The Tolerant Church at Thyatira - Part 1

So if you would take your Bible and turn to Revelation chapter 2, Revelation chapter 2, we'll be in verses 18 to 29, I almost said 19. We'll be in Revelation chapter 2 verses 18 to 29. Now some of you know this but we find ourselves at the fourth letter to the fourth church in the seven letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. And we are studying what Jesus says to each of these churches and we are working to see how these things apply to us. I'll go ahead and let you know my plan for finishing up this study. When we get through with each of the individual churches, I'm going to teach collectively on these churches.

I'm going to pull some of this information together and when you do that you see these things in a different way. I'll give you an example when you start looking at how the Lord addresses each one of these churches and putting that together you get a big and a better picture of who our Lord is. Now tonight we're looking at the letter to the church at Thyatira but before I give us a brief sketch of the city and the church like I have been doing all along we need to see that we are at an important transition in these letters. The Bible commentator Charles Erdmann helps us see this transition.

I took this information and really made it my own this week but he points out that this letter starts the second group of messages to these churches. Now let me explain. In the first group the church of Ephesus was marked by a great devotion to Christ and the work of the church but they were terribly deficient in one area. That was their love for Christ. Then the church at Smyrna was much different. Their love and devotion to Christ was tested by the fire of persecution and they passed their test with flying colors. And then we have the church at Pergamum.

Their love and devotion to Christ was compromised terribly by their acceptance of worldliness in the form of sexual immorality and idolatry. But we need to understand that all three of these churches had not totally caved into the assaults that were brought against them. Although two of the three were seriously flawed they had maintained their allegiance to the faith. But things change in this next group. The condition of the churches at Thyatira, Sardis and Laodicea were far more serious. In these churches large numbers within had caved into and embraced the very destructive influences of false teaching.

And as we will see there is a digression. There's another way to describe it. There is a downward spiral. There is a digression and a downward spiral in the character of these churches. To quote John MacArthur he says, "That downward spiral reaches its lowest point at Laodicea." So as we study each of these churches in this study, in this series, we need to see how they are related. And we need to see how things do spiral downward. But tonight we're looking into the church at Thyatira and as we will see this was a tolerant church.

This was the tolerant church at Thyatira because they tolerated a very, very, very destructive false teacher and false teaching. So the title of the message is "The Tolerant Church at Thyatira" and this will be a part one. Now I will explain why this is a part one. I have attempted to keep all of these just one message. But there's so much more information here because of the length of the passages and also because of where this false teacher and false teaching goes and also how it relates to us in our day.

Now before we get into our verses we need to look at some background information about the city and the church just like we've done all along. First the city. The city of Thyatira was the smallest of the seven churches, of the seven cities, excuse me, and scholars tell us we know less about Thyatira than all of the other cities. But Thyatira was located in a north to south, south to north valley that was connecting two important rivers in the region. But the city was built in a valley unlike Smyrna and Pergamum. They were built up high on an Acropolis.

This meant that the city had no natural fortifications that could be used for defensive purposes in the case of attack and invasion. So that meant the city was repeatedly attacked and destroyed and conquered throughout all of its early history. And if you do some study on your own you're gonna run across that very difficult history. But things changed for the city when the Romans conquered the city and annexed the city in the region. The city and the people were able to enjoy great peace and the city began to flourish under Roman rule.

Because they were located on an important north to south road through the valley they were well connected with other cities like Pergamum, Laodicea and Smyrna. And at the time of this letter the city of Thyatira was experiencing great great protection and peace as well as great economic prosperity. The city was even seen as the gateway to Pergamum which was the capital of Asia. But there's one more thing about the city that we need to understand. The city was not noted as a religious center. This city was known for their numerous trade guilds which would look like a labor union in our day similar to a labor union.

They had these trade guilds if you refer to them as a union that wouldn't be wrong but they had these trade guilds associated with the production of goods. Wool, dyed goods, linen, makers of outer garments or clothing, leather workers, leather tanners, potters, bakers, slave dealers, metal workers and more. If we know our Bibles we may remember a lady named Lydia. If we remember what we studied in our study through Philippians we will remember Lydia. Lydia was one of the founding members of the church at Philippi and she was a dealer of purple fabrics and she was from Thyatira. Acts chapter 16 tells us that.

