A Call to be Consumed by Christ #5

A Call to be Consumed by Christ

A Message to the Church in Thyatira

Revelation 2:18-29

Intro:

Last week we read Christ's message to the church in Pergamum. Christ confronted those in the church who were advocating worldly living. The worldly living included marrying unbelievers, worshiping idols, and immorality. There was teaching being propagated in Pergamum that promoted sinful living, because as believers they were already forgiven through Christ. Christ states that unless they repent He is going to declare war on them.

This week we read Christ's message to the church in Thyatira. It is now known as Akhisar. It was founded by Seleucus I (311-280 BC.) as a military outpost. It was known for its many trade guilds. Lydia was from Thyatira (Acts 16:14, a seller of purple fabrics). Christ addresses false teaching and immoral living which were present in the church. They were ignoring it, which is not good. Christ condemns their unwillingness to exercise corrective church discipline to maintain the purity of the church and the testimony of Christ. Throughout church history this has repeatedly occurred when the church tolerates false teaching and unrestrained immorality in its midst, which has led to God's judgment. Let us seek to learn from Christ's message to the church in Thyatira.

I) Christ's self-description (18)

Christ in addressing the church at Thyatira proclaims that He is the Son of God. He is deity. He has eyes that are like a flame of fire. This refers to holiness. Christ is able to look at every person and see the attitudes and actions of each one. Christ is holy and hates sin. He also has feet like burnished bronze. This again is a reference to Christ's holiness, but also a picture of His visible glory. Jesus is about to confront the sinful conduct of the church. He deliberately draws attention to His holiness and His glory.

II) Christ's commendation of recent faithfulness (19)

Christ informs the church that He knows exactly how they have been living. Jesus knows exactly what their level of devotion has been. He informs them that their Christian living recently is better than when they were first saved. Apparently spiritual growth and devotion came slowly in the church at Thyatira. This evaluation has double significance. They are living more devoted lives now, but it is a condemnation of their former lack of devotion.

III) Christ's condemnation of unfaithfulness (20-23)

Even though Christ is more pleased with their recent living, He has some substantial problems with what is being tolerated in the church (20). Jesus tells them that they are wrongly tolerating Jezebel. Jezebel was married to Ahab king of Israel (1 Kg. 16:28-33). She enticed Ahab to worship other gods and to live in immorality (which led many Israelites to do the same as their king). Christ is using this background to describe a woman who is currently in the church at Thyatira. Christ says that this women claims to be a prophetess. We are going to see quickly that she is not a prophetess of the one true God. She is a false prophetess. Jesus says that this woman teaches and leads believers away from the truth. They are led away from the truth because she has gotten believers to live in disobedience to God's Word and be involved in idol worship. Christians are not to live in unrestrained continual sin (Rom. 6:1-7, 11-14). Christians are to worship only God. Christ says that this continual disobedience to God's Word and idol worship should not be occurring in the church. He is telling them that the church should have put her out and those involved in this sin, until they repented (excommunication). Jesus says that He has given this women opportunity to repent of her false teaching but she chose not to do so (21).

Since this woman has not repented of her false teaching, Christ is going to punish her (22). He uses the metaphor of the marriage bed to communicate how He is going to judge her. Jesus is going to punish her with sickness. Jesus is also going to punish those who follow her false teaching by bringing great tribulation into their lives. There will be judgment upon these individuals if they don't repent of this false teaching and immoral living. In each of Jesus' warnings, repentance on the part of those involved in sin deters God's judgment. This is an important truth to remember. Repentance of sin avoids judgment. Jesus says He is going to bring deadly sickness to those who are involved in teaching that it is appropriate for Christians to live in unrestrained sin, disobedience to God's Word (23). Those who teach this false teaching are the spiritual children of this false teacher Jezebel. All of these false teachers are off-shoots. The result of Christ's judgment on these false teachers and their followers will be that the church will realize that Christ knows what is in the hearts and minds of all people. They will know this about Christ because only the false teachers and their followers will be judged in this instance. Christ is going to reward each person according to how he has lived. This is evidenced by His judgment of sin in this church.

IV) Christ's encouragement to the faithful (24-25)

Jesus addresses those who have been faithful to God by not succumbing to the false teaching (24). He says they haven't known the deep things of Satan. There was a belief in later Gnosticism that to defeat Satan one had to enter his stronghold, which entailed experiencing evil deeply. The Bible never teaches believers to seek battle with Satan. In fact, believers are called to resist him through God's strength and armor (Eph. 6:10-17). There are still groups today who wrongly seek to do battle with Satan. They use mystical methods and witchcraft (or sorcery) many times to do so. In reality, they become his puppets. They become prideful and superstitious in their preoccupation with him. The devoted believers has not become involved in this evil because they have not fallen prey to the false teaching. The bad part is that the faithful believers didn't put the false teachers and immoral Christians out of the church until they repented. Jesus tells them that He is not going to request anything more of them. He does tell them to hold on to what they have until He arrives (25). Jesus is telling them to keep their faith in the gospel for the forgiveness of sins and to hold on to the Word of God.

V) Christ's promised reward for all true believers (26-29)

Christ concludes by encouraging all the true believers (26-28). He tells them that as overcomers who have lived faithfully for Christ they will have authority over the nations (26). Christ received from the Father authority to rule over everything and Jesus gives true believers this authority (27). This truth is stated more clearly later in the book (20:4-6; cf. Dan. 7:21-22, 27). Jesus also mentions a second reward for true believers, which is that they will receive the morning star (28). Later in the book, Christ refers to Himself as the bright morning star (22:16). The reward relates to being in Christ's presence eternally. Jesus calls all of the saved, who are spiritually sensitive, to respond to the message He has just given (29).

Conclusion:

Christ condemns the fact that the church has not removed this false teacher and her followers from the church. Since they have not done so, Jesus is going to remove them by judging them. Jesus encourages those who are not involved in this wickedness to cling to the gospel and the Word of God, living according to its teaching. He informs the true believers of the reward that awaits them in the future, ruling and reigning with Christ.

There is far too much tolerance of false teaching in local churches today. The teaching of Jezebel is alive and well today. It is frequently taught that it does not matter how Christians live once they are saved. They are taught that since their sins are forgiven they can live however they want. This has led professing Christians to be inconsistent in so many areas of life such as: poor church attendance (Heb. 10:23-25); not faithfully tithing (Gal. 6:6-10); living in sexual immorality; marrying unbelievers; all of these things are rebellion against the Lordship of Christ and the Word of God. The Word of God calls us to repentance or we will face the consequences of our unfaithfulness to Christ and the Word of God.