Source: https://nightlightblogdotcom.wordpress.com/tag/thyatira/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 23:02:17+00:00

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“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; 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, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed 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 sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 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.
as I also received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.
As we’ve mentioned before, this is the longest of the seven letters.
3. Contents of the Epistle, 2:19-29.
1. Love. This is the first and chief of all Christian graces, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. This is what Ephesus lacked.
2. Service, “diakonia,” voluntary service for our brethren, or those around us, by which they are benefited. This is different from “doulos,” the word used by Paul and translated “bondservant,” whose only duty was to obey his master. This is an apt word for our service to God. What we do as God’s servants does not “benefit” Him! Cf. Job 35:7.
3. Faith. Cf. Hebrews 11:6. Faith isn’t simply agreement with a set of teachings, a catechism, a statement of faith, as good as these may be. It isn’t some sort of “feeling” or experience by which we enter a supposed “higher plane of Christian existence.” According to Hebrews 11, faith is an obedient response to the Word of God. We read over and over again in that chapter, “by faith,” so-and-so did this or that. Noah built a huge boat, when it had never rained. Abraham left a comfortable life in a metropolis of his time and everything he knew to follow a promise. Enoch just disappeared one day. These and many others didn’t simply “believe” God, they did what He said. Some of what they did seems unreasonable, even wicked, to unbelievers,e.g., Abraham’s “sacrifice” of Isaac. But they pleased God. That’s all that matters.
4. Patience, endurance under hardship. We see examples of this later in Hebrews 11, Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tested, were slain with the sword. They wandered around in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented – of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, vs. 35b-38.
We’ve been spoiled in this country. What we just read above is more likely to be the treatment of God’s people in this world, and it is in many countries even as I write these words.
Condemnation and Judgment, vs. 20-23.
– they permitted false teaching. Perhaps, like the church at Corinth, they thought it was an evidence of “Christian love” or some such thing, to tolerate this teaching. I don’t really know. Regardless, “tolerance” is not permitted in defiance of plain Scripture teaching. “Gender fluidity,” unScriptural views of marriage, of the family, of morality in general, of the roles of men and woman, of the place of Scripture in society, to name just a few, have no place in a Biblical worldview, regardless of how popular or prevalent they, or any other social idea, might be, or how unpopular the Biblical view is.
What about the idea that a woman was responsible for this teaching?
We don’t know who this woman really was, or if this was even her real name. So we have to ask, who is Jezebel in Scripture? She’s first mentioned in 1 Kings 16:31-33, where she is married to Ahab, king of Israel, a king who followed in the idolatrous and rebellious practices of Jeroboam, the first ruler of the divided kingdom, see 1 Kings 12:25-33, who thereafter was known as “Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin,” and future kings of Israel are faulted for following him.
Ahab was a weak king and Scripture says of him, 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, 1 Kings 21:25. She did the same thing to her son, 1 Kings 22:52.
She was a “mixer,” mixing the true religion of Israel with the false religion of her homeland. Whatever she was to the northern kingdom, that’s what this other “Jezebel” was to Thyatira, mixing the true and the false. It doesn’t matter what she called herself, she was wrong, and the church got into trouble for following her.
At the same time, I think Christ has something to say to those who turn to mere human authority, rather than hearing what the Spirit says to the churches. One of the Puritans used to say, “I want to hear but two things. First, does God speak? Second, what does He say?” Unless we have this attitude, and aren’t content merely to follow some preacher, teacher or school of thought, we are in Thyatira.
As for the idea of a woman teaching men, the Scripture is quite clear on this, in spite of the rampant feminism, “Biblical” or otherwise, that has engulfed even our churches, 1 Corinthians 14:33-37; 1 Timothy 2:8-12. Lest, as some have done, it is said these verses just show Paul’s “rabbinic prejudice,” he wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:37, these things that I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.
This in no way is intended to demean women. Their value and contribution in this life cannot be overstated. It’s just that the world has an entirely different definition of those ideas than Scripture. This is not to say in any way that man is “superior,” or that women are “inferior.” It is God Who is superior and He has set an order in the church, in the home and in society. He has one set of rules; the world has chosen to reject those and go by their own set of rules, with the resulting chaos we see all around us.
– they tolerated idolatry and immorality. Possibly this centered around the trade-guilds and the idolatry and immorality they fostered. We don’t know how Jezebel might have reasoned about these things in the church, but it doesn’t really matter. Regardless of why it happened, the Lord was having none of it.
With reference to the actual church in Thyatira, we don’t know what happened when the Lord judged this wickedness, just that it happened.
With reference to any typical teaching, we believe this church represents the Reformation and Rome’s response to the true gospel.
– grace before judgment, v. 21. The Lord said, “I gave her space to repent….” Savonorala in Italy, Wickliffe in England, John Knox in Scotland, Martin Luther in Germany, Zwingli in Switzerland, Calvin in France – all men whom God raised up throughout their world to call Rome to repentance, but “she repented not,” and instead set up a “Counter Reformation” to strengthen her grip on the souls of men and to counteract the preaching of the truth.
– judgment on her and her followers, v. 22.
