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Indeed, those words you're just
saying, Jesus cast a look on me, give me sweet simplicity
and make me poor and keep me low, seeking only thee to know
and we know him in his word. And so I'm gonna ask you to please
remain standing and to take God's word, their Bibles, turn to Revelation
chapter two. It's the book of Revelation chapter
two. Scripture reading is gonna begin
in Verse 18, and I'll read to the end of the chapter. Verse
29, that's 12 verses. This is the longest of the messages
to the churches. We are now in the fourth church
of the seven churches of Revelation. This is the message to the church
in Thyatira. And beginning in verse 18, God's
word says this, and to the angel of the church in Thyatira, Right,
the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet
are like burnished bronze says this, I know your deeds and your
love and faith and service and perseverance and that your deeds
of late are greater than at first. But I have this against you,
that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess,
and she teaches and leads my bondservants astray, so that
they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to
idols. I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent
of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a
bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into
great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will
kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know
that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will
give to each one of you according to your deeds. But I say to you,
the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching,
who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them,
I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless, what you have,
hold fast until I come. He who overcomes and he who keeps
my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the
nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels
of the potter are broken to pieces. As I also 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. Let's pray. Father in heaven,
how grateful we are to have your word before us. Lord, we thank
you for your word because we know your word is truth. And
so, Lord, we ask now as your word is preached, we ask, Lord,
that your Holy Spirit would give us understanding. We ask, Lord,
if I say things here that are incorrect to your word, we pray
your Holy Spirit would make that known to these people. And yet,
Lord, if what I say is according to your revealed word, we ask
that your Holy Spirit would convict us of these great truths for
your glory and for the good of your church, we pray in Jesus'
name, amen. You may please be seated. I think as many of you know, this
last Thursday was the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion,
and sometimes we forget just how involved, how detailed that
invasion was. It was still to this day the
largest amphibious invasion in history. Nothing has come close
since. It took 15 hours for 150,000
Allied soldiers to land in occupied France. Just the planning for
D-Day took almost two years. And I want you just to imagine
all the details that they had to take in place to pull that
off. Just feeding 150,000, you know,
how do you feed that many people? All the details that they had
to think of. The planning itself must have
been a nightmare. And one part of the plan was
the night before the invasion to have bombers fly over the
beach and drop bombs on the beach that would create these craters.
So when the soldiers arrived on the beach, they could run
and jump in these craters and miss all the machine gun fire.
Unfortunately, though, the planes were flying at night in the fog,
And they missed the beach with all the bombs that they dropped.
They didn't hit the beach at all. So when the soldiers landed,
when the troops landed and they came on the beach, there's no
protection for them at all from all that machine gun fire. 7,000 Allied ships brought the
soldiers across the English Channel. And when the soldiers arrived
in those landing crafts, and those gates would go down, What
they found on the beach was just total, total chaos. One soldier
described it this way, said, with men's bodies everywhere,
with wounded men crying, both in the water and on the shingle,
I'm assuming the shingle is that gate that comes down on those
landing crafts, but he said the beach sounded like a beehive
with bullets flying everywhere. Can you imagine that? I mean,
what a vivid description that is. The buzzing of bullets all
over the place sounded like a beehive, he said. Another said it was
cold. Even though it was June, the
water temperature was probably 45 or 50 degrees. That's colder
than if you've ever been in the ocean over here. I mean, that's
colder than our beach. Another said, I saw men sinking
all around me. There were bodies floating everywhere,
face down in the water with packs still on their backs. Another
said, I thought I was the last man in hell. A journalist named
Ernie Pyle was there after the invasion. And he wrote about
just all the bodies floating in the water and so forth. And
he said that he witnessed the awful taste and destruction of
war. A week after the invasion, the
same reporter walked along the beach. All the bodies, of course,
had been taken away. But he walked along the beach.
Here's what he wrote. He said, here in a jumbled row
for mile on mile are soldiers' packs. Here are socks and shoe
polish, sewing kits, diaries, Bibles, and hand grenades. Here are the latest letters from
home. Here are toothbrushes and razors
and snapshots of families back home staring up at you from the
sand. Men and women on that one day,
4,000 414 soldiers died, and countless
more were wounded. I've said it to you before, I
have no idea how they did it. I really don't know if I could
have got on one of those troop ships. When that gate came down,
I don't know if I could have run out onto that beach with
the bullets sounding like a beehive. I don't know that I could do
it. I don't know that I could have my son do it. And yet they
did. And for what? Why'd they do it? I think you know the answer.
