The Corrupt Church - Letter to Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29)

The Problem of Verse-by-Verse Preaching and the Letter to Thyatira

Uh, I think I'm starting to realize why some of the, you know, positive only preachers and like the prosperity people, I'm starting to realize why they don't preach verse by verse through the Bible, because you're just going chapter by chapter, verse by verse, you're just constantly hitting on things that people don't want to hear about, you know, just repent, repent for this, repent for that.

Um, this church is allowing, uh, a female preacher, Jezebel, um, whether that's her name or not to be, uh, teaching the people. I mean, that's, that's a message, no matter what you say about this, someone's feathers are going to be ruffled.

So yeah, I totally get it. Why these guys always do topical messages, uh, because I mean, the scripture is just packed with stuff people don't want to hear. So let's open up once again to revelation chapter two, uh, hopefully you don't mind hearing it, but it's too bad if you don't, if you don't, but, uh, this time we're going to be covering the letter to the church at Thyatira.

So Thyatira is known as the corrupt church, a little background about the city. I guess it was a military outpost. Originally it was founded by soldiers of Alexander the great. So that would have been a few centuries prior to this.

Uh, the only other thing we hear about the city of Thyatira in scripture outside of this letter is there was a woman in the book of Acts, uh, Paul converts Lydia and Lydia is said to be from Thyatira and she was a seller of purple.

So that's the only other time, uh, the Bible mentions this city. So I think we can draw a contrast Lydia from Thyatira. She was a godly woman. Scripture presents her in a very positive way, but there is another woman associated with the city and she is portrayed on a very negative light.

And this woman is called Jezebel, whether that's really her name or she just called that like this, she's a Jezebel, right? Some people would use that as a, you know, whatever, it's a, as negative connotations to say the least, uh, who's Jezebel in the Bible?

Yeah.

So this is the old Testament King Ahab and his evil wife Jezebel who wanted to murder the prophet Elijah. So, uh, again, this woman might not actually be named that, uh, but Jesus is calling her that either way.

The Corrupt Church and the Morning Star

So she was corrupting the church at Thyatira with the things she was teaching. Let's begin reading the letter revelation two, 18 through 29 and to the angel of the church in Thyatira, right? These things says the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire in his feet, like fine brass.

I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patients. And as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess, you allow her to teach and to seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things, uh, sacrifice to idols.

And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality. And she did not repent. Indeed. I will cast her into a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds.

And I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. Now to you, I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on no put on, you know, other burden, but hold fast what you have till I come and he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end to him, I will give power over the nations and he that is Christ.

And he's quoting the old Testament here, uh, Christ shall rule them, the nations with a rod of iron and they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels. As I also have received 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.

Okay.

So Thyatira is the corrupt church. Part of why they're corrupt is this, this woman, this female preacher, prophetess, uh, she's teaching things that she ought not. Uh, but first let's start out with this statement at the end.

I will give him, Jesus says, I will give him the morning star who has in your translation morning star, uh, who has day stars, anyone have day star.

Okay.

Sometimes you'll see morning star or day star. This is a reference to Christ. Christ is the morning star in the old Testament, the morning stars. That's a reference to the angels. But in the new Testament, the morning star singular is Christ himself.

Revelation 22, 16, you might have a cross-reference, uh, specifically identifies Jesus as the bright in morning star and second Peter one 19. It talks about until the day dawns in the morning star rises in your hearts.

So in verses 26 through 28 of revelation to the one who overcomes, they have that enduring faith where they endure. They keep the Lord, uh, the faith of the Lord and his works until the end, uh, they will have Christ.

They will have salvation. That's basically what he's saying. So he's using different terms. Like last time he said, I will give them of the hidden manna to eat this time. I will give them the morning star.

This is just a way of saying, uh, these people who overcome, they're going to rule and reign with me. They're going to be in heaven. They're saved. They have eternal life, just different ways of expressing that.

So this statement of verse 26, he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, uh, once again, uh, this is what I would describe as the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Uh, this is the idea that we believe sometimes it's called once saved, always saved.

