Christ's Message to His Church: Thyatira Revelation 2:18-29

Churches. He has addressed the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum, where he gave each of them a specific evaluation. To Ephesus, Jesus told them that they were a sound, doctrinal church, but they had grown cold over the years.

They were missing the most important thing. They had forgotten to love the Lord. Jesus told them that they needed to return to the love that they had at first, and this was a call for us as well to do the same.

How important it is not only to understand doctrine, but to love the Lord with all of our heart. Then we saw Jesus address the church in Smyrna. What is interesting about Jesus' evaluation to this church is that he doesn't say anything negative to them.

He starts by telling them that they showed their spiritual richness by faithfully enduring opposition, and Jesus told them that more opposition was soon to come, and he told them to faithfully endure that opposition as well.

And as they did this, they would receive the crown of life. Then last week we saw Jesus address the church in Pergamum. This church, like the church in Ephesus, had positives and negatives. Like the church in Smyrna, some in this church had endured opposition, and one of their pastors, Antipas, was even martyred for his faith in Jesus.

But this church had serious issues. They were tolerating Satan's work through certain false teachings right in the midst of their church, and Jesus tells them to repent and deal with it. And if they didn't deal with it, he would come and drive out these idolaters from their church.

So these are the first three churches we have seen. Now we will see the fourth of seven churches this morning. The fourth church is the church in Thyatira, and once again, Jesus has a message for us to hear from his evaluation to this church.

So at this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Revelation 2. We will be looking at verses 18 through 29, and if you do not have a Bible with you, we do have those red Bibles that you can use to follow along with.

This sermon is once again titled Christ's Message to His Church, and this edition is Thyatira. And because this is a little bit of a longer text, I am not going to read the text to start out. We are going to go through it as we go.

But here is our big idea. Understand that even the best churches possess glaring weaknesses. Understand that even the best churches possess glaring weaknesses, and we are going to see one reason why as we go through this.

Once again, Jesus has the same words to the church in Thyatira as he does with the first three churches, as we will see with the remaining churches as well. He always starts with an introduction as he is talking to them.

So this is what he says in the first verse, verse 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.

He addresses the angel of the church, which I have explained is the pastor of the church. This is not a spirit being sent from heaven. This is the elder. This is the pastor, the shepherd. And what is supposed to happen is that as Jesus gives this instruction to the shepherd, the shepherd is supposed to then pass this on to the rest of the church.

And this fourth church that he addresses is Thyatira. Thyatira was located like Smyrna and Pergamum in modern day Asia Minor. This city is still around today in modern day Turkey, but it goes by a different name, Akasar.

The city was located in between Pergamum, the church we looked at one week ago, and Sardis, the church we're going to look at next Sunday. At the time of Jesus' address to this church, they had been under Roman rule for three centuries.

This city interestingly was located in a valley, which is rare. Typically in ancient times churches were not located in valleys because if you're located in a valley, you're vulnerable. You're vulnerable to outside invaders coming in.

Typically they're built on a hill or they're built on a mountain. Jerusalem, for example, is built on a mountain. It's for protection. But Thyatira was located in a valley. And because it was so vulnerable, it actually was destroyed several times and then it had to be rebuilt.

Historically, it was established as a military base to protect Pergamum during the days when Alexander the Great conquered this area. But as we see with their existence here, it remained as a city long after the Greco-Macedonian Empire was gone.

The only other time Thyatira is mentioned in scripture is in Acts 16 .14. This is where Lydia was from. Lydia was converted through the Apostle Paul's ministry. Like the other cities we have looked at in Jesus' address to the churches, false religion was also prominent in Thyatira as well.

Now while the city suffered many military defeats, they were successful economically through the production and selling of metal and fabrics. In this business of metals and fabrics, the merchants believed gods helped their businesses prosper.

So what they did is they established all these festivals where these gods would be worshipped. But as we focus on Jesus' introduction to this church, he once again describes something glorious concerning himself.

