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CHURCHES SO FAR and their PRIMARY CHARACTERISTICS
EPHESUS: committed doctrinally and in standing for Christ, but have left their first love: Repent & conquer and eat from tree of life in heaven
SMYRNA: trials, poverty, slander...coming suffering: be faithful & conquer: will not be hurt by second death
PERGAMUM: hold fast Christ’s name even in persecution to death (Antipas), but compromise...allowing the teaching of Balaam...cultural compromise and idolarty: repent: conquer and I will give you myself and a new name (Mine?)
and now...THYATIRA: exceptional works: love, faith, patient endurance...and they have continually grown! But...toleration: Jezebel the false teacher of idolatry and spiritual and physical immoratlity...judgment coming unless repentance...hold fast what you have until I come: conquer & rule with Me, I will give myself to you
THE CITY: THYATIRA, v18a
-Outside of Revelation, the only other time we hear of Thyatira is in Acts 16:14, the city of Lydia
-ZNIV: Thyatira. A commercial town about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Pergamum (see map, p. 2581) known for its many influential trade guilds, each with a patron deity. Lydia was “a dealer in purple cloth” from Thyatira (Acts 16:14)
BEALE: Thyatira was an economic center with a particularly large number of trade societies or guilds (mopre like our modern unions, each of which required members to participate in idolatrous practices to retain membership. Practically, it would be difficult to engage in commerce in the city without being a part of such an organization, and so the pressure on Christians living in the city to engage in such practices would have been substantial. The situation at Thyatira is more serious than at Pergamum, where Christ held only a “few things” (2:14) against the church. Here, a false prophetess has led the church astray and into serious sin.
THE ONE WHO SPEAKS, v18b
-SON OF GOD, only here in Rev, Thyatira worshipped two sons of Zeus, Jesus is, in Contrast the true Son of the Only God...as per Psalm 2:7, which Psalm is referenced from in Rev 2: 26-27
“Who has eyes like a flame of fire” penetrating insight, v23: He who searches mind and heart...
“And whose feet are like burnished (shiny) bronze” feet to bring about His judgment
WHAT CHRIST KNOWS: COMMENDS, v19
19 - I know your works: fully rounded: love, faith, service, patient endurance & the latter exceed the first (the opposite of Ephesus!)
-NOTE: these are excellent characteristics, indeed, but note 1 verse of commendation and then 4 vv of what He has (because of His perfect knowledge) against them
-NOTE: we can think that because there is an area of excellence and true faithfulness in our life or church that it excuses or makes LESS SERIOUS an area of sin and serious neglect. We see here in Thyatira with an exclamation point that this is NOT so! Jesus is satisfied with nothing less than holiness in all areas of the life of the church...not perfection, because there is always need to grow, but obedience and growth
WHAT CHRIST KNOWS: AGAINST them, v20
(Those sobering words...) But I have this against you:
-you TOLERATE that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess (great problem in Thyatiran church is TOLERATION...specificallly:
-[she] is teaching and seducing (deceiving and leading astray) my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrified to idols (remember teaching of Balaam in Pergamum...
NOTE: this false ungodly teaching is being done in the church! And believers are TOLERATING IT!
FIRST NOTE: Jezebel: 1 Kings 16:31; 21:25-26; : Ahab married her; her father Ethbaal of the Sidonians, then Ahab went and served and worshiped Baal
-Baal worship: storm god, most major god in OT after Yahweh...
NUMBERS 25:1-5: Israel began to marry or mix with daughters of Moab and to sacrifice to their gods and worship them and do their practices...
SECOND NOTE: Probably this unnamed woman who is nicknamed for the OT wicked QUEEN JEZEBEL, taught that participation in the trade guilds, or unions, was permissable and that a believer could, or should be able to participate and not be affected spritiually...
-UNDERCUTTING THEIR DESIRE AND WILL TO BE PURE AND HOLY...
WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE AND WILL DO, vv21-25
21-PAST: gave her time (or an opportunity, possibly/probably through the faithful members of the church) to repent; response: she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality-21
THE GRACE AND PATIENCE OF CHRIST IS REJECTED. Note this well before you consider Christ’s judgment...
22-FUTURE: I WILL throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they THEY REPENT of her works, -22
23-AND I WILL STRIKE HER CHILDREN DEAD...-23
ISN’T this HARSH?
-NOTE: WHEN MEN THREATEN THE APPLE OF CHRIST’S EYE...THE CHURCH...and so threaten Christ...the judgment is severe!
-in Corinth: disunity that would destroy the church will be punished with destruction (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
-and in the Lord’s Supper: why many are sick and weak and some have died (1 Corinthians 11:27-32)
-Acts 5:1-11, death to Ananias and Sapphira because of lying to the Holy Spirit, to God, and threatened the purity of the early church
AND WHEN CHRIST BRINGS THIS VISIBLE, PHYSICAL JUDGMENT ON JEZEBEL AND HER FOLLOWERS...