Some people put it that way. And I mean, that's true. If a person is saved, they're always going to be saved. Uh, but another way of describing it, maybe a little different, um, perseverance of the.

Saints.

This is the idea that if someone is a true believer, uh, they're going to stay a true.

Believer.

I mean, they're saved and they're going to stay saved until the end. So this is the one who overcomes, they keep the faith. So we also see here, uh, based on what Jesus is saying that just because someone is part of the church, you have those redeemed people who persevere and keep, keep the faith.

But you also see that just because someone's part of the church that really doesn't prove anything because there's all these people, uh, that Jesus is speaking to in the church of Thyatira. And there seems to be a real question about where they stand, uh, with the Lord.

So in any given church, the bigger churches, the more true this is going to be. But in any given church, there's going to be people who truly believe. And then there's others who are, um, their faith is in question or some just flat out.

They're probably not saved. And maybe it's, it's obvious. Um, I've said, I said last week that, uh, when Jesus was talking to the people, uh, in Pergamos and telling them to repent and the same people here that he's telling to repent, he's, Jesus is sort of calling them out, uh, in this letter.

This isn't some private sinner who's dealing with things and they're struggling and they really want victory. They just haven't got victory yet. That's not what's going on here. This is an open rebellion where people are just sinning out in the open.

They're making excuses for it and they just don't seem to care. So it's a little different. That's not to say that if it's secret, it's not a big deal. I'm not saying that, uh, but this is, this is really kind of a high handed, uh, rebellion against Christ.

And why are the people doing this? Well, they've been taught that somehow it's okay. It's okay to kind of send it up because we have grace and, you know, whether it was called the doctrine of the Nicolaitans or the doctrine of Balaam or the doctrine of Jezebel, you know, all kind of different terms to describe, uh, the same thing.

So this is, we call this what there's legalism and the other teaching is license. So it seems like more of the same here in this church.

Yes.

So people that are justifying what they're doing, they know it's wrong on one hand, but then they can justify it on another hand. And so it's okay that way. Is that what you're talking about in this church?

Yeah.

I mean, everyone knows it's happening. It's, it's out in the open. So there's no shame. Like we all know when we do something wrong in a Christian who's walking with Christ when they sin, they're not proud of it, right?

You feel some shame. Well, these people are sinning.

Yeah.

It's out in the open and they don't seem to feel bad. And not only that, there's a teacher in the church, you know, seemingly twisting the Bible to say, well, the Bible says this is okay. So it's, it's at a whole other level.

Okay.

So people seem to be this woman, Jezebel, she seems to be intentionally, you know, maybe she's deceived. Maybe she's bought her, bought into her own, her own press, maybe, but intentionally twisting the scriptures in order to excuse the inexcusable.

So I know we live in a time and I've talked about this before, and I know there's probably still some people who don't totally agree with me on this, but I know that I thought this way, cause I've just heard it my whole life, that a lot of evangelicals have been taught that all sin is sin.

Therefore all sin is equally sinful. So you're a sinner. I'm a sinner. We're all sinners and all sin is kind of the same. It's equally sinful. That is completely false. There are some sins that are way, way worse than others.

If you, if you want to disagree with that, that's fine. I can go over the verses Jesus told, was it Herod? No, it was Pontius Pilate. He said, the Jews who turned me over to you, they have the greater sin.

So he recognized there are some sins that are worse. There's the unpardonable sin, which is worse than all the others, right? It was at James that talked about a sin leading to death and a sin that does not lead to death.

There's that first John five, either way. There's just a whole bunch of things in the Bible that a whole bunch of verses that let us know that some things are, are more serious than others. But people have the idea that all sin is equally sinful.

So, you know, Hey, yeah, there's people in the church here in Thyatira that are doing things wrong, but I mean, you do things wrong too. And I mean, even the apostle John is a sinner. So what's the big deal.

See, that is, that is one way people justify rebellion, that it's all the same and everyone does it. So it's not, not a big, they might not say it's not a big deal, but that's kind of how it comes across.

