Sermon for CATM – January 11, 2008 – The Churches of Revelation – “Shame Versus Liberty”
Today we’re right at the mid-point in our sermon series and course on the Churches of Revelation.
We’ve looked at four of the seven churches so far. We started with Ephesus and Sardis, last week we looked at Pergamum and Smyrna, and today we’re going to slow down a bit and focus in on just one church, that of the Church at Thyatira.
Thyatira has some pretty heavy duty issues as a church, and as I think we’ve discovered so far as we’ve looked at the other churches, we’ve perhaps see some similarities between this early Christian church and some of our own struggles, past and perhaps present.
And I hope we’ll experience more fully the depth of God’s grace both to these early believers and to us.
Let’s stand then and read our passage today about another of the earliest churches, the church at Thyatira.
Revelation 2:18 "To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. 20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time? to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering (OT ref?), and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. 24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): 25 Only hold on to what you have until I come. 26 To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations--27 ’He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’?? -- just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give him the morning star.? 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
[[Thanks to Rev. David Elvery for elements of this ’tour’ segment through Thyatira]]
Before having a look at what Christ is saying to the church in Thyatira, let’s have a look at the city itself.
[[Thyatira had no natural fortification at all and although at this time a Roman garrison was stationed there, their aim was not to defend Thyatira, but to delay the invaders long enough for Pergamum, the capital up the road to be prepared for the coming attack. Thyatira was dispensible in the economy of the day.
Though not easily fortified, Thyatira was on a major trade route and was well known for its trade guilds - there were carpenters, dyers, sellers of goods, tanners, weavers, tent makers, etc all making a living from their trade.
You might remember Lydia in Philippi. She was a trader of fine cloth and came from Thyatira.
She was infact one of Paul’s first converts when he visited Thyatira on his second missionary journey (Acts 16).
Now these guilds were somewhat similar to trade unions of this day and age. It was very difficult for tradesmen and women to make a living unless they were a part of one of these guilds. They differed from trade unions, however, in that they were linked with the worship of other gods.
Each guild had its particular guardian god and as a member, you would be expected to participate in its activities which often included immoral behaviour.
The members of the church in Thyatira were torn between making a living on the one hand which meant having to be part of the guilds and on the other hand staying faithful to Christ and to his holy standards.]]
Let’s look closer at our passage today.
Revelation 2:18 "To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
We get a picture here of Christ identified as the Son of God, the One who is in direct relationship with the Father, so much so that, as Jesus said, he and the Father are one. His eyes are like blazing fire. He can penetrate thoughts, He knows intentions. He understands the truth behind appearances.
He sees when we are living as we know we should. He knows when we’re finding room to accommodate sin in our lives. To use an illustration from David Adcock, Jesus knows when we paint here but live over here.
And His feet are burnished bronze. Burnished bronze was the strongest and most unyielding metal of John’s day. Jesus is on, and indeed IS the firmest foundation that can exist.
And what does He say? 2:19 “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first”.
He gives kudos or commendations to the church. He commends them because they are: 1) a loving church 2) a serving church 3) a faithful church 4) a growing church - their patience and works were more now than ever.
Sounds really, really good, eh? Pretty much the ideal kind of church you’d want to be a part of. Yes…pretty much ideal. And yet…and yet we have verse 20:
20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
Now this is a bit confusing, granted, because we’re dealing with an Old Testament reference to an actual person who was of highly questionable character…that of Jezebel.
And Jesus is referring to her, or rather the spirit behind her that appears to be at work in someone in the church who self-defines as a prophet or prophetess.
Firstly…let’s explore…who was the original Jezebel? What could she have done that would have earned her such infamy?
Well, Jezebel’s story begins in the book of 1st Kings and in it she’s a princess, the daughter of King Ithobaal I of Sidon, who married King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the time that the nation of Israel was divided into Northern(Israel) and Southern(Judah) kingdoms.
She turns Ahab away from Yahweh, from God, and toward the worship of Phoenician god, Baal.
Ahab and Jezebel allow temples of Baal, pagan temples, to operate in Israel, and the pagan religion thus receives royal approval. Furthermore, the queen uses her control over Ahab to lead the Hebrews into idolatry, sexual immorality and exercises domineering power over Israel.
