The Fourth Church of the Apocalypse - The Church at Thyatira
Introduction
We have been looking at the Churches of the Apocalypse during lockdown
However, as it was Pentecost last week, we ducked out of our series to look at Acts 2 as an exception
We are now back on course and looking at the fourth Church of the apocalypse today the church of Thyatira
I think it would be good to have a quick recap of where we have got to in the Book of Revelation form the previous studies
1. Recap
The Book of Revelation was written in AD 95 or
96 probably by the Apostle John when banished to
the Island of Patmos.
The seven churches of Revelation are
1) Ephesus Rev 2:1-7
2) Smyrna Rev. 2:8-11
3) Pergamum Rev. 2:12-17
4) Thyatira Rev. 2:18-29
5) Sardis Rev. 3:1-6
6) Philadelphia Rev.3:7-13
7) Laodicea Rev. 3:14-22
All the churches are in about a 100-mile radius of each other.
Why the number seven? The number seven was considered by the people of the time to be the perfect number.
John uses it 54 times in the Book of Revelation.
(William Barclay The Daily Study Bible Revised Edition Vol 1 page 28)
The Angel of the Church is I believe the Bishop or the leader of the Church in the particular place
i) Four weeks ago we looked at the first Church of the Apocalypse- The Church of Ephesus and drew the lesson that we must come back to our first love.
It is good to have a Christian orthodoxy but in the end it the love of Christ that counts.
Ephesus was the church called back to its first love of Christ that it had lost
ii) Three weeks ago we looked at the Church of Smyrna and drew the lesson that loyalty to Christ is important - even if it means we die, as Polycarp the Bishop of Smyrna did in 155AD in the flames
iii) Two weeks ago we looked at the third church of the Apocalypse, the Church at Pergamum
And the catchword there was
“Caesar or Christ
There is no compromise”
This week we are looking at the fourth Church of the Apocalypse - the Church of Thyatira
And the catchword for this week is there can be no compromise with false teaching within the church
Background
A large town Akhisar stands on the site of Thyatira.
William Barclay describes it as follows:
It lies in the long valley connecting the valleys of the Hermus and Caicus rivers
It lies on the road that connected Pergamum to Sardis and went on to Philadephia and Laodicea.
It was a frontier garrison town on the west of the territory of Seluceus I of Syria and later the Eastern frontier of the Kingdom of Pergamum, and when Pergamum was willed by Attalus III in 133 BC to the Romans, it became a part of the Roman Province of Asia.
It was strategically important and linked Rome to the Eastern Provinces.
And it was the gateway to Pergamum
The trouble was that it was not capable of a long defence as it lay in an open valley.
The city had no specific religious significance unlike the previous three cities of the Churches of the Apocalypse nor was it a centre of Caesar worship
Though It did possess a fortune telling Shrine presided over by a female oracle called Sambathe.
(William Barclay - The Daily Study Bible - Revelation of St. John Vol. 1 p.102)
Perhaps that is where is could have opened itself up for the woman called Jezebel, by Christ in the letter, to lead certain members of the Church astray
It was also an important centre of manufacture, dyeing garment making, pottery and brass working.
Probably the best known inhabitant to us is Lydia, who Paul met in Philippi and who was the first convert and leader of the first church on European soil (Acts 16:14).
Lydia was probably an overseas agent of a local Thyatiran manufacturer and was probably arranging the sale of purple dyed woolen goods at the time Paul met her.
This purple was obtained from the Madder root, and was still produced in the district into the 20th Century under the name "Turkey Red".
In the first century AD if you wanted to make a living in a trade you had to be a member of the Guild and the Guild meeting would include a meal held in a Temple to a false God
Was that the sort of compromise that the Jezebel of this letter was teaching?
Or was it real adultery and fornication?
We just don’t know
Let’s take the letter apart
This letter can be broken down into four parts:
a) The Lord introduces Himself (v.18)
b) He commends them (v.19)
c) He reproves them (v.20-23) and
d) He encourages them (v.24-29)
a) The Lord introduces Himself (v.18)
Jesus introduces himself as the Son of God whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Thyatira was famous for its bronze work.
We see in Exodus 27:2 that bronze was used to overlay the Altar of Burnt Offering, on which the priests offered a bull daily for the atonement of the sins of the people (Ex.29:36).
In Numbers 21:9 it was a bronze serpent that Moses lifted up to heal the Israelites, who had been punished by God for moaning.
Could this reference to bronze also been a reference to the atoning work of Christ for us on the Cross?
F or it is to Him that we are to look for our salvation.
The eyes of blazing fire remind me of the penetration that God has.
He can see through any deceptions and wants us to be purified by Christ's blood.