So we looked at the church in Smyrna, right? Jesus had nothing bad to say about them. Are we to believe, remember we looked at that? They're the persecuted church. Were there any warnings given to that church?

No, there wasn't.

Right.

Can I get a witness? Was there any warnings?

No.

Are we to believe that not a single person in the church in Smyrna was sinning? Were they a sinless church? No, of course people in that church were sinning, but it wasn't rising to that level where Jesus is like threatening the church to take away their candlestick.

I mean, this is proof that you can do things that are so bad, it crosses a line. So the point being some of the church members, whether it was in Pergamos last week or in Thyatira tonight, their behavior was worse.

And number one, they felt no remorse over it. And number two, they didn't feel remorse or shame because they didn't feel that they were doing it out in the open. And number three, they're making excuses for it.

All right.

Any questions so far? And if you want to disagree with me on the all sin is sin thing, I mean, you can make your argument, but I think I have enough verses and let me just give what I think someone might say.

They'll say, well, any sin is serious enough that Jesus had to die, right? Like Adam ate the fruit and that was serious enough to cast the whole human race into darkness. I mean, it's true that any sin is serious enough to break that fellowship between man.

And God.

But there are different levels of seriousness.

But anyone who breaks even one part of the law is guilty of breaking all of it.

Right, right.

Yeah.

I mean, if you commit one, how many sins does it take to make you a sinner?

One.

Right.

I mean, that's what's being said. But there were some laws in Israel. If you violated the law of Moses in this area, you were put to death. It was a capital crime. There were other laws that if you, it's a sin, but there was no penalty.

Others you might have to pay back. So there's different levels.

Okay.

But anyways, this is so serious. Jesus is threatening. Oh, well, he's threatening to kill the church members. I will strike some of your children with death. Does he say that? He didn't say that to the church in Smyrna.

So that's the point I'm trying to make.

Christ’s Search of the Heart and His Judgment on the Churches

Okay.

So let's go through these verses and to the angel of the church in Thyatira, right? So this is Jesus. Again, speaking to the pastor of the church. If you have a red letter Bible, I know I've repeated this more than once, but red letter Bible, it's Christ speaking.

And the reason why it's important here is because he identifies himself as what? In this first verse, he calls himself what? The son of God.

Okay.

So there will be people, you know, skeptics, whatever. And they will say that Jesus never claimed to be God. Jesus never claimed to be the son of God. Have you heard people say that?

Okay.

Well, here again, written in red letters, it's Jesus calling himself the son of God. So Jesus is speaking of himself in the third person. These things says the son of God. So that's significant. He says in the, let's see.

He once again brings up the eyes like a flame of fire, and he describes what that is. The second half of verse 23, he says, so that all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts.

Now who's familiar? Well, I know everyone is aware of Superman, right? Who maybe read the Superman comics or saw the movie. You don't have to raise your hand if you don't want, but one thing about Superman, you know, he had superhuman strength, but he also had what?

Right.

X-ray vision. So he could see through walls. He could see through like, look into a safe and see.

Yeah.

All right.

Unless it's made of lead. Well, Jesus has not X-ray vision, although I'm sure Jesus could see through something if he wanted to, but Jesus can see through the heart, right? He can see through the mind.

When he was on earth during his earthly ministry, he knew men's thoughts. He knew their motivations. So Jesus with the eyes, like a flame of fire, think of it as like the, the X-ray vision that he can just see through anything.

He knows what people are thinking. So we're getting a reminder here that in these letters, Jesus has perfect knowledge of his churches and everybody in them. So just as he's judge over all the earth, Jesus is evaluating his churches, the seven churches, and really I'm sure with all churches.

So he evaluates the church in Pergamos. He found that they were compromising. He's evaluating the church in Thyatira. He finds that they're corrupt. He evaluates the church in Sardis. He's going to find that they're dead.

Then he evaluates the church in Philadelphia and he finds them to be faithful. So he's, he's, he's got the eyes like a flame of fire. That's what that means. And knowing that Christians would read this book for the rest of the church age.

So we've been reading it now for 1900 years. Every time the book of Revelation is read in a local church or studied or preached, I mean, this should be a reminder to the pastor first and then to everybody else that Jesus knows everything.

