The Seven Churches-Thyatira Series

The Seven Churches-Thyatira

Introduction: Thyatira is the fourth in the series of the Seven Churches. As with the other churches, the Lord gives a picture or reminder of Himself, followed by a word of praise. He then points out a problem and gives an exhortation to fix or solve that problem. The Lord’s message closes with a word to the overcomers.

A number of commentators and teachers relate how Thyatira was a city with a number of trade guilds (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/pulpit/revelation/2.htm, to name one) and Lydia, the first person in Europe (at Philippi, see Acts 16) to become a believer in Jesus was from that city. Dr. J. Vernon McGee in his “Thru the Bible” edited messages gave his opinion that the “purple” which Lydia sold was called Turkey Red and, he said, that color was red! I checked the internet to see if there was a sample of Turkey Red and, Dr. Mc Gee was right: that was one of the most vibrant, brightest, most intense red colors I’ve ever seen. Apologies to fans of the St Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds baseball teams—that color is redder than anything I’ve seen on either teams’ uniforms.

Someone once remarked that where there’s a church, there’s bound to be trouble, and that was certainly the case in Thyatira. But let’s see first what the Lord reveals about Himself and what words of praise He gives to the saints there.

1 The Picture of Jesus

Text: Revelation 2:18, KJV: 18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write;

These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;

The Lord Jesus Christ here reminds the saints in Thyatira that His eyes are like a flaming fire and His feet are like fine brass (bronze, in some other translations). When He mentioned His eyes, like fire this time, to me this speaks of His ministry of inspection. He sees and He knows and there is nothing anyone can hide from Him. David said as much in Psalm 139.

Then He refers to His feet being like “fine brass”. Brass was used in the Old Testament for several things: armor, shields (like Rehoboam made “brazen shields” after Shishak, king of Egypt came and robbed Judah blind, we might say—see 2 Chronicles12)! Brass was also part of the Tabernacle, like the “brazen altar” where priests made sacrifices to the LORD. The book of Exodus, starting around chapter 20, has a section where the LORD gave Moses the pattern of the Tabernacle and all the related items.

We’ve seen the Lord’s eyes, burning with fire and we’ve seen His feet, like fine brass. Now we’re going to see what good things the Lord has to say about the saints in Thyatira.

2 The Words of Promise

Text, Revelation 2:19, KJV: 19 I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

As with the other three churches (Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum), the Lord mentions “I know thy works” and, here, adds a few more things. He knew what they were doing, and He knows what we’re doing today. Some of the commentators have the opinion that the church in Thyatira was smaller than those in larger cities and that’s why not much is mentioned in this verse. But there’s a lot more in this verse than we think.

The next thing the Lord mentions is that these Thyatira saints had charity (love, per other translations). This is beautiful: they not only had love for the Lord (and who wouldn’t, after realizing the difference Jesus makes in one’s life!), they had love for each other. That isn’t always easy to do, is it?

Let me give one such example. I had a temporary job many years ago as a “white ticket” electrician (I can’t give details how that happened) but one thing that left me puzzled was that men (nearly all the workers were men at the time) hardly spoke to one another unless they were in the same craft. Millwrights, laborers, electricians and I don’t know who else—we all rode a shuttle bus from parking site to work site, but that was it. We even had separate areas for mealtime! That was simply the way it was, and I’m sure that in Thyatira the various guilds and members of those guilds seemed to pretty much keep to themselves during work time. But when it came time for worship, I can’t help but think that regardless of social status, wealth or lack of same, or anything else, all these believers had love for Jesus and each other!

Now the Lord adds that He knew their “service”. That word “service” is the same word used for “deacon (https://biblehub.com/greek/1248.htm)” and refers to any type assistance. I take that to mean, they saw a need and met that need. We could use that kind of ‘service” today!