He does this in all of his addresses to the seven churches of Revelation. To Thyatira, he calls himself the Son of God and then describes that he has eyes like a flame of fire and he has feet like burnished bronze.

Just as we saw one week ago, we already saw Jesus give this description concerning himself. In chapter 1 verses 14 and 15, as the Apostle John was in the glorious presence of Christ, he said that Jesus' appearance, his eyes were like a flame of fire.

This is how he described him. He said that his feet were like burnished bronze. What we have seen in the first three addresses to the churches is that whatever Jesus says concerning himself as he introduces to these churches, everything that he says specifically applies to the church that he is addressing.

So we're going to see that as we go through this. We're going to see why does he say that his eyes are like a flame of fire? Why does he say that his feet were like burnished bronze? We are going to see that as we go through this.

The description of his eyes being like a flame of fire and his feet being like burnished bronze communicates his power over his enemies. Through his fiery eyes, he sees whatever they're doing. He sees the wicked things they're doing.

And as he sees the wicked things they're doing, he's going to bring them under his judgment. And his feet being like burnished bronze highlights that he crushes his enemies. You see this in Genesis 3 .15.

He crushes the head of the serpent. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 .25 that he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. And as we go through this text, we will see how this glorious description is precisely what this church needed to hear.

Now we get to the specifics of his address to this church. And let's start in verse 19 where once again, Jesus in his typical fashion as he addresses these churches gives a sandwich approach. Starts with positive, then he goes negative.

So he starts in verse 19 by saying the positive. He says, I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance and that your latter works exceed the first. Once again, Jesus opens with this church as he did with the other churches by saying that he knows something about them.

Once again, he knows because he's not just a man, he is God. We worship Jesus because he is God. And as God, he is full knowledge concerning what is happening at each of these churches. He starts off by saying some very good things about this church.

He tells the church in Thyatira that he has seen their works of love and faith and service and patient endurance. And he also tells them that their latter works exceed the first. These are all positives.

And let me break down each of these words of commendation that he gives them. First, Jesus tells this church that they are doing great in the area of love. Do you remember which church failed in this area?

It was the first church we looked at, the church in Ephesus. Remember Jesus, as I already explained in the introduction, he told the church in Ephesus, you had forgotten your first love. They were doctrinally sound, but they missed the whole point of doctrine.

The whole point of doctrine is to love God. It was a church marked by cold theology. Remember, I explained to you that I have been to churches that were known for being rock solid theologically, but then nobody would say hi to me.

You go to a church like that, they're known for their doctrine and there's just not a warm environment there. And a warm environment should be there if you're loving God. Because as we love God, we'll love people.

That's one of the greatest evidences that we love God. Churches that get too caught up in doctrine can miss the point of doctrine. So this church in Thyatira was doing well in the area of love and Jesus commends them for this.

When visitors from the outside came to their church, they would have seen that this is a loving place. When you think about it, the church should be the most loving place there is. Because it is a gathering where people who truly know how to love are able to exercise that love with the others in the church.

It is a place where the outpouring of love for the Lord is shown in love for one another. Many of you know this, but a couple of my sermons go on the radio every month on EZ 104 .9. And by the way, Mark and Brianna are on there as well.

They open and close the sermon that is aired on there with the song, I Saw the Light. And they sound wonderful. But the gentleman who produces the sermons, a wonderful Christian man by the name of Preston, he plays an invitation during the week to invite people to come to our church.

With my voice, and this is what I say, this is Pastor Seth from Eureka Baptist Church in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. I welcome you to join us. Okay, let me back up here. Thankfully it's not that bad on the radio.

I welcome you to join us this Sunday morning at 10 a .m. We are a Bible-believing church that has a warm and friendly environment that aims to shine the light of Christ in our community. That's what it says.

I say this about our church because I believe that this describes our church. And may we grow in our love for the Lord and our love for one another more and more. Thyatira was a loving church. They loved God and they loved one another.