He sees everything. And if we really live in light of that, it should be a sanctifying thought. I think for some people, that's a scary thought that Jesus knows everything.

Okay.

But it should be a sanctifying thought because if we live in light of that truth, it should help us to not only do the right thing. It should help us to have the right motivation because you can do the right things, but your heart really isn't in it.

We want Jesus to see us that we're doing the right things and we're doing it for the right reasons that we have the right motivation. So the eyes like a flame of fire, and then it describes his feet like what?

Okay.

So the eyes as a flame of fire is a little easier to determine what that means. The feet like fine brass, that's a little more difficult to discern what it means. Who knows what that means? His feet look like fine brass as like refined in the fire.

Yeah.

So I had to look because it's not obvious to most people, unless you've been comparing scripture, studying scripture daily for 30 years. I mean, it's just not clear in the text what this means. So I looked up this verse and a few commentaries.

John MacArthur writes that brass is a reference to divine judgment. Of course, I read that. I'm like, well, why?

What?

The trumpets.

Okay.

Trumpets are made of brass.

Okay.

That's a good thought. A few other commentaries say that the feet of brass speak of how Christ will trample his, he will trample down everything, including his enemies. He will trample everything impure.

So basically all the commentary said more or less the same thing. He's going to trample everything that's impure divine judgment. So probably what it means, but I can't say for certain. Verse 19, he has plenty of good things to say about this church.

I mean, they are the corrupt church, but that's just a small segment. Let's say that's 23 of the church is corrupt or whatever, but maybe the majority of the church is actually doing a great job. Look what he says.

I know your works. Verse 19, I know your love, your service, your faith, and your patience. And as for your works, the last are more than the first. So you can look at this as like a contrast with the church at Ephesus.

Remember Jesus had some good things to say about the church at Ephesus. Actually, he said some of the same exact things, but then he said, but you've left your first.

Love.

So you're doing the right things, but you're headed in the wrong direction because your heart isn't in it. This church, they're doing the same things, the right things, but he says the last are more than the first.

So while Ephesus was moving in the wrong direction, Thyatira was actually moving in the right direction. Another translation puts that verse this way. I can see your constant improvement in all things.

So, I mean, if you're a church member, you're the pastor and you hear Jesus say that about you, that you're doing these wonderful things and you're just getting better over time, you're going to be feeling pretty good.

We're happy to get this letter until you read that next verse, the next part. Nevertheless, here comes what they're doing wrong. Verse 20. Nevertheless, Jesus says, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

That is the exact same thing that he said last time to the church at Pergamos. Sexual immorality, things, you know, eat meat sacrificed to idols. So same problem, it seems, and we already identified that as they were teaching license.

Okay.

So we don't, I kind of wish he would describe it in a little more detail, but we're kind of left to put the pieces together. Somehow we know because Paul addressed this as well. Somehow they were saying that the grace of God allows them or permits them to, you know, be free and do all these things that they probably shouldn't have been doing.

Have you ever run into that? Someone who, they say they're a Christian and they say that their liberty, their freedom in Christ allows them to do something and you're listening, you're like, that's not, you shouldn't be doing that.

Has anyone ever run into that?

Okay.

So it really sounds familiar, like the doctrine of Balaam. So it's some sort of license, teaching of license. I've often heard a viewpoint like this. I mean, not that often, but I've heard it enough. Someone will say something like this.

They'll say, well, you know, in the Old Testament, God was pretty angry. God in the Old Testament had wrath. You know, after all, he rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah and he, you know, devastated Egypt with the plagues.

He killed the firstborn. He told the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites. Back in the Old Testament, God was pretty harsh. But in the New Testament, I mean, God, now that we're under grace, God is just kind of, you know, eased up a little bit, right?

You've heard something to that effect. You know, and you might even say there's a little kernel of truth in all of that. But people say now that we're under the new covenant, now that we're under grace, not under law, we're under grace.