But the religious scene was much different than what we've seen in these other cities. It does not appear that there were many Jews in the city and Thyatira was not known as an important religious center like Pergamum or Smyrna. They worship many of the Greek gods which was normal in their day but the primary god they worship was Apollo, not the Apollo from the Rocky movies. Apollo. Apollo was the Greek god of the sun. But then second the church. Just like with the church at Smyrna in Pergamum the Scriptures do not tell us about the founding of the church there in Thyatira. And the Scriptures do not tell us much about the church either.

There were and there are two basic theories as to how the church came about. Some believe the gospel was brought to the city by Lydia or members of her household. Acts 16 tells us that Lydia was from Thyatira and she had business in the city so no doubt she would have had family there, she would have had friends there and business connections in the city. So she could have been the reason for the gospel being taken to the city. But others believe the gospel was brought to the city from Paul's ministry in Ephesus.

Acts chapter 19 verse 10 tells us that the entire region was affected by the work that God did in Ephesus so it's definitely possible that that's how the gospel was taken to Thyatira. In my opinion I think it came from the work that was going on in Ephesus. But no matter how the gospel was brought to Thyatira it really doesn't matter. There was a church in the city and Jesus through John wrote this letter to them and he is telling them what he thinks, what he says about the church. So let's read our verses.

This is the longest of all of these letters and although we're not going to cover all of these verses tonight we'll read them all together. "And to the angel of the church at Thyatira write, the words of the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and faith in service and patient endurance and that your latter works exceeded 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 sick bed 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 of the churches will know that I am he who searches mine 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 words until the end to him I will give authority over the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron as when 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 and he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Now let me explain how we're going to approach these verses. It's just like we have approached all these other churches. I'm going to make five observations out of the verses. First their communication out of verse 18. Second their commendation out of verse 19.

Third their chastisement out of verses 20 to 23. We'll only cover verse 20 and 21 tonight. And then next time we'll look at fourth their command or we'll finish up the chastisement then we'll look at the command and fifth their counsel in verse 26 to 29. So number one their communication out of verse 18. Their communication. Let's look back at verse 18. "And to the angel of the church in Thy retire right, the words of the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze." Just like in the previous letters there is a familiar communication to the leadership and the people in the church.

Notice the Lord addresses the angel. We've already come to understand this is the elder this would be the pastor of the church. Now there is a big lesson here and I may repeat this and I probably well I know I have mentioned this. God works through the prescribed order in the church. And his prescribed order is the pastor then the other elders or the other leaders then the men and then so on. That is God's prescribed order and we will get to God's prescribed order in this letter. But this reminds me of a conversation I had with someone in the church years ago.

Years ago when I was serving in a church there was a lady in the church her husband happened to be a deacon. This was a church where the deacons exercised authority. They didn't serve like we see in the scripture. The deacons exercised authority like elders. But I'll never forget this lady looked at me, my wife and there were some other people around and she said if you just only heard the vision my husband has for this church and I took a step back because he was out of place. What I mean is he was stepping forward in exercising authority that he didn't have.

And that was representative of the fact that there was a group in that church that stepped forward and exercised authority that they didn't have. Now what am I trying to show you? God works within a prescribed order in the church. It's not that the pastor is the boss. It's not that he's some kind of a boss leader. No. The pastor is a servant but he works through the pastor then the elders. That's why an elder board or an elder body is important. Then through other leaders and men and so on. The prescribed order.

Just like we've seen before here we have a description of Jesus and it comes from what was previously written in chapter 1 verses 14 to 15. We need to see that the repetition was for a purpose. The repetition was for a purpose and this was to remind them of who Jesus was and is. First we see that he is the Son of God. Here we have a unique description to Revelation. This is the first time this is used in the book but here Jesus is placing an emphasis on his deity. John is not speaking of the fact that Jesus is human although he was. Here John was stating and emphasizing that Jesus was and is God and judge.