See above for remarks about the actual church situation in Thyatira.
– judgment on her “children,” v. 23.
Who are “her children”? Are they not the Reformation churches? Calvin and Luther and others never repudiated their Catholic ordination. When Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to that door in Wittenburg, he wasn’t trying to start a new “church,” but was attempting to call the church that ordained him to repentance and a return to the truths of Scripture.
– “kill with death.” We think this phrase contains a vital, but generally overlooked, truth. What brought about the Reformation? Wasn’t it largely due to the recovery of the Scriptural teaching of justification by grace through faith? We’ve already noted Luther’s and Calvin’s views on preaching and interpretation. The Reformers did preach the Word to a degree unheard of for centuries. It’s sad that they brought so much with them when they left Rome. But they did at least start with a foundation of Scripture.
The Reformers themselves were men of the Spirit, but their doctrines of infant baptism and the state-church, whereby everyone who was a citizen of the nation was by virtue of that citizenship also a member of the state church, soon filled their churches with unsaved people, and their method of allegorical interpretation, in spite of the “literalism” they started with, soon reduced the Gospel to nothing more than a series of ethical maxims.
For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life…, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life, 2 Corinthians 2:15-16; 3:6, emphasis added.
Apart from the ministry of the Spirit of God, the Word of God produces death, whether it’s preached in a Reformed church, a Baptist church, or someone just picks it up and reads it. According to Paul, there is no middle ground. Protestant churches have the Word, but, to a great degree, have reduced it to teachings on ethics and morality. However, ethics, even biblical ones, do not give “life.” So Rome’s children have been “killed with death” by the very Scriptures of which Protestant churches make their boast.
– “give to each one of you..,” v. 23.
Whatever may be said about “typical” teaching from these verses, the Lord is here addressing the actual church in Thyatira. There is a judgment of persons as well as of systems, cf. 1 Corinthians 3:11-15. The believer’s sins aren’t in view in these verses; they were taken care of on Calvary. His works will be put to the test – what he did with the life God gave him. The word translated, “loss,” has two meanings: loss of what has been gained, the works of wood, hay and stubble, but it also means “to forfeit” – the reward that would have been received if the works had been gold, silver or precious stones. Such a one faces a double loss: all the works of his life, as well as any reward. Paul put it like this: he himself will be saved, yet as through fire, v. 15. The picture is of a person who has gone through a disastrous fire, losing everything and escaping only with his life.
It’s a sobering thought. 20, 30, 40, 50 years of ministry, perhaps outwardly great and wonderful, gone up in smoke. This is why John warned his readers – and us, Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward, 2 John 8 (ESV), emphasis added.
The phrase means, to hold by strong hands, tugging for it, with those who would take it from them. It indicates an ongoing and difficult struggle to retain what they still had. The world has no use for the things of God, and even many in “the church” see no value in them, being content with ritual and routine. In Thyatira, there were those who were actively opposed to the truth of God’s Word. The believers weren’t to let them win.
2. Reassurance, vs. 26 – 28.
As difficult as it might have seemed to these Thyatiran believers, their struggles would come to an end and they would be richly rewarded. They were promised power (authority) over the nations.
Our Lord Himself said that He is seated with His Father on His Father’s throne, 3:21. He will not sit on His own throne as King until after His return to this earth, Matthew 25:31. He isn’t referred to as “King” until then, either. According to Zechariah 14:16-21, when our Lord is ruling this earth, there will be no question about it – and no escaping it. He, and His people, will rule the nations “with a rod of iron,” because not everyone will be glad to see Him! We see this graphically portrayed in Revelation 20:7, when Satan is released from his prison at the end of the 1000 year reign of our Lord (not just “hindered” by the preaching of the Gospel, but actually incarcerated), and he will have no trouble at all in gathering a world-wide rebellion against the King, a rebellion that will be quickly snuffed out. Just in passing, if the Holy Spirit didn’t mean an actual 1000 years, why did He mention it six times in six verses?
“the morning star.” 2 Peter 1:19 refers to the morning star rising in our hearts. There’s a lot of discussion about what this “star” is. I confess I don’t know. Whatever it is, is probably beyond the ability of words to convey.
These aren’t just the delusions of a tired old man in prison. They are what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 2:18, The Christ and City of Thyatira.
Once again, we’ve had to divide our thoughts into separate posts.
Thyatira was located in a valley linking two other valleys. Because it had no natural fortification and was wide open to attack, a garrison was usually stationed there. This defended the town, but had the added benefit in that it guarded the road into Pergamos, the capital of the province.
Because of its favorable location on the route between Pergamos and Sardis, Thyatira soon became a prosperous commercial center. Many trade-guilds are known to have existed there. One of her merchants is even mentioned in Scripture: Lydia, a seller of purple, Acts 16:14. What’s noted about her, though, isn’t her commerce, but her conversion. She is described as one whose heart the Lord opened to hear the things spoken by Paul. There’s so much I could say about this in these days of the widespread belief that God is impotent or at least unable to act until we give Him permission. That is not the God of Scripture.