And Jesus praises them for this. He not only has seen the love this church has shown, he also has seen their faith. This is a church strong in faith and also a servant's heart that flows from that faith.

So how is faith shown in a church? A church full of faith is a church that believes God is going to do great things in their midst. They pray for God to do great things. They believe and plan for God to do great things.

These churches have a strong confidence in the word of God, that God is going to do what he has promised to do both in the now and eternity future. They long for the day when Christ returns. They long for the day when they dwell with Christ in his kingdom.

These churches long for people to be saved. And they pray for this. And they share the gospel with unbelievers. And they see some unbelievers come to faith in Christ. They long to grow in their walk with the Lord.

And they pray for this. And they do grow in holiness. Churches full of faith don't think small. They think big. I love seeing the people at Eureka Baptist full of faith. We have many and may we as a church grow in faith more and more.

We don't think we're little old Eureka. What could possibly happen here? We believe God is going to do great things here and we see him do it. We have already seen the Lord do great things and we believe he will do more in the future.

Over a week ago I had an interesting conversation with one of Betty Jensen's sons. For those of you who don't know who Betty Jensen was, she was a long time member who passed away in December and her memorial is coming up in June.

Betty's son Dave was in this church in the 70s and he said that in the 70s the church started to wane a bit. It waned from the time when the church was its largest. He said and Susan Mattson remembers this and actually Patsy Anderson remembers this, that the most visibly fruitful years of Eureka Baptist in its 142 year history were in the 50s and 60s.

You can see it in pictures. It's packed. In fact, the Mattson building was built in the 50s for more space. Betty Jensen's son and his wife told me that as an old Eureka Baptist member how excited he is with what is happening in this church right now.

Through that conversation what I discovered is that this church is at its biggest point since the 60s. We don't say that out of pride, but just to recognize what God is doing. Let me be very clear on that.

It's God's work. He's doing it. We're his instruments in this. What the Lord is doing in his kindness is building a church with people full of faith and service that flows from that faith like Thyatira, a church that believes that God will do great things.

Jesus wants us to be like that. We pray for that and we pour ourselves into the ministry of this church that the Lord would use this church to be a shining light in this community for Christ's sake. Now lastly, Jesus compliments Thyatira in another area in verse 19.

Like Smyrna and Pergamum, they were faithful in the midst of opposition. As we saw the last two Sundays, he is very pleased with the church that stands with him faithfully when persecution from a hostile world arises.

So this church is a loving church, full of faith, full of service and is enduring hostility from the outside world. But Jesus is not done. He also says this about them. They not only are displaying these virtues, they are also growing in them.

As he says once again at the end of verse 19, your latter works exceed the first. This is different than what Jesus said to Ephesus. Ephesus had waned over time. Their love had waned for the Lord. What he says about Thyatira is that you're getting better.

You're growing in these areas. You're growing in love. You're growing in faith. You're growing in service. You're growing in your opposition to the world. Your latter works exceed the first. They have done what 2 Peter 1 -5 -8 calls Christians to do.

Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thyatira was not content with their young faith, which many Christians fall prey to.

They were not once in a growing place and had waned from that like Ephesus. No, this church was continuing to grow and Jesus commends them for this. And it is a call for all of us individually and us as a church not to be mediocre.

Not to be mediocre in our faith. It's depressing if we just stay in the same place. If we stay there individually. If we stay there as a church. If we just go through the motions. Nobody wants to be in that place.

And Jesus is saying don't do that. Be like this church. Grow in love. Grow in faith. Grow in endurance. Grow in faithful service. So this is the positive that Jesus has explained. But here comes the negative in his sandwich approach.

Let's see this in verse 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.

Last week we saw that Jesus had a few things against the church in Pergamum. Now this church, not far from Pergamum, he has one thing against them. It is only one thing, but it's a big thing. What Jesus tells them is that they have tolerated a woman named Jezebel.

