our hands, and he looks at the heart behind them.

He penetrates and searches the minds and the hearts. What is the thought process behind what I'm doing? What are my motives for what I'm doing? What is my heart really about in this work that I'm doing?

What is its love? Do I love God and people? Do I love myself? For us, we may have a hard time honestly answering some of those questions. Jesus has no problem. His eyes penetrate down into the depths of our heart.

His eye penetrates deep into our minds, and he knows, and he knows. And the thing about Thyatira, he pierced his eyes through the works, their love, their service, their faith, their patience in verse 19.

And their works, they had more works at the last than they had at the first. But nevertheless, he saw something. He looked through all of that. He pierced through all of that, and he saw something that was terribly troubling.

And he says, nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. So for all of the outward facade that looked really, really good, and it was really, really good, the Lord's eyes penetrated beneath the surface, and he saw this which would ultimately be destructive to the church.

And he therefore warned the church to get rid of this Jezebel, warns her, whatever the nature of this Jezebel is, warns her to repent, or else she will be destroyed. So what are we learning about Jesus?

The Call to Repentance and Inner Consistency

Well, we're learning that he has eyes to see right through the very facades of our lives, down to the depths of our being. And I trust that what he sees in the depths of our being will be consistent with what is showing to everybody else.

May that be our goal, may that be our desire, may that be our longing. So our Father and our God, I thank you today for the Lord Jesus and what he knows, what he sees, because in his understanding of what we're really like, he can then, by virtue of the work of his Spirit within us, draw us to himself and cause us to get rid of stuff that doesn't belong there, stuff that should be repented of.

And he can mold us and shape us all the more into the image of Christ. May we be eager for that, we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, well have a great Wednesday, and I hope you get all your prep done.