After she has the prophets of God slaughtered, the prophet Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a test (1 Kings 18), exposes their god as powerless, has them slaughtered (1 Kings 18:40), and thus Elijah earns Jezebel’s wrath, so much so that he high-tails it out of there and hides from her for some time.
After Ahab’s death, Jezebel continues to rule through her sons Ahaziah and Jehoram.
That’s the original Jezebel. We kind of get why she had earned her reputation. But here, a good 950 years later in Thyatira, her name is invoke again by Jesus.
In this church that Jesus commends as a loving, serving and faithful church, there is a personality that is at odds with the spirit of the church. Someone who has assumed a mantel of authority within the church (as opposed to being called into leadership by the church itself).
And by her teaching, we’re told, she tricks or misleads the faithful in the church into a lifestyle of sexual sin and of a form of idol worship. She is managing to drag the Thyatirian church way, way down.
Now, I mentioned the trade guilds that people had to belong to in order to be able to work. Those guilds, again, each had its guardian ‘god’ and members were expected to be quite involved in its functions and participate in its activities which included offerings, feasts and often immoral behaviour.
Now, given Jesus’ good description of the church that we’ve talked about, it’s fairly clear that this person who was leading the church astray would not have been able to just blatantly promote sexual promiscuity as a thing in itself.
They would have, as a mature congregation, understood that part of what it means to be a believer is to develop very high, holy personal standards. That’s part of a lived-out faith. Christianity is a lifestyle as much as anything else.
So she wouldn’t have been able to easily dupe the people into involvement in the worship of false gods. And the scary thing is, she didn’t have to.
All she had to do was ask the people to look around them and “realize” that, if they were to work and provide for their families, they had to accommodate to the realities of the age.
They had to compromise with the spirit of the age, the norms of the culture around them in order to benefit from being in that culture. Sounds sort of logical, doesn’t it? That’s the kind of pressure they faced as a church.
You and I don’t face this moral conundrum of having to participate in immoral activities in order to maintain our membership in a guild or union that enables us to make a living. You and I, mercifully do not face such a dilemma.
But we do face challenges.
Temptations. Ask any adolescent about what it can cost to make friends in high school. If the group you want to be a part of smokes, for the most part, you will have to, for ‘social’ reasons, to not stand out, start smoking. If the friends you have get involved in morally wrong activities, and you want to keep those friends, you have a decision to make.
My daughter Elia has given me permission to tell this story. Elia faced a huge dilemma in high school when her best friends from junior high days started hanging out with a rough crowd, starting smoking and crossing all sorts of boundaries. In order to keep the friendships she would have to start participating in those behaviours.
That was very clear. She decided instead to challenge her friends and call them to a better way. Most of them ignored her, so she separated herself from them. And she’s glad she did, as they’ve continued down the road they started. Now she still cares for them, but she made the choice to not join them in destructive activities.
I think of the Scripture passage (1 Cor 15:33) Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."
And we all face the challenge of the moral climate of our day. We are influenced by our culture. What is normal in culture becomes what is normal for us.
And it takes some serious effort and dedication and commitment to Christ to not yield to those norms, to those temptations. It is really, really difficult. You choosing to be here today, and hopefully most Sundays, is part of the solution. We are strengthened as we gather to worship weekly…we’re more likely to walk to path of Christ when we do it hand in hand with other believers.
Back to our Scripture today:
2:21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead.
Jesus indicates that, likely through the church leadership, this person who was causing such difficulties had been warned to stop it. But she had ignored those warnings and been unwilling to change. So Jesus pronounces judgment. Those who follow her – that’s the reference to ‘her children’ and those who sin with her, will be dealt with most severely. Why?
When we talk of the love of God, we’re most comfortable when that love is expressed through grace, through daily provision of needs, through the warm embrace of God to us and those who choose to follow Jesus, and his grace to all who live. But when that love, God’s love is expressed through this kind of judgment, we start to squirm a little.
But you know, God’s love, as we’ve heard over and over, is that of a shepherd’s love and care for his sheep. We easily embrace that when we read Psalm 23, the Shepherd’s Psalm. But what does a shepherd do?
Along with leading the sheep to still waters and providing the need for sustenance, the shepherd defends the sheep against interlopers. Against wolves who seek to devour the sheep. The shepherd makes a choice to defend the sheep, at all costs.
