Church at Thyatira Rev, 2:18-29
Revelation 2:18-29 · Vern Peterman · Nov 18, 2001
Revelation (2001-03), No. 09
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262237587048

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Over the last few weeks, starting a couple of weeks ago, one of the things I'd begun the message with is looking at some kind of dovetailing between the events of the last couple of months and those of prophecy. One of the points we make is we want to be real careful about just grabbing some current event and saying, see, this is prophecy.

One of the things we've made clear is that The fall of the Twin Towers and even the attack on the Pentagon, neither of those are specifically predicted in scripture. But one of the points we made a couple of weeks ago is that the events of the last couple of months contribute to the one-world government. Secondly, and this is a point we made last week, it contributes to a one-world religion. Extremes of religion that disrupt the global system will be pushed out. What's happening in Afghanistan right now is case in point. Anything that kind of disagrees with that global, you know, one-world religion will be pushed aside. There are a couple articles in the literature rack in the lobby you might want to take a look at afterwards.

One is, do we worship the same God? There's been a lot of claims to that lately. How many of you have heard that message lately, do we worship the same God? And a little one-page article that's very good, it addresses it. There's another one that I think is fascinating, a second article that's in Literature Rack out there you might want to take a look at, shows some links between Islam and Roman Catholicism that are perhaps surprising. Anyway, take a look at that.

The last thing here is it contributes to a one-world economy. One of the things that we're seeing in recent weeks, the last couple of months, is we've got to get a hold of all this terrorist money, right? And so what do we have to do? We need international control. That's been what the claim is for.

And so that's kind of the third trend that you see coming out of this that fits right into what you find. And these trends you see, by the way, in Revelation 13, if you want to read that sometime and just kind of reflect on. These are kind of three parts of the braid that are coming together as this set of trends. comes into place. And what's been happening the last two and a half months fits just right in with those trends.

The other thing I wanted to kind of do to give us some perspective, today marks kind of the midpoint in the messages to the seven churches. We'll be looking at the fourth out of the seven. And this is also our eighth week in the study of Revelation here.

There are extra weekly handouts available in the lobby. and feel free to take advantage of those. My hope is that you'll notice that the handouts you've been given have a three-hole punch and they're ready. I'd like to encourage you to gather these things up and collect them. One of the other things we put out in the literature rack is a slipcover insert like this and a spline insert so that you can put that together. I think there's even a few free binders out there on top of the rack if you want to take advantage of that. But I just encourage you to put these together.

By the time we're done, we're probably looking at something like roughly 80 pages. So you'll have your own personalized commentary on the book of Revelation. And at the end, I think, you know, one of the things that is our goal here is that you will have a good understanding of the book of Revelation by the time we're done. and you'll have something you can look back to and refer to to help kind of refresh your memory and get further enrichment as we're going through. So with that, let me just proceed here. We're going to be digging into Revelation chapter 2, 18 through 29.

To kind of keep ourselves in perspective, this is the first handout that you got, and it may be difficult to read all the details, but the point is we're right here in the middle of chapters 2 and 3. So we're right at the end of chapter 2, so at the midpoint.

We're going to be taking a few more weeks to look at the last three of the messages to the seven churches. And then we're going to be reaching a juncture where we're going to be needing to take a look, kind of a look ahead. We'll be looking at the rapture and looking explicitly at that as we kind of view into this time of the tribulation. We'll also be taking a time after that to be looking a little bit at the book of Daniel, which will give us some perspective. And then we'll proceed on with these chapters in Revelation. Okay?

Now, one other thing to note too as we go through these seven cities. At first we started with Ephesus right along the coast and just 48 miles from Patmos where the revelation to John was given. We're starting to move inland now. As we start moving away from the coast, moving inland, these seven cities go in a kind of a clockwise pattern. And now the clockwise pattern is moving inland. We're going to be heading into the city.

Now, I call it Thatra, so you're going to have to maybe get adjustments. And you may be accustomed to the pronunciation Thyra. And the difference is a lot of our pronunciations have been Latinized. I went through seminary, they went and pounded this Greek into me. So what you have to remember is I'm not pronouncing it wrong. I'm just pronouncing it differently. I just put the emphasis on a different syllable. So if you can adjust to that, we'll communicate.

It might be surprising to us here, Thyatira is the smallest of the seven cities, and so you might think it would have just a little bit of verbiage. It's got the longest. And one of the things that seems to me, the Lord does not base his commitment to verbiage on nickels and noses. He didn't just say, oh, it's a small city, we'll just give it a few words. Instead, he gives it a lot. The Lord isn't counting nickels and noses. Apparently, he's counting something else. I think that's an important lesson for us to take home with us, too.