Membership in the appropriate guild was essential to a tradesman and his business and social life was severely impacted if he refused to join. But each guild had its own “god” and membership implied worship of that god. Moreover, the periodic feasts of the guild, beside honoring their god, deteriorated into drunken orgies. Perhaps this was one of the main problems facing the church there.
Although Thyatira was the smallest of the seven cities, its letter is the longest.
If we follow the idea that each church foreshadows an era of church history, then Thyatira represents that time between 500 and 1500 AD, when Romanism was savagely predominant. I use the word “savagely” intentionally, in view of the rivers of blood Rome shed of those who refused to join with her. The name, Thyatira, is particularly significant, made up as it is of two words which can be interpreted as meaning “a continual sacrifice.” The continual offering of the Mass – the so-called “unbloody sacrifice” of the Lord Jesus – is the central blasphemy of Romanism. The partaking of communion was never intended by our Lord to be a continuation of His sacrifice or a repetition of it. It was never meant to be some sort of “magic potion” bringing “grace” to those who partake of it. He Himself said it was to be a reminder of Him. In 1 Corinthians 11:25, He told the disciples, This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” It’s a memorial to His life and death. Perhaps it’s significant that our Lord said this in the part of Communion involved in the drinking of the fruit of the vine, which is withheld from the communicant in Rome’s version. The fruit of the vine represents His blood, without which there is no salvation.
This brings us to our next thought.
2. The Christ of the Epistle, v. 18.
This is important. In this day of “pluralism” and “diversity,” it’s vital to remember that our Lord taught that there’s only one way of salvation and that’s through Him. All roads do not lead to heaven. He Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,” John 14:6. And not just the “Jesus” of a lot of modern thought, who was only a good man or a prophet or whose death was accidental or a mistake, or who is even, as some now teach, only a figment of the imagination.
There’s only salvation in a Christ Who is God, Who deliberately set aside His glory as God, deliberately came into this world through means of a virgin, deliberately lived a perfect life, deliberately died a horrible death, deliberately and willingly suffered the justice of God against sin, deliberately rose again from the dead and Who, one day, will deliberately return to this world. There was nothing accidental or unintentional in a single thing that He ever did. This is the Christ who saves, and He alone.
The Son of God. This is the only place in these epistles where the Lord Jesus is so named. Perhaps, in the wisdom of God, this is to warn people not to be deluded into thinking of Him merely as the Son of Mary. Perhaps there’s something to be learned from her last recorded words in Scripture. She had attempted to get Him to do something, perhaps just being a mother and not really thinking about it. He told her that it wasn’t yet time for Him to be subject to man’s will. Her response? His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it,” John 2:5, emphasis added. That’s still good advice. There’s nothing more she can say or do.
Eyes like a Flame of Fire.
– to uncover and destroy works of error and apostasy.
We’ve almost completely lost sight of this facet of our Lord’s being and of His Father’s. We seem to have this idea of God as this beneficent-type grandfather who winks and chuckles at the foibles of His wayward grandchildren. We seem to think that it doesn’t really matter what He says in His Word, if it is His Word. Academics argue and quibble over this and that, but they never seem actually to read what He says. From a misunderstanding of Revelation 3:20, we picture our Lord as being on the outside and wanting us to let Him in so badly. One preacher even went so far as to call Him “the Christ of the bloody knuckles”! This is not the Christ of Scripture!
God is indeed very long-suffering and patient. For that, I am very thankful. If He were not, we’d all be in Hell, where we belong. But one of these days, as Rolfe Barnard, a great preacher of another generation, put it, one of these days we’re going to run into the end of that patience and we’ll reap what we’ve sown. I think we’re getting there. Look at the headlines, the lead stories on TV, the sorry condition of the major candidates running for the highest office in our land.
When the Lord comes back, He’s not going to be “gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” He’s not going to suffer the humiliation and rejection He did the first time. Scripture describes that time when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Zechariah 14:9-21 gives us something of the nature and character of His reign on this earth when He gets here.
That’s a picture of our Lord that the church needs today. He has no time for diversity and “tolerance,” especially of sin or error. He doesn’t celebrate “inclusiveness,” at least not as it’s practiced today. The Gospel is indeed “inclusive” in that there is no one to whom it isn’t addressed, or who does not need to heed and obey it. But there is no such thing as “religious freedom” in Scripture – that we can take it or leave it, or twist it around to suit ourselves.
I’ve heard people say what the Scripture “means to them.” The problem is, we need to understand what it means to God. What does He mean? Not what do the “notes” say it means. Not what the preacher on TV says it means. What it says it means. These other things may or may not be useful. We need to read and study the Scriptures themselves, not just read about them. Not everybody is on the road to heaven. Our Lord indicated that most people are on the other road, Matthew 7:13, that broad way that leads to destruction.
His feet like fine brass.
Revelation 19:15 says, He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
The Old Testament describes something of this: Isaiah 63:1-6; Zechariah 14:1-3, 12-15. The world may gather its armies together in one last desperate attempt to destroy Israel, and they may seem to be successful, but the Lord will come back and that will be that. The world will finally see something of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Satan will no longer, and not much longer, we pray, be the god of this world.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

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