This would have been a woman that everyone in this church would have known. And she calls herself a prophetess. Now some Bible interpreters do not think this woman was actually named Jezebel, but was given this name because she resembled the evil Jezebel from the Old Testament.

In 1 Kings Jezebel marries King Ahab and she forced the northern kingdom of Israel to worship the false god Baal. Just as Jezebel imposed worship of idols and immorality upon the people of Israel, so this prophetess, this so-called prophetess in Thyatira did the same to this church.

She may have been named Jezebel, we don't know that, and it doesn't matter. She was much like the wicked wife of the king in the Old Testament. Once again the culture had made its way into the church and the theme continues as to what kind of false religion made its way in.

Over the last two weeks in Jesus' address to the churches, he has named the different false religions that have made their way into the churches. We have seen the Nicolaitans in two different churches and the ancient influence of Balaam in one.

And frankly, these two different false religions go by different names, but they are really doing the same thing. By the way, this happens with false religions. Sometimes they're repackaged. There was a false religion in early church history, it was called Arianism.

Arianism was the belief that Jesus was the first created being. So he's not eternal, he was created. And he's God with a small G, not a big G. What false religion sounds like that today? JWs, Jehovah's Witnesses, that's exactly what they believe.

There's different beliefs of course, but it's just repackaged into something new. And what we see here is Nicolaitans, or the teaching of Balaam, or this prophetess Jezebel. There's some differences, yes, but they're really going after the same thing.

All of these lead to the same thing, which is professing Christians engaging in sexual immorality. Giving them permission to engage in this, which is obviously a clear no-no in scripture. And this is what Jezebel was doing.

The culture made its way into the church. Earlier I mentioned that Thyatira was a place where precious metals were sold and fabrics, and they worshiped gods who supposedly prospered these businesses, and they put on feasts to these gods, and at these feasts they practiced sexual immorality.

And Jezebel, whether she came from the outside or did this from the inside, brought this into the church in Thyatira. Some in the church, like the outside pagan culture, were practicing sexual immorality and eating feast-sacrificed idols, as Jesus says here.

Jezebel does not come to the church in Thyatira as a godless pagan. And that's what's so dangerous about her. She doesn't come as this godless pagan who says, I want to convince you, because she's not going to be effective in doing that.

She comes as one coming on behalf of God. She calls herself a prophetess. She comes as a professing Christian. She says, oh yeah, I'm a Christian. But she teaches what is contrary to what this teaches.

In the Bible, prophets and prophetesses did what? They spoke on behalf of God. It is a fearful thing when one is claiming to speak on behalf of God, but they're really spreading their own teaching and their own way of living.

They have an agenda. And they use the Bible, they twist it to say what they want it to say, not what it actually says. James 3 .1 says this, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Sometimes people from the outside world, they come up to pastors and they say, so what creativity, what are you going to come up with this Sunday? When you stand before the people and behind the pulpit, what are you going to talk about?

And it's pretty simple. We're talking about Revelation 2 verses 18 through 29. Whatever this says, that's what I need to communicate to you. We don't need creativity. We don't need agendas. We just need the Bible.

We need the word of God. What's interesting is that the one who wrote the letter of James is Jesus' half-brother James. He was a pastor and he knew how serious it was to teach what God had spoken. The one who teaches the word of God better say what God has spoken.

That's your responsibility. But false prophets don't care. They twist the scriptures and at the end of the day, they just want to communicate their own teaching. They want to push their own agenda. And like Balaam's teaching and the teaching of the Nicolaitans, it was all about abusing God's grace.

Using God's grace for what it was never meant to be used for. Sinning. A license to sin. And by the way, we see this in our day. Christ saves me. I can just do whatever I want. But what does the Apostle Paul say in Romans 6 .1?

Shall we go on sinning that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? You can't. When you believe in Jesus, he sets you free from sin. In heaven one day, there will be no sin.

