Thyatira
Notes
Transcript
The Thyatira Church
The Thyatira Church
Intro
Recap the last couple of weeks:
Letters Series
Tonight we are going to be talking about the church of Thyatira.
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Little was known about the city
But one thing that was pretty major is that this city was founded by Alexander the great.
It was a war city, a city that would be a battle look and what have you.
And in this city they worshiped the god of war.
Apollo
And do you know what they called Apollo, they called him the son of god, the greek god Zeus had a son named Apollo.
So recall Jesus knows these places to personally— that he literally begins by dropping a huge bomb shell on the chruch here.
Its a mic drop from the start.
He is saying I know who the city has chosen allegiance too but I am the Son of God.
The Son of the one true living God— I am his son.
This city and the people in it were confused by who the son of God was, as they have found coins with Apollo on it, with an inscription that says “the son of god”— So Jesus is just clearing all of that up right off the bat— by saying I AM THE SON OF GOD.
Then he begins to speak right into their world.
Thyatira, was a city known for its merchant dealers.
Who made weapons and shields, and the metal they used? Bronze and how does one manipulate metal? FIRE
Jesus is literally speaking right into their world— He did this then and he does it now— Jesus speaking into our world today as well.
This letter was personal and it was pointed to the this church.
Now very little is know about this city.
Mostly because most ancient writing does not cover it.
It is mentioned in the Bible twice- once here and once in Acts.
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
The city was know for the stuff made here, and the purple goods was evidence of this.
No that wraps up the the first verse and a bit of history with this chruch.
So lets dive into the text; and right off away we will see that this is the longest letter of four we have now covered, and it is actually the longest of the letters.
Let’s read and then we will figure out the good, the bad and the ugly.
“ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Alright lets begin with THE GOOD
The Good
“ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
The chruch was doing some great things and the most encouraging part is that they were doing more then when the church first started!
Which is great right!?
That the chruch was not staying ideal but they were growing.
Jesus is saying I know your works.
Jesus again expressing that He personally knows them and this is the part where Jesus tells them of the good they are doing!
Jesus says your love is loving
Your are remaining faithful!
Your service, not your worship service, but your service to those around you, your community is good.
And when tribulation and suffering has come upon you, you endure it.
You make that choice to go through the ringer, to go through the fire for your first love— Me, Christ.
This chruch is growing- everything seems to be up and to the right.
Have you ever had that moment where you feel like nothing can bring you down?
Like life is 100
You are doing all the right stuff, making the best choices, things are just falling in line.
Let’s set up this chruch in today’s world:
You walk into the chruch— of your dreams- you are welcomed and offered a complimentary coffee— and not only that but 37 people said welcome to you—you feel loved.
The worship was a faithful and the preaching made it seem like you where only there for 5 min instead of 1 hours.
They usher you out and get you involved with a small group and an area to serve in.
They also have messaging chairs and personal relaxation hour so you can endure the struggles of being a believers:
How does this sound?
Like take all my money and show we where this church is?
I have no idea if they were doing this?
But what we do know is that Jesus saw their good works and he was encouraging them!
NOW THINK ABOUT THIS:
Have you ever had a moment where someone tells you all the really good and amazing things that you are doing— just to get slapped by a big but in the face!
You doing such an amazing job playing the guitar and you are really talented at leading us through a passage of scripture— BUT your voice is the worse!
This the picture I got when I was first reading this passage.
It seems like Jesus is just setting them for something--
He is encouraging them and then in verse 20 here comes the bad!
The Bad
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
You have done a great job here— BUT
And what is interesting here— is that Jesus was telling this chruch how awesome they were— they were growing and what have you— adding new ministries— this chruch seemed to have it down.
Yet even a chruch that is growing can still be unhealthy.
Let me say that for those in the back:
Even a chruch that is growing can still be unhealthy.
We fall into this trap that growth=health.
We rationalize it- we convince ourselves of it- we become content with it.
We see numbers rises meaning that we must be health, but that is not always the case.
The sin the church of Thyatira was guilty of was that of tolerance.
The chruch was reaching those around them and now the people who they are bringing into the faith are leading other astray.
You tolerate that woman Jezebel.
The name Jezebel— was not a name of a literally person doing all of this.
But it was a name given to someone who was misleading others like Jezebel.
To understand why Jesus was calling her a Jezebel— we need to back up a bit too when this woman was on the scene.
We find her first on the scene in 1 Kings.
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria.
No Jezebel was this mean and nasty women who wanted to see God moved out of the picture.
She was a worshipper of Baal, she wanted to the nation to do this.
What is a get this done?