President Roosevelt said it in a famous prayer on that day.
He said this, our sons, pride of our nation, this day have
set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our
religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. There's your answer. That's why
they did it. That's why they were willing
to risk their life and suffer. And all of that was for freedom,
because we Americans love freedom. And spiritually, we Christians
love freedom as well. Jesus said in John 8, 32, he
said, if you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples
of mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make
you free. Apostle Paul said this, it was
for freedom that Christ set us free and therefore keep standing
firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. But what
does that mean? What does it mean that we as
Christians are free? Does it mean that we're now free
to sin all we want? Does it mean like that little
saying that goes, oh, the grace of God, oh, blessed condition,
I can sin all I want and still have remission? Is that what
it means? Is that what it means that we're
free in Christ? Does it mean we're now free from
the demands of the law? Well, today there are many who
teach basically a form of that very thing. It's called antinomianism. From namas, from the Greek word
namas, which is law, and anti, the Greek word for against. They're
against the idea that there is any law that we have to keep.
Oh, don't point to the law, don't tell me I need to do this or
that. I'm free in Christ, they say. Well, the church in Thyatira,
there were some who were basically teaching that very thing as well.
And in Christ's message to the church of Thyatira, you're going
to see not only the problem of antinomianism, but you see here
also the problem of false teachers and just how serious Christ takes
that issue. of false teachers in the church.
And therefore, as we look at this text, I hope you will understand
the importance of examining teachers in light of the word of God and
in seeking to live in a way that is pleasing to God. We have,
what, 12 verses before us? We're going to divide this up
the same way that we have been dividing it up for all the churches.
God's Word basically gives us the outline because we have first
a description to each church. Christ describes himself in a
different way to each church. Then we have a commendation.
Here's what the church is doing well. Then there's this rebuke,
but here's what you're not doing well. Here's what you need to
repent of. Then there's the charge. And here's what I want you to
do. And then there's a promise. There's great promise. If you
do what I'm telling you to do, here's the promise. And so we
begin with the description. And we are now in Thyatira. And
what is unique about this church is that of the seven churches
mentioned in Revelation, Thyatira was the least significant. Of
the seven cities that are mentioned, Thyatira, boy, it was the least
significant. And yet the church there received
the longest letter. I like that. I might be reading
into it something that's not there, but I like that. And the
reason is because ever since I went into the ministry 42 years
ago, as a youth pastor, I've always been at small churches.
My whole ministry has been at small churches. I actually have
no desire to be at one of those big megachurches. I live here
in Southern California. I think we have more megachurches
in Southern California than anywhere else in the U.S., maybe except
Texas or something. But you need to realize that,
what I read once, 85% of the churches in the world are 200
members or less. Most churches are little churches,
and certainly Reformed Baptist churches are usually little churches. And I like that. Here's this
insignificant city and therefore this insignificant little church
and yet they get the longest letter and if i may read into
this something that's probably not there but it shows me that
christ considers this church significant you know you might
be insignificant in the world's eyes but to me you're significant
and i have much to say to you. One thing we know about Thyatira
is that it had many trade guilds. And to be a Christian in that
city would be very, very difficult because those trade guilds often
practiced idolatry, which a Christian couldn't participate in. And
therefore, Kind of like, as James has told us about Pakistan, kind
of like being a Christian in Pakistan, it's very hard for
a Christian to make a living there. It's very hard to make
a living without compromising in some way with idolatry. And so now to this church, Christ
describes himself this way, verse 18. the son of God, who has eyes
like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished bronze."
That's how he describes himself to this church. Remember, people,
we already said this city was full of idolatry. And on top
of that, there was also the worship of Caesar. Remember, and the
Caesars claim to be gods and to be worshiped as God. And sometimes
even said that they were the son of God. And so the first
thing that Christ says to this church is that he alone is the
son of God. And notice this one true son
of God. Notice it says he has eyes like
a flame of fire and feet like burnished bronze. Both of those
images point to impending judgment. His eyes see all. His feet are
of great strength. And then remember, later in chapter
14, we're going to see that he will tread, you know, with his
feet, he will tread upon the wicked in the winepress of God's
wrath. That's Christ's description of
himself to this church. Now the commendation. Look at
verse 19. Verse 19 says, I know your deeds
and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your
deeds of late are greater than at first. In other words, Christ
commends this church for several things. In many ways, people,
this church in Ziotero was a very good church. There was lots of
works. There was love and service. By
the way, that's why I read the reading from James for the law.
