You’ve Got Mail: Thyatira
Scott Bayles, preacher
First Christian Church, Rosiclare, IL
Sometimes, the contents of a single letter can change a person’s life forever. Whether it’s the college applicant hopefully opening an envelope from a prestigious school wondering whether it’s a letter of rejection or acceptance, or a defendant standing trial, waiting with baited breath for the judge to open the verdict and read it aloud—guilty or not guilty. Other envelopes may not promise such significant stuffing; after all, we throw thousands of them away every year. But occasionally we get one that makes us stop and stare. Maybe it’s a letter from an old high-school buddy, or a job offer from some esteemed employer, a package we’ve been waiting for, or maybe just a note from a friend, family member or a spouse whose been away a while. We open those letters with anticipation and, sometimes, excitement.
I can only imagine the anticipation and excitement coursing through the believers in Thyatira, when a letter carrier dropped of an envelope singed and seal by Jesus Christ. Upon leaving Pergamum, this first-century mail-man would have followed a Roman road traveling southeast through rolling hills and lush plains for about forty miles before finally arriving at the military and manufacturing metropolis known as Thyatira. I use the term “metropolis” lightly, as Thyatira was actually the smallest of the seven cities to which Jesus sent letters. But despite its petite population, Jesus sent the longest letter to the church in Thyatira. Let’s see what he had to say to them:
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Thyatira. This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze: I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.
“But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn away from her immorality. Therefore, I will throw her on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you whatever you deserve.
“But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them—depths of Satan, actually). I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come.
“To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, to them I will give authority over all the nations. They will rule the nations with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots. They will have the same authority I received from my Father, and I will also give them the morning star!
“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” (Revelation 2:18-29 NLT)
As I said last week, although these seven letters weren’t addressed to us, they do address the cares, concerns, and crises faced by ours and countless other churches throughout the centuries. The letter to Thyatira is no exception. As always, before addressing the cares of the church, Jesus begins by giving his credentials.
• CREDENTIALS
Jesus refers to himself in this letter as “the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze” (vs. 18 NLT). It might surprise you that this is the only place in the book of Revelation where the term “Son of God” is used. I think there’s a reason for that. In John’s vision in the first chapter of Revelation, John refers to Jesus as the Son of Man, but here Jesus changes that designation to the Son of God. Why is that?
Well, I believe it is because Thyatira was home to a special temple in honor of Apollo. Apollo was known as the Sun god and he was supposedly the son of the primary god of Greek myth, Zeus. By using the title, Son of God, Jesus was setting himself against Apollo as the only rightful Son of the true and living God.
Many Christians today are aware that December 25th, the day we celebrate as Jesus’ birthday, was originally a pagan festival. What you may not know is that it was a celebration of the birthday of the Sun god, Apollo. And what is often overlooked is that the early church chose that day intentionally. Rather than Christianizing a pagan celebration, they established a rival celebration of the birth of Jesus—the true Son of God. “While the world has all but forgotten the Greco-Roman gods of antiquity, they are annually reminded that two thousand years ago Christ invaded time and space.”
The message for us today is—a lesser god won’t last. Whether it’s the god of money, or the god of self, or the gods of false religions, eventually, one by one, Jesus will dethrone every single one of them, just as he dethroned Apollo and commandeered his celebration for himself.
Jesus backs that claim up when he says that he has feet like polished bronze and eyes like fire. The bronze feet symbolize his strength—his staying power. The eyes of fire represent his ability to see through the surface, the façade, and the fakes. He could see through the gods of myth and he would outlast them. He can see through you, too. Whatever it is that you think you’re hiding from him, you’re not. He knows which of us are authentic and faithful and which ones are not, because he is the true “Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze” (vs. 18 NLT).
Now, after giving his credentials but before expressing his concerns, Jesus gives a remarkable compliment to the believers in Thyatira.
• COMPLIMENT
He tells them this: “I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things” (vs. 19 NLT). Wow! Folks, I can’t tell you how much I would love to be on the receiving end of this compliment.
Unlike the believers in Ephesus who had lost their love, the church in Thyatira is commended for their love. This was a church family that understood what mattered most to God. They genuinely loved God and one another. They were building relationships with each other, carrying each others burdens, and experiencing fellowship with God and each other at levels that I think most Christians never reach. And their love was continuing to grow! A Christian’s highest calling is to live a life of love. The apostle Paul put it this way: “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NLT).
The believers in Thyatira got it. They had love—love for Jesus, love for each other, and even love for their enemies. And they expressed their love through service. Jesus said, “I know your service.” This was an active church. They weren’t interested in just going to church; they wanted to be the church. They were ministering to their friends and neighbors and glorifying God all the while.
And it wasn’t just their loving service that was increasing; Jesus also noticed their faith and persistence. Is your faith (your level of trust in and commitment to Jesus) showing constant improvement? Theirs was. They were learning to trust Jesus more and more, and not to “lean on their own understanding.” Their faith was stronger and bolder as their relationship with Jesus grew deeper. And they showed patient endurance. In other words, they were dependable, reliable and consistent. Whenever the church doors were opened, they were there. Whenever something needed done, they volunteered. They had a spot on a pew worn in the shape of their own bottoms, but they were always willing to slide over for someone new.