Simply John was telling them he's telling us of Jesus authority as God. He has authority as God over his church. Second we see that he has eyes like fire. Here this graphic description speaks of Jesus' ability to see anything and everything especially the condition of his church. And this speaks to the fact that Jesus knew their works. He knew everything about them, who they were. We see this in verse 19 as well. And simply John was and is telling us that Jesus sees all concerning this church and the others. And then third we see that he has feet like burnished bronze. Now this can confuse some but this is rather simple.

This simply speaks of Jesus as the eternal judge. Later on in Revelation 19.15 we see Christ as the judge of all other nations. So simply John is telling us, he was telling them that Jesus is the judge of his church. So notice how this comes together. Notice here we see the communication from Jesus to this church and in this communication Jesus reveals himself as God who has authority over his church and he sees everything concerning his church. And that he has authority and the ability to judge them. Now in seeking to apply this in our day how do we relate to what we see here?

You might be the kind of person that reads a verse like that and thinks well that doesn't apply to us. I don't understand this about feet and bronze anyway. Well it does relate to us. What we must see is Jesus has authority over his church. All churches he has authority over our church. I've said this at times. It's okay for us to say our church but it's not our church, it's his church. But he's given his church to us. But what we must see is Jesus has authority. He must be allowed to have authority and he has authority over our church.

He sees everything about us as individuals and as a church and he has the authority to judge us and we need him to judge us. So we need to study these churches individually and collectively and see how we relate to these things and we need to see where we are commended and where we could be condemned and we need to accept his judgments no matter what and we need to do what he commands us to do no matter what. And again some of this I'm coming back to again flesh it out a little more in that last sermon. Then number two their commendation. Their commendation. This is the good news. Let's look at verse 19.

He says, "I know your works," we'll come back to that word "know," "your love and faith and service and patient endurance and that your latter works exceed the first or the first works." Now just like with the other churches we have studied we see that this church received a praise report a praise report and we will see five details in this praise report. First the text says he knew their deeds.

The English Standard and the King James it uses the word "works." Now we have seen this with every church and we should know what this word is and what it means but this word "know" in the original this means to have full knowledge perfect knowledge, accurate knowledge. This is not an acquired knowledge because if Jesus needed to acquire knowledge here that would imply that he wasn't God but because he is God he had full knowledge, total knowledge, accurate knowledge. So John was telling these people, this church, that Jesus knew them. Second the text says he knew their love.

Now the modern translations say love, the King James reads charity and this love was a love for God and a love for one another. And this is very important to see because this tells us quite a lot about who they were, their character. And this is completely different than the Ephesian church. Remember that the Ephesian believers had forsaken their love for God. Remember they were the mechanical church they were doing everything right on the outside but they had forsaken their love for God. So here John was telling them that Jesus knew of their love, their love for God and their love for one another.

Now let me pause right here and give you a little lesson. We must always remember that those two loves are inseparable. If you have a problem loving people it's because you have a problem loving God. If you love God as you should you will love people as you should. I have thought about people who serve in the life of the church. I have heard people say, "You know pastor I can't work with children." It could be that when the pastor asks you or someone asks you to work with children if you say, "Well I'm not sure if I can relate to them.

I'm not sure if I love them like you do." Maybe you take that to the Lord and pray and take that to the Lord and maybe because you love the Lord and you adjust your love to the Lord your love for little boys and girls could be adjusted. Right now some of you are getting nervous because you think, "Well pastor six asked me to work with children." What am I trying to show you? If we have a problem loving people that's because we have a problem in our love life with our Lord. You see? Then third says he knew their faith.

Now all the translations say the same thing here but this word is more accurately translated faithfulness and this speaks of their faithfulness, their dependability. A good word to use here is their consistency. Albert Barnes says this speaks of their fidelity in his service. I like that word as well. So here John was telling them that Jesus knew of their faithfulness, their consistent faithfulness, their dependability. Then forth the text says he knew of their service. This is simple and easy to see. This speaks of fulfilling their duties in the church. You see?