That's a common verse, Romans 6, 14. People say it's not about keeping rules. It's not about keeping the commandments. It's about a relationship. Again, there's truth in that. But the part that's wrong is like, who cares if you're obeying God's commandments?

I mean, that seems to be what people are downplaying. And some do downplay it because they know they're breaking the commandments and they don't want to talk about it. Other people can say that same type of stuff.

And again, there's some truth. With every lie, there's a little bit of truth in every lie, right? So you can take this. And just because somebody says that doesn't mean they're wrong or trying to teach false.

Doctrine.

But at the same time, you can kind of twist that as an excuse to sin. Any comments? Or do you think I'm off base with that? Like I said, I've heard enough of that over the years. I think that's pretty accurate.

So the Doctrine of Balaam, the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans. We could call this the Doctrine of Jezebel. He doesn't call it that, but that's what I'm going to call it, okay? So cheap grace, antinomianism, all sorts of different names for it.

Any other names that you know? Cheap grace, easy believism.

False Teaching, Female Preaching, and Jezebel’s Claim to Prophecy

Okay.

So we see that this is what they're doing. And he says in verse 20, let's get to the source. He seems to be placing the blame on this woman, Jezebel. So people are doing this because of her. Is that what you're getting from this?

Okay.

Jezebel gets the blame. So in verse 20, Jesus rebukes the church. He says that you're allowing this woman Jezebel to teach. So to me, and I'm not going to bet my life on this, but it doesn't seem solely the fact that she's teaching false doctrine.

It's the fact that she's teaching in the first place. Now, I realize this is politically incorrect to say in the year 2023, but when Jesus set up his church, like I told you, preaching verse by verse, you come across things that people don't want to hear.

So this is just another one of those things. But when Jesus set up his church, he ordained 12 men to be apostles. There wasn't a woman in the group. That's just the way it was. And when the apostles laid hands on people to ordain them as bishops or elders or even deacons in the church, again, it was men.

And if you look at church history, literally for 1900 years, right up until the Pentecostal movement, there's not a single female ordained to pastoral ministry in all of church history. You could find some sect or cult, maybe like the Shakers, but it just wasn't done, Catholics or Protestants.

So, I mean, that's not even debatable. Again, I realize it's unpopular. So I think part of that is the fact that they're even allowing this in the first place. Even if she was saying everything right, the fact that they're allowing her to be the preacher in the church is a problem.

Okay, so they were allowing this woman to teach. Incidentally, I think this is God's providence because this is the way God works. There's no coincidences. I was driving here tonight, listening to the radio station.

There's a woman on teaching about this very topic. And you could tell she was, I mean, she was angry. She was mad about people who are saying what I'm telling you tonight. So she probably wouldn't like this message.

But she said in this passage, 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul said that women need to be silent in the church. She said that was not Paul talking at all. This is what the Greek men were saying. And the Greek men were like the Taliban, she said.

They were like the Taliban. And they wouldn't let women talk, which I'm not sure that's true. But she said, Paul never said that. So I do not permit a woman to talk in church or speak in church. She said, that wasn't Paul.

She said, actually, Paul reacted against that. And Paul said, what? Like, look in the Bible. Says what? With an exclamation point. Paul was outraged that anyone would say that. That's not in the Bible at all.

Like, it was completely made up. And yeah, so if you believe the Bible, you're like the Taliban. So anyways, get that off my chest.

Thank you.

But at the same time, I'll say this. There are some people who use verses like this. And they are like sexism is a thing. There are men who use verses like this to put women down. And sometimes you'll hear men make sexist jokes.

And I don't think that's funny at all, because that's not OK. So anyone who would use this to denigrate women, listen, I would have just as big of an issue with that. Fact remains, though, women were not to be the pastors or preachers in the church.

So I think that's one problem, the fact that they're allowing her to teach. But clearly, what she's teaching is wrong. She's teaching false doctrine. So what is she saying? Well, whatever she's saying, she's letting the people know that it's OK for you to commit sexual immorality, to be involved in idolatry, or to eat meat sacrificed to idols.

So Jesus is dealing with this head on. And notice what else he says about her. He says that she calls herself what? A prophetess. OK, so a prophetess is what? What does someone have to do to be a prophet?