There was love in this church. There was good works. There was
faith and perseverance in this church. And not only that, notice
their works were increasing. Your deeds of late are greater
than at first. But there was a huge problem,
wasn't there? And that takes us to the rebuke, it's verse
20. Verse 20 says this, but I have this against you, that you tolerate
the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she
teaches and leads my bond servants astray so that they commit acts
of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. People think
of the contrast between the church, this church, and the church in
Ephesus. Look at the contrast. Thyatira
was not defective in love, whereas the church in Ephesus, remember,
they had abandoned their first love. But Ephesus had no toleration
for error and false messages. They had no toleration for that,
and yet Thyatira's problem was just that. There was a willingness
to tolerate, as we were told, the woman Jezebel. Well, who's
that? Who's this woman Jezebel? Well,
her name isn't really Jezebel, that's symbolic. Christ is calling
this heresy by a symbolic name. He identifies this teaching with
Jezebel, the wicked queen from the ninth century BC, who, remember
what she did? She led God's people into idolatry
and immorality. Well, here, the Jezebel of this
church in Thyatira is advocating a compromise with paganism. Apparently. Men and women, we
need, I think, to pause here for a moment, because this really
hits home to the day in which we live today here in America. I like what David Chilton said
in his commentary. He said this, just like the Jezebel
of the Old Testament, the Jezebel of Thyatira, of the Thyatirian
church, similarly advocated compromise with paganism. Of course, very
pious-sounding terminology would have accompanied this, perhaps
to the effect that, well, you know, after all, there is only
one God, so any worship rendered to false gods is really offered
to the true God. Or that by joining pagans in
their religious services, one might be able to witness for
Christianity. Or that going along with the
heathen will enable Christians to survive rather than be wiped
out by persecution. Or perhaps that all religions
have something to teach each other. All of those things that
we hear of today. Men and women, I said we need
to pause here. Because again, we hear this type
of thing in the church today. How many times have we been told
God doesn't care how you come to Him in worship as long as
you come to Him. How many times have you heard that? Steve and
I hear it all the time because we're, Steve and I and the elders
of this church are trying to be very faithful in our form
of worship. And I hear all the time from
friends and people saying, oh, God doesn't care. He doesn't
care how we come to Him in worship as long as we come to Him. Well,
yes, He does care. Nadab and Abihu would disagree
with that comment. They brought, they sincerely
brought the strange incense before God. And what did he do? He struck
them dead. He said, I'll be treated as holy. You know, God, the second commandment,
God cares how we approach him in worship. Or years ago, being
raised in the liberal church in San Francisco Bay Area, this
is very familiar to me, but years ago, there was that real push
for the ecumenical movement. It's not so talked about anymore,
but it's still around. Do you remember, though, the
big emphasis on the ecumenical movement? I sure do. The idea
is that there's so many churches out there How are we going to
get united? And the way to become united
was to compromise. Each church, each religion has
to just compromise main points of the religion and therefore
we'll all be united, we'll all get along. I went online and
looked up a definition of the ecumenical movement and here's
what I found. Online it said this, members
of the Protestant or Orthodox Roman Catholic and Mormon churches
all call themselves Christians, and yet they also maintain theologies
and practices that diverge in significant ways. Ecumenical
organizations such as the World Council of Churches and the National
Association of Evangelicals attempt to bridge those differences,
although such efforts remain controversial. You bet it's controversial. Because the ecumenical movement
wants churches to compromise significant doctrinal beliefs.
Now certainly there are doctrines which we hold, which we would
consider in-house disagreements. Baptism for example. Some of
our brethren baptize infants and they say we're wrong not
to. We baptize only believers and say you're wrong not to.
But we're brothers and sisters. That's an in-house debate. Views of end times. The various
views on end times. That's an in-house debate. We
don't divide over that. Or formal or informal worship. Some pastors I know wear jeans
and a t-shirt when they preach. I wear, I'm old, so I gotta wear
a coat and a tie. I just can't not do it. But those
are issues that we need to be tolerant. of one another. But if you ask the Protestant,
will you give up, will you give up sola scriptura, scripture
alone, so that you can get along with the Greek Orthodox? We would
say no. If you ask the Roman Catholic,
will you give up belief in the one true triune God, so that
you can get along with the Mormons, which believe in trillions of
gods, will you give that up? Rightfully, they would say no,
we won't. And men and women, I was confronted
with this 30 years ago when I came to this church. And I was just
this young guy, my second senior pastorate, and I came to this
church and I kept hearing, only about five of you are gonna even
know what I'm talking about, but I kept hearing over and over
again about this church that a former associate pastor had
started to reach out to the Jews And I know this former pastor,
he's with the Lord now, but he was a great guy, loved the Lord.