Matthew Henry says this respects chiefly the officers of the church who had labored in word and doctrine. So John was telling them that he knew of their service. And then fifth the text says he knew their perseverance. The New American, the legacy standard says perseverance. The King James reads patient endurance. I like to combine the two. But this speaks of their continued service and work in the church. They were faithful, they were steadfast, they persevered in good times and in bad times. So John was telling them that Jesus knew of their patient perseverance and endurance. And then sixth, the text says he knew their growth.

Notice the English standard says that your latter works exceed the first. It'd be okay for us to say that your latter works, your former works exceed your first works. This speaks to growth. This speaks to spiritual growth and spiritual growth within them and through them. They were growing and doing these good things in their personal lives as Christians and in the life of the church. John MacArthur says they were growing in grace. I like that. Matureing in their Christian lives. I like that. And advancing the cause of Christ. I like that. For that behavior they were commended. We could say they were advancing the cause of Christ.

That means they were working hard in the church. So John was telling them that Jesus knew that they were growing in their growth in their own lives and in the church. Now this leads me to a question or two right here. What type of church do we have here? I mean that's a lot there. This looks like a strong people. This looks like a strong church. We could be sitting here thinking, "Pastor, that's a good church." And look, John tells us that Jesus knew them. Fully. And Jesus tells us that they had a love for God and a love for other people. Folks, there are a lot of churches today that can't even love somebody.

They were faithful and consistent in their faithfulness. There are a lot of people that are not consistent in their faithfulness today. Their leadership fulfilled their duties within the church. How many leaders don't do that? They had a patient perseverance in good and bad times. Many today are patiently persevering in good times but not bad. They were also growing in their personal Christian lives and in the work of the church more each day, each month, each year. Those are the kind of Christians we need. So right here we would say this was a strong church. I know I'm going to show my age. Anybody remember who Paul Harvey was?

What was he famous for saying? What was he famous for saying? The rest of the story. We got to see the rest of the story, hear the rest of the story. But right here it's not Paul Harvey. This is Jesus talking. And for us, this is the kind of church and people we need to be. Let's just pause right here. We need to be this kind of people, not the rest of the story, the first part of the story. And I believe many of us are. I see this in many of you and I'm thankful. But there is a warning here. There is a huge warning here.

We can be all these things and more, these good things, but we could still be a church that tolerates false teachers and false teaching just like this church. See? And this reminds me of the Ephesian warning. Remember they did everything right. We could be like them. We could do everything right and be the prominent church in the area and still forsake our first love. So notice how these two warnings go hand in hand. You see? There's the warning to the Ephesian church. That is doing everything right, but yet forsaking your first love. There's the warning to the church at Thyatira.

That is being a church that is comprised of strong Christians, but tolerating false teachers and false teaching. Now we move to number three, the rest of the story, the chastisement, verses 20 to 23. The chastisement. Of course, we won't cover all of this tonight, but let's read all of these verses. "But," you know when you come into the Scripture and you see the word "but," it's either real good or real bad. Isn't that right?

"But I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel," maybe a little sarcasm there, "who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my service 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 sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works." Verse 23, "And I will strike her children dead." Sometimes people will pause right here and say, "This isn't the Jesus I want to serve. This is the Jesus of the Bible.

And all the churches will know that I am He who searches mine and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works." Well, as we can see, the good news has turned bad news. The praise report has turned into something much different. Again, Paul Harvey, the rest of the story. This church had a serious issue within the life of the church, and this problem was not from without, but from within. The church at Smyrna had a problem from outside. Remember persecution. Well, here we learned that the church at Thyatira had a problem from the inside, a very, very dangerous problem at that. But notice the language.

I'm pointing to one particular part of the verse. The English Standard in the New American says, "But I have this against you." If you're writing your Bible, that word "you" is important. And I want to call your attention to something about this language and this word. The pronoun here "you" is in the singular. Scholars. Those who interpret the original language, they believe that this rebuke was specifically for the angel or the elder. See? Well, this tells me that the things that are wrong in the churches in our communities, first and foremost, God holds the pastor responsible.