A prophet is someone who hears directly from God, right? So if God speaks to me, if God spoke to me tonight on the way home, and I heard God's audible voice, or if I received a vision or something, that would legitimately make me a prophet, right?

But that's never happened. I don't anticipate that happening. Basically, when someone says, hey, God spoke to me, God gave me this revelation, God told me this, that is the claim that I'm a prophet, or in this case, a prophetess.

So she claims to be hearing directly from God. So I find it ironic that many of the female preachers today, even within evangelicalism, there is one in Greenfield, a church that was pastored by a woman, there is a banner on the church that said, God is still speaking.

And what's that? That God's continuing to give new revelation. Well, God apparently gave that church revelation that gay marriage is now OK. So their God apparently told them that. So that's like an extreme case.

But there are teachers within evangelicalism that these women claim, God spoke to me, God gave me this vision, God told me that. I mean, that is a claim that I'm a prophetess. So he calls her Jezebel.

Who thinks Jezebel is her real name? Who thinks it's a pseudonym? Who's not sure? OK, most of you aren't sure. All right. One commentator says this. Jezebel is probably a pseudonym for a woman who influenced the church in the way that Jezebel influenced the Old Testament Jews into idolatry and immorality.

Jesus now threatens this woman directly. So just imagine this, when the letter arrives at the church, the pastor would take the letter and he would read it to the congregation. So as he's reading it, like everyone's going to know who is being referenced here.

So he says in verse 21, Jesus says, I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent. Indeed, I will cast her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds.

So commentators are divided on this. Does the punishment refer to death as in sickness and death in this life? Or is he talking about like the second death? Calling her, accusing her of sexual immorality and those who commit fornication with her is probably symbolic because revelation takes a lot of Old Testament imagery.

And in the Old Testament, Israel was accused of playing the harlot. So they were married to Jehovah God. And when they worshiped false gods, God would say, you've played the harlot. So fornication, that language is probably a reference to their unfaithfulness, not that they were necessarily committing those acts.

Although I'm sure that was happening in the church. As well, but clearly they're being unfaithful to God. And I mean, Jesus gives this very serious warning. Unless you repent, I'm going to cast her into a sickbed.

And those who are following her into great tribulation. So Jesus says in verse 23, I will kill her children with death. So her children are probably not her physical children. It's probably the people that follow her ministry.

Most likely. So the idea is if they don't repent, although they might die in this life, they might get sick, they might die. What they really need to worry about is the second death. So when this letter is read to the church, Jesus says, I will cause them to become sick, die.

Once this woman becomes ill, as soon as these things start to happen, it's going to become very clear. Jesus says at that point, verse 23, all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts.

And I will give to each one of you according to your work. So it's like a prophecy. As soon as that happens, let's say the letter comes, he reads it. And everyone knows who he's talking about. And then the following week, the woman, she couldn't preach that Sunday because she became ill.

I mean, that would send a chill through the whole. It's like, whoa, this is the Lord speaking. And it's happening right before our eyes. So if you don't listen to that segment of the church, this is what's going to happen.

And it's not going to be good. But those who do the right thing, they will be rewarded. And that's probably the majority of the congregation. But again, those who consistently are in the wrong, they're going to get what's coming to them.

I'm also reminded of what Paul said to the Corinthians. Remember, is that 1 Corinthians chapter 11, where he talked about those who are taking communion and they're not discerning the Lord's body. So there are some people showing up for the communion service.

And some of them were like getting drunk at the Lord's table, which is pretty bad. You want to talk about sins that kind of reach that next level. That's pretty bad. And what did Paul say? Some, as a result of that, some are what?

Some are sick and some also sleep. So it's like some people have gotten sick. Some people have died because of that. I think that's what he's saying here to this woman and those who follow her doctrine.

And you say, does that stuff still happen today? I don't know. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I'm not sure that we could know one way or another. But it's true that in scripture, God, when there's a serious case like that, God will kind of make an example out of somebody to make a statement so that everyone will take note.