And that is why, after giving this person time to repent, this final judgment is made…for the well-being of the church as a whole.
23 Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. 24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): 25 Only hold on to what you have until I come. 26 To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations--27 ’He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’ -- just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give him the morning star? 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
I think Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of this passage is helpful:
20-23"But why do you let that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet mislead my dear servants into Cross-denying, self-indulging religion? I gave her a chance to change her ways, but she has no intention of giving up a career in the god-business. I’m about to lay her low, along with her partners, as they play their sex-and-religion games…Then every church will know that appearances don’t impress me. I x-ray every motive and make sure you get what’s coming to you.
24-25"The rest of you Thyatirans, who have nothing to do with this outrage, who scorn this playing around with the Devil that gets paraded as profundity, be assured I’ll not make life any harder for you than it already is. Hold on to the truth you have until I get there.
26-28"Here’s the reward I have for every conqueror, everyone who keeps at it, refusing to give up: You’ll rule the nations, your Shepherd-King rule as firm as an iron staff, their resistance fragile as clay pots. This was the gift my Father gave me; I pass it along to you—and with it, the Morning Star!
So there’s obviously a call here to take our relationship with God very seriously. The judgment that came upon this ‘Jezebel’ came after the opportunity to repent was given.
The opportunity was rejected. But Jesus says that in all this, there is another opportunity…that opportunity is for all the churches to realize…to really get that HE takes seriously the well-being of the churches, that HE defends the churches and searches the hearts and minds of everyone.
And that He looks for genuine faith expressed in genuine worship, which includes, of course, a deep longing for His holiness in our lives, despite the fact that we sin and struggle.
Sinning and struggling with sin is completely different from actively promoting compromise and sin, which was the error of the prophetess at Thyatira.
One final word, and this may well be the key point to be made. When I think as a pastor of the situation the Thyatiran church was facing, it’s clear that there was huge compromise on the part of many who were part of the church.
The fact is though that they were living an impossible lie that was leading to their destruction. On the one hand they were known by Jesus, the One who sees and knows all, the One with x-ray vision, so to speak, to have sincere and genuine faith.
They practiced that faith by living lives of love. They were full of good works and growing in the blessing they were being to the community around them. On the other hand they were indulging in terrible sins and compromising their faith by also worshipping idols.
You’d think that this would not be possible. Are humans really that complex that we can love God with full hearts AND at the same time be threatened with severely compromising that love? Yes, we are that complex.
When I put myself, when I try to project myself into that situation, caught up in the mess that the Thyatirans were caught up in, I think that I would be living with a terrible shame. Knowing Jesus, and yet because it seemed necessary, getting caught up in things that could only draw me away from Jesus.
And that’s what it is, you know. The enemy of our souls WANTS us to live with shame. Compromise. Painting our lives to others here, but living over here. Why does he want that? Because shame immobilizes us.
And constant sin that’s not repented of leaves us numb to God, we become spiritually exposed, in a sense, and Satan, who 1st Peter says “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”, finds us easy prey.
Shame causes us to be caught up in ourselves, to be consumed with feeling so bad about ourselves, feeling so very unholy, eyes downcast, sullen and asking the question…how could God ever use me?
I realize that’s bleak, but that’s what sin does to us, friends. And that’s why Jesus wants you and me to embrace His forgiveness and walk in the light of His grace. That’s why He wants us to make holy choices.
He wants us to choose liberty over shame, emancipation over slavery to sin. He wants us to walk in the glorious freedom of the sons and daughters of God. (Romans 8:21)
Galatians 5:1 says “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery”.
You see, when we are truly free is Jesus, that’s when we are able to be His hands and feet to others, that’s when we’re able to feel His pleasure. That’s when we’re able to hold our heads high, in the humility of knowing that, forgiven of our sins by the crucified Son of God, Jesus lives in and through us, drawing others to Him. That’s when we are able to live just lives, living not for ourselves but for He who ransomed us from death.
Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, Son of God. Have mercy on me, a sinner. Have mercy on each of us, holy God, as we each consider whatever compromises we are living with, things that act like freedom but that are really, truly slavery. Give us hearts that worship you without compromise, give us wisdom that we might not bow to the spirit of this passing age. And give us faith to always choose to honour you when the going gets tough. This we ask in Your precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