But before we get on our high horse, or before I get on my high horse, here at Grace Life Brookhaven, the things that are wrong or unhealthy are not what they should be, first and foremost, God holds me responsible. If our children's ministries need some attention, He's going to hold me responsible. If our ministry teams aren't quite organized as to what they should be, that means He holds me responsible. If our small groups do not grow as they should, I don't know if you realize it, but we're facing multiplying some. I said divide one time and I got rebuked. Tommy said, "That's negative, pastor.

Don't say divide." Well, multiplying small groups is good. If our small groups don't grow as they should, well, that falls on me. If our budgeting and budgeting needs don't go as they should, here soon we've got to look at what we're going to do with the building and saving some money. I'm just mentioning things that are on my heart, and what I'm trying to show you is those things start with me, and that's why it's important to have a healthy body of leadership. We believe in a plurality of elders. It's not just on the shoulders of the pastor. Let me let you in on a little secret. If it's all built on me, this is going to fail.

I don't want that. You see? And I need men in my life who will come up to me and say, "Pastor, this over here isn't quite right. We've got to do better." But back to Thyatira. Let's look at this chastisement. First, verse 20 says, "They tolerated a false teacher." Let's look back at verse 20. "But this I have 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." Now, there's quite a few things I want us to notice here. Notice they allowed a woman teacher within the church. Is that biblical?

Certain denominations allow that. How do we react to that? What's the Bible say? What's culture say? They allowed a woman teacher within the church. Notice she taught false doctrine. The text reads, "She called herself a prophetess." Scholars tell us this indicates that she was a false teacher. Then notice she was or she was, she is likened to or compared to the Old Testament woman Jezebel. Might be good for you this week to go study a little bit about Jezebel. Go over to 1 Kings. I like what John MacArthur says here. He gives a good summary of this Old Testament woman Jezebel and how it relates to this woman Jezebel.

But I'm quoting, "Jezebel undoubtedly was not the false prophetess' real name, but like the infamous wife of King Ahab, she was Satan's agent to corrupt God's people. Therefore, the Lord branded her with the symbolic name Jezebel." Isn't that a symbolic name even today? He goes on to say, "The Old Testament Jezebel was an unspeakably vile woman, so much so that the Bible names marrying her as the most evil thing wicked King Ahab did." 1 Corinthians, excuse me, 1 Kings 16, 30 to 31. Let me pause there. Do y'all know how vile and wicked King Ahab was? But God says the most wicked thing he did was marry Jezebel.

And MacArthur goes on to say, "Through Jezebel's evil influence, Baal worship, which was a pagan deity, became widespread in Israel." But then also notice in verse 20, "She led these Christians astray." The text says that she seduced. That's a graphic word. She seduced Christ's servants, which would have been believers in the church. And then notice, she led them into immorality. Bible commentators debate as to what this looked like. What I mean is this. They question, was this a blending of Christianity and the pagan Greek gods and worshipping those Greek gods? I think it's safe to assume that.

If you study all of those deities and how they worship those deities, it was almost always tied up with forms of sexual immorality. Well, we do not know what this practically looked like, but we know that she led God's people into sexual immorality. Notice that she led them into idolatry. Again, what does this look like? I would say that it's safe to assume that it was into some type of the idolatry of the day, but we honestly do not know the text, does it say? But we know that many of the churches in the Greek world struggle with the temptation of practicing, participating in these idolatrous lifestyles of the Greeks.

Many Christians were tempted to eat food sacrificed to idols, and it was so prevalent in their culture. Now, at this point, notice what we have here. We have a very, very serious problem. We have serious problems, plural. We have sin in sinfulness in the life of this church. And although we see some similar things in the church at Pergamum, what we have here in Thyatira is much, much, much, much, much more sinful and dangerous in the life of the church. Now, at this point, I want to pause right here in the middle of these verses, and really just pausing right in the middle of the message to show you two things.

