Letter to the Church in Thyatira

{Revelation 2:18-29}

"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.

"'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.'

[Rev. Dwight Yoo]

Background context. This city is landlocked in a valley unlike the other cities of the seven other churches of revelation. This city was not very important. This is the longest, most complicated letter sent to the more simple city. They were not being overtly persecuted. There were trade guilds and they struggled with compromise.

"who has eyes like a flame of fire" - Jesus sees everything.
"whose feet are like burnished bronze" - bronze workers would recognize this as Jesus' purity

"your latter works exceed the first" - the church in Thyatira loved God and also performed works of love. They were probably gracious and welcoming.

"But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel..." - There was a woman who claimed to be a prophetess. She taught things much like the Nicolatians. She was called Jezebel to indicate how she was evil. Jezebel is an Old Testament reference. She was a symbol of evil and seduced the people of Israel into worshipping other gods. The children are those who follow this woman. Jesus is saying he will make this woman suffer and make her followers die. False teaching is a serious matter.

Tolerance is considered a good thing. But it can go too far. We are called to believe that there is One way, One truth, and One life. So other religions are invalid. But this is viewed as "intolerance" by others. There are certain things to be intolerant of...

"one who conquers and keeps my works... I will give him the morning star." - Those who hold onto Christ will rule with Him. Christ also promises Himself to them.

Application

Main problem: I have this against you, you tolerate... (You cannot tolerate everything.) "Jezebel" should have been confronted.

Solution:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. - Ephesians 4:11-16

We need to have both love and truth. This is what the church should look like. How does it look?

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. - John 1:14

Jesus personified the balance of grace & truth. Gracious to sinners. Welcome to tax collectors and prostitutes. Defensive of the truth. Willing to confront those who are in the wrong.

When Jesus stays the center of our lives, we will be gracious and loving. When He is not the center, we look for praise of man or justification through works. We will be afraid to confront people. We will fear what they think of us. OR We don't care what other people think. We will always seek to justify ourselves. To stay in the right all the time. We take pride in ourselves.

1. Are there conversations the LORD may be calling you to have?
   Does God want you to confront someone?
   
2. How will you receive it, when confronted?
   Are we humble & thankful that someone points out our sin?
   
3. Prayer for all of your relationships to be characterized by speaking TRUTH with GRACE, IN LOVE especially in the church, this is where transformation happens.
   If there is no depth in your relationships, this cannot happen. This is why so many of us are spiritual stuck. In our Community Groups, if there is only your physical presence there... that is NOT community. We need to be close enough to one another so that loving & gracious confrontation can happen. Don't blame your leaders or your group. Have you open up your life?