Because it was smaller, though, That means that there was a smaller area that it covered physically. On top of that, now it is mostly covered by a modern city of Akasar, and there were lots of earthquakes in that area, and there was a lot of military conquest. So as a consequence, instead of having all kinds of photographs of archaeological exhibits to show you, there's only one block left. to take a look at. Everything else has been covered up, reused somewhere else, or moved. So there isn't as much to take a look at. I will post one photo up that will give you some kind of an indication. See? That's about it. That is almost all that's left.

But one of the things that was influential with the city of Thyatira We do know that they had good reason to be loyal to the emperor, this Augustus Caesar. This is the same Augustus, by the way, that ordered the census and said, okay, all you people have to go back to the city of your forefathers and get counted. It didn't matter whether Joseph and Mary were expecting a baby, you just got to go. And one little interesting piece, you notice this little line around the neck?

What they would do is, since it was a lot of work to make the whole statue, they would just take the head off and put a new one on. And they'd put wax. Okay? And the wax, we get our word sincere from that. Okay? If it's insincere, sincere means without wax. Okay? Insincere, it's with wax. Okay. So that's where the term comes from. Bizarre, huh?

So they would just change the head. It was real easy, once you got the body done, to just lop the head off and put another one on next time the next emperor came along. So that's why you see this guy with a funny line at the neck. There wasn't any temple there during New Testament times, but they were exceedingly thankful to this guy. This is the head that's on here now. They were exceedingly thankful to him because he contributed a lot of money when they had this huge earthquake to help rebuild.

And so they were anxious to acknowledge the Roman emperor as deity, even though they didn't have a temple there. But one thing that they did have was this seal. And you have on the back of your handout a similar seal. There was a god named Apollo Timneus, or Trimneus in some seals.

And he's shown here in this one on the overhead, shaking hands with the emperor. And notice he's got this sort of axe in his hand, and that axe is a symbol of power and war. And so they would produce this seal to show Our kind of town deity, our city deity, is well linked with and well liked by and has a good relationship with the emperor, who is also a deity. That was kind of the message that they communicated to the people in the city.

Now, the one thing is, this deity is the son of Zeus. Zeus was the chief god, so this is the son of the chief of the gods. And we'll see here in a little bit why that's important to take a look at. Now, one of the most important things, however, for us to remember as we interpret this passage is that the city of Thadara was a city of craftsmen and merchants and numerous trade guilds. That's critical because it ends up impacting our understanding of the passage, and we'll go into that in further detail. As we look at the coins that came from the city, we find that they had on them images of cloth dyeing. They had garment making, pottery making, and brass working, among other trade guilds. And the membership in these guilds, it wasn't mandatory. You didn't have to be a member.

But, if you weren't, life would be difficult. See, Christians would have trouble getting work with these people unless they were a member of the trade guild. Because, after all, you might have trouble getting a job, you might have trouble selling. They might say, oh, well, you aren't part of our guild, so we won't work with you. We've got a special place over here in the marketplace, but if you're not a part of our guild, you can't sell your stuff there. They just made it difficult to anybody who was not a member of one of these special trade guilds. Now, here's the problem with the trade guild.

In the trade guild, what they would do is they would gather, usually about once a month, they would gather at the temple of the god that was associated with their trade. And they would have, you know how we'll have a gathering and we'll have an invocation and a benediction? Well, they used to have an invocation and a benediction too, and the invocation and the benediction was a sacrifice to their god at the beginning and at the end of all their trade guild meetings.

Okay? That's not all. After they'd take the sacrifice to the God, they'd take the meat and put it out on the table. And all the rest of the food. So all the food was right there at the temple. It had just been sacrificed. And then, after the meal was over, then they'd go off into orgies and all kinds of additional temple rituals. Right there at the temple.

You see the problem? So here's the Christians. If they're not a part of this, they can't get work. If they're not a part of this, they can't sell their goods. They have a problem, don't they? See the squeeze? If you really want to make it economically, you've got to join our trade guild. And if you want to be a part of our trade guild, you've got to join in with the pagan temple stuff. It all came together. It all worked together. And it was not legally required, but boy, was there pressure. Have you noticed we've got that in our own culture too? There are some things that aren't legally required, but boy, is there pressure. We've got something similar. Let's go on and take a further look here.