First, we're not going to finish these verses tonight. One, for the sake of time, we just don't have the time. And then also because there is so much more that we don't have time to cover and we need to cover. But second, this brings us to a good place to stop and to ask some questions about our church and our day, what is right and what is wrong concerning a hot debate in the life of the church today. Do any of you ever keep up with what's going on in Southern Baptist circles? We were Southern Baptists at one time. When we moved, we just chose not to affiliate. We should be concerned at what's going on in Southern Baptist life.

We have many family members who are Southern Baptists. I love Southern Baptists. I'm not against Southern Baptists. I have friends that are Southern Baptists. So don't go out of here thinking, "Oh, Pastor Chris hates Southern Baptists." No. But Southern Baptists are debating the role of women and women ministers and can they be a pastor? It's a hot debate. Went on this year at the Southern Baptist Convention. In the previous year, many churches have been disfellowshipped because of their views here. We should also keep up with what this looks like in our United Methodist friends.

But what I'm trying to show you is this is extremely relevant in our day. Now I want to conclude tonight's message with a few questions. I want you to ponder and study over these questions. I know that I'm going to zoom through them. You might want them. If you need them, I can give them to you. But I want you to ponder these questions, think about these questions, maybe make these questions a matter of discussion. If you go discuss these things outside the doors of this church, you may be surprised what you hear. But the first question, what is the teaching role of women in the life of the church?

What is the teaching role of women in the life of the church? I'll expound on that question by asking another one, can a woman have the spiritual gift of teaching? And if so, what is the teaching role in the life of a church today for women? Second, would it ever be okay for a woman to teach the Bible from the pulpit of a church? More specifically, would it ever be biblical for a woman to teach the Bible from our pulpit? What about on a Mother's Day? Mother's Day is Mother's Day, right? What about a weekend, like a woman's weekend, a woman's conference? We're having one coming up in October.

You know, we had our Act Like Men conference, well, all the women started saying, "What about us?" So we're alternating. Brother Jeff Noblitt's wife, Pam Noblitt is coming. Is it okay for a woman like that, in a circumstance like that, to preach in the pulpit? And I'll add to that question, the second question, doesn't all women's audience mean anything? If it's an all women's audience, if it's a mixed audience, does that have any bearing on the question? Third, would it ever be okay for a woman to give a testimony from the pulpit in the life of the church? Would it be okay for a woman to give a testimony from our pulpit?

What about if we have a famous missionary, like Cory Ten Boom? Anybody know who Cory Ten Boom was? She was famous for after the Second World War, she would travel from church to church sharing her testimony. What about if Elizabeth Elliot was still alive? Anybody know who Elizabeth Elliot was? She was noted for her teaching ministry and sharing her testimony about losing her husband, Jim Elliot. We have people in our church going mission trip. I've talked to Annie about sharing. What should that look like? Fourth, how do we handle women like Beth Moore, who have preached from the pulpit of churches to the entire congregation, men and women?

Is that right? Is that wrong? Is that a matter of opinion? Is that a black and white biblical issue? Now why do I bring up Beth Moore? Beth Moore was very, very, very popular in Southern Baptist Circle and still is. As a matter of fact, you can go to the LifeWay Christian Resources website. It's a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. They're publishing arm and you can purchase Beth Moore's material. Fifth question, is this an issue we should discuss and decide, especially in light of the current situation in the world today? Now what am I mean?

Look if you take the wrong position, quote unquote, in the world today when it comes to women and women's rights, you're toast. Sixth, does this letter and this teaching from this letter help us answer these questions in any way? I'll answer that question. Yes it does. As a matter of fact, that leads us to some other portions of scripture which demands that this becomes a part two. Also, this is part one, the Tolerate Church at Thyatira. And the next time I'm back with you, won't be here next Wednesday night nor the next. So you got plenty of time to answer these questions.

So the next time I'm back with you, we're going to finish these verses. We're going to answer all of these questions and more. And you and I will know exactly what the Bible says and even how we handle something like a lady sharing a testimony because that's very legitimate and much needed. So let's pray and then we're going to turn our attention to some prayer needs.