We do not have to play act, but to confess our sins before Him.
God can see through our motives and also into our situation.
It reminds me of the purifying fire that God wants to apply to our lives:
"I counsel you to buy gold from me refined in the fire so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear so you can cover your shameful nakedness." (Rev.3:18)
In all the introduction of the letter to the church at Thyatira speaks to me of Jesus' Purity and of his Redemptive power.
b) Jesus commends them (v.19)
As with Paul, Jesus commends them - he brings the Good News first.
He encourages them in what they are doing well.
Unlike the Church in Ephesus, they do have love.
They are rich in faith too.
And finally they have good works (i.e. good deeds, service and perseverance) all in line with the Apostle James’ thinking who says that faith without works is useless (Jas 2:18-20).
With all that going for them, you’d think they had made it.
Yet there is one big flaw.
c) Christ reproves them (v.20-23)
I sense the church is so nice that they have lost their cutting edge.
It was Vanstone in his book Love’s Endeavours, Love’s Expense who said that the opposite of love is indifference.
They had sadly become indifferent to sin.
They tolerated that Jezebel.
We don’t know who she was in this church but we can get a good idea what she was like when we look at the original character of Jezebel in 1 Ki. 16:31.
Jezebel married King Ahab, one of the Kings of Israel (i.e. the Northern Kingdom after the division of the Kingdom in about 930 BC).
She was the daughter of the King of the Sidonians and brought Baal worship with her.
She didn’t want to replace YHWH as a God in Israel but she wanted to introduce a further God, Baal to Israel
You could say she ran a Basle tram through the middle of the exclusive worship of the true God of Israel -YHWH - something that Elijah righted on Mount Carmel in 1 Ki. 18.
She must have had a particularly demonic streak about her because she scared the living daylights out of the great prophet Elijah in 1 Ki. 19.
Perhaps this is a real warning to us not to be complacent when we find ourselves confronting evil - to make sure we are well covered in prayer.
Jezebel left behind her a name that became a byword “for harlotries and sorceries “(2 Ki. 9:22)
She was also the mother of Queen Athaliah, another unscrupulous female monarch who murdered all her husband’s relations to assume the throne.
Like mother, like daughter.
And like her mother Jezebel (see 2 Ki 9:30-37) Athaliah met a sticky end (see 2 Chr. 22:10-23:15).
Whatever this Jezebel did – William Barclay suggests that she led a movement in the church
“which pled compromise with the world’s standards in the interest of commercial prosperity, maintaining no doubt that the Holy Spirit would preserve them from harm”
(ibid p.102)
On the identity of Jezebel, Barclay says that some theologians think that it might even have been the bishop of Thyatira’s wife, though he is not persuaded himself
Barclay postulates that the reading of the Greek might well be “your wife, Jezebel”, but this is not the safest manuscript reading for the phrase
And it wouldn’t be the first time in church history that the bishop’s wife has been the problem!
Her crime seems to have been that she taught the church to commit fornication (Rev. 2:20)- either literally or metaphorically.
d) Jesus encourages them to change (v.24-29)
There is a time when God will no longer tolerate sin - like Korah in Nu. 26.
Indeed Korah might well be an OT type of this Jezebel.
Like Moses, who told Israel to separate themselves from Korah and his rebellious clan while God casued the ground below them to swallow them alive.
It was only when the Israelites separated themselves from Korah that they were spared
So Jesus tells the church to separate from this Jezebel and live.
And what wonderful rewards Jesus offers those who overcome.
Because they show responsibility - remember the parable of the talents (see Mt. 25). Jesus can entrust them with authority (when they deal righteously with Jezebel).
And the morning star is probably a designation of Christ as the herald to his people of the eternal day .
The first part of the promise for those who are faithful reflects Ps.2:8-9 and points to the nations of the world being our heritage
Jesus is called the Morning Star in Rev. 22:16 and the promise is probably receiving Christ himself.
Conclusions.
We need to be very careful not to be fooled by false teaching - the Jezebel spirit that can easily slip in when we are unaware, especially where there is a lot of love and trust in the church.
It is vital that we and our leaders (see Eph 4:11) discern the word of God and make sure it is fully applied.
It is false love not to challenge those who are living in contradiction to the Gospel - those who call themselves our brothers – as Paul reminds us in 1 Cor. 5 11.
11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[a] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
Had the Church not fought the spirit of compromise with the world’s way of life, it would have been the Roman Empire that would have changed the Church, not the Church changing the Roman Empire.
Orthodoxy is important, the Scriptures are there to guide us.
We need both the first love of Christ and the clear teaching of scripture to be our guide
If you want to take home a catch phrase for this Church it is
There can be no compromise with false teaching within the church