Promised and encourage all the sex you could want!
Have all kinds and anytime sex.
Yet, what happened during this time was there were a ton of babies being born naturally.
Yet these babies were unwanted; so what would they do?
They sacrificed them the gods-
It is heart breaking.
It got so bad that the prophets from God were being hunted down and murdered
and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.)
You see no one would name their child Jezebel or even Judas for that matter.
Those names seem to be marked differently.
So Jesus has this against this chruch that they are allowing false teaching to be taught in their chruch.
This church known for its love is being sidetracked by false teaching, and Jesus is saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
This has to end, this needs to stop.
We sometimes find ourselves, tolerating things:
But here is the deal- God is holy- he is perfect- His sone Jesus is perfect and is holy.
And for God to be holy and perfect and blameless, He, God cannot tolerate sin.
On any level.
God does not tolerate sin.
There is never a time where God will look at our lives and say yep go for it buddy, you deserve to sin this time.
God does not look down on us as disobey Him, or lie, cheat, lust and give us a big smile.
THAT IS NON-SENSE
And I want to be clear- because, some people will point to his and say see!
women should not speak in the church— this is from
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
That is where some people will come at this section.
But we need to be careful to not let our own thought determine context.
It was not that she a women was teaching but what she was teaching.
That was the issue.
She was teaching followers of Christ to eat food sacrificed to idols and to engage is sexual immorality.
These are the same things that the church of Pergamum was guilty of as well.
Yet the CHRUCH— who knew it was wrong was letting it go on.
This is one of the biggest issues today that we face is tolerance.
Is the chruch today being too tolerate, and by being tolerate, are we allowing sin to enter our chruch and wreck havoc on our people.
We want people to come to church or youth group— so we sidestep the hot button issues.
We just want everyone to be here and you be believe what you believe and I will come along side you and hold your hand and we can sing kubiya.
Because if we stand up to those who do not believe what we believe then we are viewed as not loving, or not caring.
We are in a culture now that preaches tolerance.
One must believe and agree with everyone because if you do not then you are intolerable and that will not be tolerated.
THESE ARE REALLY TOUGH WATERS TO NAVIGATE FOR CHRISTIANS.
There is a huge tension here.
Because we serve a God who does not tolerate Sin and we live in a world that demands for us to be tolerate.
Here’s the thing:
There is a big difference between acceptance and approval.
There is a big difference between accepting someone and agreeing with someone right.
We can accept any person who walk through our doors.
You don’t have to know anything about God, or have your life together to be here, we want you here.
We accept everyone here.
We want to love and care for people.
We will be a church that accepts everyone.
But we will not be a church that agrees with every lifestyle of every person.
There is a big difference between accepting someone being there for someone and loving them and caring for them but not agreeing with their lifestyle.
This is how Jesus modeled it for us.
Jesus hung out with sinners, but he did not agree with them!
He hung out with everyone but he did not agree with everyone.
A beautiful example of this is the women who was caught in adultery.
There was this women who was brought before Jesus, and she was guilty as all get-out.
She should be stoned for her act of adultery.
And Jesus says alright fine, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
NO BODY threw a stone.
Jesus responds to this women in verse 10
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Jesus accepted this woman in her darkest moment and loved her— but you notice what Jesus did not do— He did not say run along and be more careful when you sin.
Or try not to let anyone catch you next time you are having an affair.
No he says Go and from now on do not sin anymore.
Jesus is not agreeing with her lifestyle he is telling her to change it, by accepting her and loving her.
This is what was happening at the church.
The church was allowing teachings to be done that caused people to drift away from Christ.
Right now there is so much going on in this world.
What does it mean for us to be loving and caring and accepting, yet not being agreeing.
We look to Jesus as our example.
We have to learn to walk in grace and truth.
Maybe this is where you find yourself tonight.
You came here and you are broken and your life is messy.
You are in the perfect place.
You have leaders who care about you and love you.
We serve a mighty, loving and gracious God who loves us where we are at, but refuses to allow us to stay there.
That was the bad.
Let’s look at the ugly really quickly.
The Ugly
But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Those who hold on to the truth and do not give into this false teaching, I will give them the morning star.
What does this mean?
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
It means that Jesus himself is the bight morning star.
Meaning that he will give himself.
The star was a symbol of victory and sovereignty in the Roman empire.
If you stay in me i will give you all of me!
forever and ever!
In the end there will be a great victory at the end of time, and we who do not fall into the trap of agreeing and tolerance we will receive Jesus- eternal fellowship with the son of God.
This is the greatest promises we could have!
Let’s pray