We sang that this morning. Oh that day when free from sinning, we shall see thy lovely face. Clothed then in blood washed linen, we shall sing thy sovereign grace. A day is coming when, as a Christian, you will not sin.

Which is a beautiful thing because all sin leads to is pain and suffering. And righteousness leads to joy and blessing. He sets you free. So any teaching that says you can just sin as much as you want because God will forgive you is a false teaching.

First John 3 .9 says no one born of God makes a practice of sinning. It doesn't mean you don't sin. Of course we still sin. We need to put our sins to death. But no one born of God sins comfortably. Like you can just go do it.

It is God's plan to move us away from sin to righteousness. And one day you will be completely righteous. But what the self-proclaimed prophetess Jezebel is saying is in your freedom, practice sexual immorality and take part in feasts where false gods are celebrated.

Oh you can worship Jesus but worship these gods as well. Once again we see henotheism. We saw this one week ago. Henotheism is one God is preferred, the God of the Bible, but we're going to go worship all these other gods as well.

So as Jesus has witnessed this, of course he knows everything, he's seen what this church has done, he is furious. And what he tells this church is that he has grown impatient with her, in verse 21, I gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

So Jesus has given her time but she hasn't repented. And what this tells us is that the Lord is patient but he's not patient forever. This false prophetess was doing enormously evil things and Jesus waited for a time but the time of waiting was over.

This is what he says in the beginning of verse 22 and the first half of verse 23. He says, behold I will throw her onto a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation.

And then verse 23 he says, and I will strike her children dead. What he's saying is that there's no more waiting for this prophetess but judgment is coming upon her. There's an old saying, he made his bed now he must lie in it.

In the Greek in the beginning of verse 22 it does not say sick bed, the word sick is added by the translator it just says bed. What Jesus is saying is that he will be throwing her into a bed. What is this bed?

This bed is hell. The place where she will lie forever. And what a sobering thought this is. Truly people do make their own beds. No one in hell has the right to say I don't deserve to be here. It's not fair.

People make their choice and those in hell will ponder forever the choice they made to reject Jesus as Lord and Savior and go their own way. For this prophetess resembling Jezebel the time to repent had passed and now the day of judgment had come for her and she would be under God's judgment forever.

Her children would also experience the same judgment as the first half of verse 23 says. And please understand these are not little children but rather adult children. Adult children who followed in her teachings, who followed in her sinful way of living.

The time for this false prophetess and her children has passed but as Jesus addresses this church there are still some who have time to repent as he says in the remainder of verse 22. Once again he says here and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works.

What Jesus says here is that those within the church influenced by her false teaching and false living still have time to come clean. Today is the day of salvation. Otherwise this judgment brought upon Jezebel would also be brought upon them.

In this church there were probably two camps influenced by her teaching. One camp were unbelievers who professed Christ but because they were truly unbelievers were easily seduced by her teaching. But there's also a camp of believers within the church who were seduced and had gone down this path and this can happen.

And I say this because in verse 22 Jesus says that this prophetess seduced his servants. But whether these people in the church were believers or not they needed to repent immediately. Some to salvation and others to restore this fractured relationship that they have with God.

And if they did not repent they would be like the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 11 that describes people eating the Lord's supper in the wrong way. And what the Lord did is he brought judgment upon them by some of them getting sick and some of them even dying.

To the unbelievers who did not repent their judgment would be the same as Jezebel's. They would be sent to hell. For the believers who did not repent God would bring them under his discipline. Jesus is not just angry at those committing this sin.

At those committing Jezebel's sin at Thyatira. He's also angry just like we saw one week ago. He was angry with Pergamum one week ago because they tolerated false teaching in their midst. And this church is doing the same thing.

At the beginning of verse 20 Jesus tells them that what he has against them is their toleration of this woman her teaching and the immoral lifestyle that resulted. And what did this church fail to do?