I want nothing more than for our church to be like the Thyatiran church in these ways. Oh, how I wish Jesus would say to us “I know your love, faith, service, and persistence. I know you’re doing more now than ever!” But let me ask you—do you think Jesus would compliment as he complimented them? If he were to write a letter to First Christian Church, would we find these words inscribed in Jesus’ handwriting? If not, what can we do to be more like this? What can you personally do to multiply the love, faith, service and consistency of our congregation? If you know the answer to that question, then start doing it, please. If you don’t, then talk to me. I don’t have all the answers, but I have some suggestions. If you want Jesus to see your love, faith and service, then you have to show it to him.
Next, Jesus follows up this amazing compliment with some cutting criticism.
• CRITICISM
You would think that a church overflowing with love, faith, and service would be practically perfect in everyway. But the truth is—there are no perfect church families. Because the church is made up of imperfect people, it will always be imperfect as well. Here’s what Jesus said to them: “But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols” (vs. 20 NLT).
The problem in Thyatira was that they tolerated a false teacher. Let me clarify that—I don’t mean they tolerated a teacher who was honestly mistaken about some doctrine or another. Mistakenly teaching something that is false does not make someone a false teacher as the Bible uses the term. Rather, they were tolerating a woman, a liar, who claimed to have the gift of prophecy, but really didn’t. She claimed to have special revelations from God and she used her false revelations to lead many in the church into immoral conduct.
On the surface her teaching seems similar to that of the Nicolatians, mentioned in the previous letters, but there was probably an important difference. As I said earlier, Thyatira was primarily a manufacturing city. The city was filled with many trade guilds (similar to labor unions) for commerce such as cloth making, dyeing, leatherworking, bronze working, and pottery making. In order to work in Thyatira, you had to be a member of one of these trade guilds and each guild had its own patron deity (pagan god) that they worshiped and expected blessings from. Frequently, usually every week, the guilds would hold a banquet feast at the guild hall (sort of like civic center) that centered around idolatry—including sacrifices to idols and usually some sort of sexual entertainment (strippers, prostitutes, etc.). Not to participate in these feasts would likely cause the believers, most of them tradesmen, to lose their jobs. This false prophetess was probably encouraging the believers in Thyatira to continue participating in the pagan feasts and the immorality that went on there. She probably had a slick sounding argument. Maybe she reminded the people that God commands Christians to work. “Certainly God doesn’t want you to lose your job,” she might have reasoned. Whatever she said, she led many of them to commit adultery and other sexual immoralities all in the name of some pagan god.
As angry as Jesus was with this Jezebel, his complaint was actually toward the rest of the church who tolerated her trash. He was furious that no one had put a stop to it. The church in Thyatira had the exact opposite problem as Ephesus. Ephesus was doctrinally sound but lacking in love. Thyatira was so loving and accepting that no one was willing to stand up against false teaching. Just as law without love is legalism, love with no law is just a license for immorality. Folks, truth matters. Morals matter. Love is supreme, but genuine love must be balanced with truth. Isn’t that what Paul said? “We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ” (Ephesians 4:15 NLT). Or as the Living Bible puts it: “we will lovingly follow the truth at all times…” (TLB).
This kind of perverse immoral teaching should never find its way into the church, but when it does each one of us must be responsible for stopping it. This leads us to the final piece of Jesus’ letter—his command.
• COMMAND
And such a blessed command it is. Jesus tells them: “But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching… I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come” (vs. 24-25 NLT). Another translation says, “But hold fast what you have till I come” (NKJV).
Hold fast. Hang on. Keep on keeping on. Remain consistent in what you’re doing; continue to grow in your love, faith, service and patience. Don’t give up. You see, for those who hadn’t embraced this terrible teaching, who were willing to speak out against it, Jesus couldn’t ask for anything more. They were filled with love for God and each other. They overflowed with faith. They were serving one another daily—consistent, dependable, and reliable. And they were continuing to grow in all these areas. The only thing that Jesus could ask above all this was that they hold tightly to all these things. Keep it up.
Every Christian needs to be reminded that they have not yet arrived. Until Christ comes again, you’re not finished. There will never be a point when his church or his children have so fully matured that they no longer need to grow in the likeness of Christ. Christians never get to retire from love, faith or service. Maybe you’ve been a believer all your life and you were actively involved in the church when you were younger, but now you feel it’s your time to just sit back and let others do the work of the church. I hate to break it to you, but you’re not there yet. Until Jesus comes or calls you home, you are here to be a shining example of love, faith, service and consistency. You may have to find different ways to serve. You may express your love and share you faith differently than you did when you were a new believer. But you can’t ever stop growing. When you stop growing, you start dying—both physically and spiritually. We need to nurture our love for God and each other. We need to constantly be looking for ways to build our faith and the faith of others. And we need to continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus for as long as we live. Hold fast. Hang on. Keep it up.
INVITATION
Maybe you’ve been caught up in some kind of immorality. Maybe, there’s been Jezebel in your life, someone who has influenced you, led you astray and into sin and you need to change—to repent. Or, maybe you’ve been a waning in your love, faith, service and consistency and you need to rededicate yourself to Jesus and his church—if there is anyway in which we can help you take the next step in your walk with Jesus, let us know. He loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way.