23 - all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart (NOTE: this is the eyes like a flame of fire)
I will give to each of you according to your works...(AS HE WILL DO WITH JEZEBEL AND HER FOLLOWERS...
NOW:
WHAT CHRIST COMMANDS & PROMISES, vv24-29
24-25:
Revelation 2:24-25
24 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. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come.
The believers who did not embrace the teaching or its practice (the deep things of Satan)...
2 POSSIBILITIES HERE of what the “deep things of Satan” means...
1. Deep things of Satan = deep or hidden truths that must be taught by insiders...and possibly to know these so that you know more about Satan and therefore how to defeat him? OR, know, experience these “deep things” and so find out just how much deeper God’s grace is to forgive the deepest sins...
1. Deep things of Satan = deep or hidden truths that must be taught by insiders...and possibly to know these so that you know more about Satan and therefore how to defeat him? OR, know, experience these “deep things” and so find out just how much deeper God’s grace is to forgive the deepest sins...
2. Deep things that Christ evaluates as from Satan and characterized by Satan, as Pergamum was “where Satan’s throne is” v13 and “where Satan dwells” v13
2. Deep things that Christ evaluates as from Satan and characterized by Satan, as Pergamum was “where Satan’s throne is” v13 and “where Satan dwells” v13
And which would be the opposite of the deep things of God, 1 Corinthians 2:10
-Christ will not lay on them any other hardship or suffering, so His will for them is:
25- HOLD FAST what you have until I come...Hold to the truth of Christ, the Scriptures, the Gospel...hold on with your growing faith v19; hold onto your discernment and resistance to false teaching and idolatrous influences...
-the things you have been doing in obedience to the gospel and the Word of God...keep doing them! No new requirements, no “deep things of God” that I will reveal to you...keep on living for Christ and others and rejecting false teaching and compromise.
26 - the one who does, ie, who CONQUERS and who KEEPS MY WORKS UNTIL THE END, Christ will
-give authority over the nations (Psalm 2:7-9)
Psalms 2:7-9
7 I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
27-he will rule them with a rod of iron
28-I will give him the morning star (this is Christ! Rev 22:16)
29- FINAL COMMAND: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches...
BEALE: The fact that Roman emperors claimed to be descended from Venus, whom they considered the morning star, may suggest that here Christ reveals Himself as the true ruler of the world, over against all human pretenders—even those worshiped in cities like Thyatira.
BEALE: It is significant to note that Christ’s promises in vv. 26–28 are given to those who have begun to overcome before inheriting the eternal reward. Their overcoming occurs in this life, not the next. Likewise, in 12:11 be lievers are said to have overcome the devil because of their willingness to stand for Christ even if it meant death. Paul makes the same point in Rom. 8:37 when he says that we overcome in the midst of the trials he has listed in v. 35. This overcoming of the believer is modeled on that of Christ, who overcame by maintaining faithfulness to God throughout His life until His eventual death on the cross (John 16:33; see Rev. 5:5–6). The vision John sees of the overcoming Christ pictures Him as a Lamb that has been slain (5:5–6), whereas Paul pictures overcoming believers as sheep to be slaughtered (Rom. 8:36–37). All the churches are faced with the temptation to compromise, and some are succumbing to this temptation (Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea). Therefore, the exhortation to overcome is an encouragement either to continue standing strong against compromise or to stop compromising. In this regard, “overcome” (Greek nikaō) is probably an ironic play on words with “Nicolaitans.”
The beast is said to overcome the believers by causing them to suffer (11:7; 13:7), but believers in turn overcome the beast by remaining faithful even while suffering (5:5–6; 12:11; 15:2). Those who overcome are not just those who die for their faith, for the promise is made to all the believers in, for instance, Smyrna, even though only some of them will suffer to the point of being imprisoned, let alone dying (2:10–11). In 2:26, overcoming is defined by the parallel phrase “keeps my deeds,” which shows that overcoming spans the whole course of Christian obedience and faithfulness up to and including death. Christians overcome by their faithful living, not just their dying, and in particular, by their willingness to withstand the temptation to engage in compromise or idolatry of any sort. They refuse to put anything else ahead of the cause of Christ. All the promises made to overcomers in the letters are described in the final section of the book which speaks of the eternal kingdom—believers are protected from judgment (2:10; 3:5; 21:1–8), gain an inheritance in God’s city (3:12; 21:7, 27), share in Christ’s reign (2:26–28; 3:21; 22:5), and gain eternal life (2:7; 3:5; 21:27; 22:1–5).