Brilliant guy as well, he really knew Hebrew and so forth. But
he started a church with the idea that we're gonna reach the
Jews by putting Christianity in a Jewish format. Well, I visited
the church, it met on Saturdays, not Sundays, because that's the
Jewish day of worship. They wore Jewish prayer cloths
and so forth. They kept the dietary laws. One
of the members was my secretary's daughter and her husband that
lived with my secretary. And they made her keep a kosher
kitchen. When Passover came, she had to
open up all the cupboards and they had to sweep the cupboards
for any leaven that might be in there and so forth. And when
I visited the church, I started to think, where have, When have
you left Christianity and become just simply Jewish? The only
thing that they, when they would refer to Christ, they would call
him Yeshua. But I don't know that they ever preached from
Galatians. I don't know that they would have ever preached
what we saw here just a few weeks ago, where Jesus Christ calls
the Jews the synagogue of Satan. I don't know that they would
have mentioned that part. My point is this, when have we
thrown the baby out with the bathwater? I think this issue here in Thyatira
is very timely for the church in America today. Notice something
else about this Jezebel. Look at verse 24, look ahead
at verse 24. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira,
who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things
of Satan as they call them, perhaps this false teacher, and by the
way, She might have been a woman. She might have been the wife
of one of the pastors. She might have been a man, we
don't know. But notice, Christ refers to the deep things as
they call them. Perhaps this false teacher said,
which we hear so often today as well, oh, you know, the Bible
is good. Read the Bible. It can take you
only so far, though. What you need is the deep things
that I can offer. You need the revelation knowledge
that I can give you. Didn't we hear that with Benny
Hinn years ago? Remember when he famously said,
you know, there's nine persons to the Trinity and everybody
was kind of aghast. And he said, well, you didn't
come here to hear what you already know, did he? You came here for
real revelation knowledge. Perhaps something similar to
that is going on at this church in Thyatira. And by the way,
perhaps in verse 24, Jesus is making a point by calling it
actually the deep things of Satan. You know, she calls it the deep
things of God. They're actually the deep things
of Satan. Now people, this is a very important
issue. Once again, let me refer to Chilton.
I can't say it better than this. He says, this must be clearly
understood. Orthodox biblical Christianity
is intolerant. A church that tolerates evil,
and false doctrine is a church under judgment. God will not
tolerate her. This is not to say that Christians
should be intolerant of each other's mistakes or idiosyncrasies
and differences over non-essentials. But when it comes to clear violations
of biblical law and orthodox doctrine, the government of the
church is required by scripture to put a stop to it before it
destroys the church. And apparently they didn't do
that here at the church in Thyatira. And so that takes us now to the
charge or the command. Verses 21 through 23. Verse 21. I gave her time to repent, and
she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will
throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery
with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children
with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am
He who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each
one of you according to your deeds." People, obviously this
problem, this false teaching had been going on for some time.
But Christ in his mercy was giving her or them time to repent. But she did not repent. And so
there was nothing left except for Christ to act. And he says,
I will cast her into a sickbed. And that sickbed may not be a
literal illness, but instead a reference to the tribulation
which he is going to bring upon her. And notice, and her children. In other words, those who follow
her. Men and women, I think you can see the application in our
own day right here. In many ways, the church today
is a mess, isn't it? I certainly know that, having
grown up in a liberal church. We have seen false doctrine come
into the church. And it is tolerated. And how
long will the church last before God brings judgment? I don't
know. But I want you to notice again,
verse 24. Verse 24, but I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira,
who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things
of Satan, as they call them, I place no other burden on you. When God judges, when God brings
down his judgment, the righteous have nothing to fear. Each man
will receive what his deeds warrant. And Christ has no other instruction
to place upon those who have remained undefiled by the false
teaching of Jezebel other than this, hold fast until I come. Verse 25, verse 25, nevertheless, Nevertheless, what you have,
hold fast until I come. Once again, just as we've said
in the past, is that the second coming of Christ that he's referring
to? Or until I come in judgment upon this church? I think in
the context, it is the latter part, that he's gonna come in
judgment upon them. Hold fast until that happens. But either way, Christ tells
you to hold fast. And that takes us to the last
point. It's the promise. Verses 26 and 27. He who overcomes and he who keeps
my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the
nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels
of the potter are broken to pieces. As I have also received authority
from my father. That, of course, is a reference
to Psalm 2, a messianic psalm, where the father promises the
son rule over the world. Rule over the world and of all
the nations. And the point here is that the Christian who overcomes,
they're promised a share in the reign of Jesus Christ. But that's not all. Look at verses
28 and 29. Verse 28, and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give him the morning star. What does that mean? Well, later
in chapter 22, Jesus will identify himself as the bright and morning
star. And so just as he was the hidden
manna that was promised to the overcomers in the church in Pergamum,
here we see that he's the morning star that will be given to the
overcomers of the church in Thyatira. The promise may simply be that
those who persevere through this dark time that they are living
in right now, those who persevere through it, they'll live to see
the dawning of a new day. In other words, hang in there.