Because there's people in the church not doing this. They didn't follow her teaching. They didn't practice these sins. So why is Jesus angry at them? He's angry at them because they failed to practice church discipline with Jezebel and the unrepentant that followed her.

Every healthy church practices church discipline when a situation calls for it. In Matthew 18 Jesus tells us how this is done. It starts with one person going to the person who committed the sin. Then if the person doesn't repent then the person brings along one or two others.

So then there's two or three who go to the person. And if the person still doesn't repent then you tell it to the church. And then if they don't listen to the whole church then that person is removed from the fellowship.

It's not popular to practice this of course in our modern day. But this is what the Bible teaches. And this church did not do this. And we saw earlier how pleased Jesus was with this church in many ways.

They were loving. They were faithful. They endured persecution. They were full of faithful service. But there was a handful of people in the corner of this church who were following this wicked woman who called herself a prophetess.

They were so focused on doing good things and they did not do the hard thing. The courageous thing of dealing with the wicked that had crept into their church. So Jesus makes it very clear to Thyatira and every church including Eureka Baptist to be ready and willing to practice church discipline when those times arise which hopefully do not.

But if they do it must be done as Jesus instructed. It is important to understand that when Jesus brings judgment upon a church it sends shock waves through the rest of the churches as he says in the remainder of verse 23.

He says I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works. When Jesus brings judgment down on a church he sends a message to the rest of the churches and that message is that they must not tolerate sin.

I remember my old pastor telling me one time it is not the presence of sin that is the problem. It is the lack of repentance. So when I say we should not tolerate sin I am not saying nobody can sin we are going to.

It is inevitable. We have a sinful nature. It is going to happen and by God's grace we want to do less of it. We want to kill it in our lives. But what must be present in a healthy church is repentance.

It is saying I am wrong. I messed up. Please forgive me. And we tell it to the Lord first and foremost and if we wrong someone else we tell it to that person. Healthy churches are humble churches. They are willing to bring themselves to their knees and say I am sorry.

I am sorry Lord. I am sorry that I have been living this way. Repentance needs to be at the center of a healthy church. And in this way the Lord is pleased. Now in a more general sense if you are saved the Lord is always pleased with you because you have the righteousness of Christ.

We sang that this morning. His robes for mine. We have his righteousness. But in another sense he is more pleased with you if you obey him. If you are walking in his ways faithfully. And he calls us to do that and he is disappointed in Thyatira.

In one sense he is overjoyed with him and all the good things to do. But he is disappointed. He is saying why are you not dealing with this woman, this prophetess who is doing all of these horrible things in your church.

He cares that his churches pursue purity and do not tolerate these kinds of sins. So we have seen Jesus start with the strong compliments and then he moves to the strong rebuke. But then he closes in line with the sandwich approach with a positive in verses 24 and 25.

This is what he says. 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.

Only hold fast what you have until I come. Here he is addressing those who have not followed the teaching of this prophetess, this false prophetess. They have not followed what Jesus calls the deep things of Satan.

He calls it this because once again this is what false religion truly is. They are lies put before people that only lead one to destruction. And what he tells those who have not gone after this is that he lays on them no other burden.

The only burden is to not tolerate this false teaching and false living within the church. Otherwise, as he has already said, they are doing well. Keep doing it. They are a loving church, a church full of faith and service, a church that endures persecution.

And not only that, they are continuing to grow in these areas. Remember he says their latter works have exceeded the first. They are to continue in this. They are to hold fast all the way to the end. Then Jesus reminds them of the reward that awaits them as they listen to him in verses 26 and 27.

He says the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron. As when earth and pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.

What Jesus says to Thyatira and to all churches and to our church is that as we persevere in faithfulness, what you must understand is that one day you will rule the nations. This is a reward that will be yours.

And what is he referring to specifically? This is referring to what Revelation 20 describes, the one thousand years when Christ will reign with his people. He's going to reign with his people from Jerusalem for a thousand years and then after the one thousand years are over, he's going to reign with his people in what's called the eternal state.