Saying, hang in there. Don't give up. I liked our responsive
reading this morning for this reason. Isaiah 21, verse 11 says this,
Watchman, how long the night? How long the night? Watchman
says, morning comes. Sometimes we think that very
thing, how long the night? How long do we have to go through
this? And what God's word says is,
mourning comes. And he says to them, hang in
there. Hang in there, mourning comes. Be faithful. Those are his words to a suffering
church. Hang in there, mourning comes.
Men and women at that time in history, there were lots of Christians
who were famously martyred for their faith. One of them was
Polycarp that we mentioned, what, two weeks ago, I think, the Bishop
of Smyrna that we referred to before. He was famously martyred
there. Another was a woman named Perpetua. I think many of you have heard
of Perpetua. She lived and died in Carthage in North Africa. Today that's Tunisia, by the
way. But Perpetual was converted to Christ, and therefore would
not put a pinch of incense on the altar for the Caesars. And because of that, she was
sentenced to death in the Colosseum in Carthage. And the Colosseum
in Carthage was the second biggest Colosseum. The one in Rome was
the biggest, and then the one in Carthage. And they had started
to develop all these different ways that they could kill Christians
to the dazzle, the dazzlement of the crowd. And she was sentenced
to that. Her father begged her. You know,
she had a little baby. Hey, for the sake of your baby,
don't do this. Don't, just put a little pinch
on the altar, just renounce Christ and live. Her father just couldn't
understand why she would do such a thing. And fortunately for
us, just like with Anne Frank. Fortunately for us, Perpetua
kept a diary. And I want you to listen to one
entry from her diary. She says this, while we were
still under arrest, my father, out of love for me, was trying
to persuade me and shake my resolution. Father, said I, do you see this
vase here? Yes, I do, he said. And I told
him, could it be called by any other name than what it is? He
said, no. Well, so too, I cannot be called
anything other than what I am, a Christian. I mentioned Perpetua
because she was a famous martyr. But Chilton reminds us of this
great fact about these believers here in Thyatira. He says this,
to be a faithful Christian in Thyatira meant hardship and suffering,
and not necessarily a very glorious headline-making sort of suffering
either. Just the day-to-day grind of
faithfulness to Christ's word, just the fact of being unemployed
and unemployable in the midst of a booming economy. when everyone
around could get work for the mere price of burning a little
incense or eating a little meat from a pagan altar. There was
no opportunity for a great moral crusade. Everyone just thought
you were weird, and night after night your children would cry
for food. No, this kind of martyrdom was
not very glorious at all. But those who remained faithful
were promised that they would overcome and that they would
rule with Christ. The situation would be reversed.
The tables were about to be turned. Christ was coming to save and
to judge. And for Christians, The night
was just ending. The redeemed and liberated universe
was rushing headlong into a bright day. Christ was about to give
these overcomers the morning star. And men and women, the promise
is to you as well. The one who overcomes, the one
who keeps his deeds, who hangs in there until the end, Christ
will give. The Morning Star. Let's pray. Father in heaven, how grateful
we are for these words here. How grateful we are for this
church in Thyatira. And Lord, what an example they
are to us. What an example they are to us
of some of the very mistakes that we are making yet today.
But also what an example some of them are. To standing and
being faithful. To looking toward the end. to
being ready to endure, to go through the dark times and looking
to that morning star. Lord, how we thank you for this
great promise. And we pray, Lord, that you would
strengthen your church. We pray, Lord, that we'd take
these words to heart. And we thank you when we pray
this. In Jesus Christ's name, amen.
Revelation 2:18-29
Series Revelation
| Sermon ID | 611241824464160 |
| Duration | 37:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Revelation 2:18-29 |
| Language | English |
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