The city of Thadara is mentioned one other time in the New Testament in Acts 16. It mentions a lady named Lydia, and it says she was from Thadara. She was a trader in purple goods and was brought into a relationship with the Lord at Philippi. Dr. Luke records this for us in Acts 16. 13 and 14. Here's what he writes. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside where we were supposing there would be a place of prayer. And we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.

A woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshipper of God, was listening and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. Now, since Acts tells us that Lydia was a worshipper of God before she believed in Christ, She was possibly of Jewish background. At least we see her gathering where other people are ready to pray.

Apparently she had moved to Philippi to promote the purple trade in Macedonia. It's possible that she also found these trade guilds and all the required pagan involvement to be objectionable and found it better with her contacts to just go somewhere else. to find some other place where she could be involved without being forced to join these trade guilds. There's something else, and that's that Philippi and Thessalonica were in a part of the Roman Empire where women were allowed to have businesses of their own and to own property, which was difficult to do in Thadara. And so she could take this business that she maybe had some contacts with from Thyatira, go over to Philippi, own a business, and get away from the pressure of the trade fields.

So that's the only other mention that we have of the city in the Bible outside of this. Now, we don't know exactly how the church got started in Thyatira, but there are three possibilities. One, it's possible that Lydia had some influence in bringing the gospel back to the city. That may have been the influence.

It's also possible because the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2.9 and after that, it says that one of the languages that was spoken on that day was the language of Asia, which this would have been included in. And it's possible that of the 3,000 that became believers that day, some of them may have been from Thyatira and gone up in that area. So that could be.

Or the third thing, Acts 19.10, says that Paul and his companion preached the gospel for two years so that all who lived in Asia heard. You see, it could be any one of those, or maybe even all three that had an influence in establishing the church in Thyatira.

But however it got started, we need to look now, and later on I'll tell you the rest of the story. But for now, let's read Revelation 2, 18-29. And to the angel of the church of Theodora write, 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 your 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 bond servants 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 their 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 at Thyatira, do not hold this teaching. 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 who keeps my deeds to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. 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. And he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Now, one of the things that we noted was that these guilds, these trade guilds here, and merchants guilds in Thyatira were critical to understanding this passage. And here's the first place. The reference to Christ as the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

This was a familiar image to those who labored in the foundries because, what, they had these flaming furnaces? And they'd see these guys working there, looking over these cauldrons, and the idea of the flaming eyes, these eyes with this golden glow, would have been something they would have been very accustomed to seeing. Even others who came by the foundry would have looked in and seen this scene and said, oh yes, I recognize that.

We see it all the time. Also, bronze had been used among the Jews in the implements in the temple, and it was used for judgment. And so that picture would have come home to them as well, for those who had Jewish influence. So all of those things would have been brought together. They would have seen this and said, oh, we know what this is talking about.

It talks about Christ with the eyes, you know, flaming fire, with this burnished bronze. Oh, we see that all the time. Now Christ says, that's who I am. You see, the description that he uses here isn't just picked randomly. It fits exactly the character of the city. But that's not all. And we'll see further here.

And the angel of the church at Syatira, right? The son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet are like burnished bronze says this. Now, there are two important things about this verse, and let's take one of them at a time. This is the only preface in the messages to the churches.

Remember, we've gone through each one of them. We'll continue to go through them in the next few weeks. As we go through each one of them, this is one that's different, and it's the only one that makes a claim of title from outside of Revelation, especially outside of Revelation 1. But there's a reason for it. It's not just random.

You see, he says, Who is he? The Son of God. He makes that specific claim. And he claims to be the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. Now, remember we talked about the primary deity, this Timneus, or Apollo Timneus? He was the son of the chief of the gods. You see that? You see the contrast?

So that's very relevant that Christ would say, no, I am the son of God. You think you have a son of the chief of the gods. Christ says, I am the son of God. Beyond that, the Greek here literally means the son of the God. So you can imagine, here's these people who've been raised with this Greek pantheon, whole bunch of gods, and then you kind of got the next tier. I'm the son of one of the gods. And Jesus comes in sharp contrast to what all those people then brought up to believe and said, I am the son of the god. You see the contrast there?

It would have hit home to them, oh, this isn't just another one of these guys. This isn't just the deity of our town. This is the son of the god. The one and only. That's unique. And that's another reason why, as I look at even who Christ claims to be here, fits very well with the very character of the city and the very mindset that these people grew out of, the pagan culture that they came to Christ and learned from. So this title is not accidental. It's not random. It's a perfect fit. Let's move on.

The rest of the preface refers to flames and to feet like burnished bronze. Given the craft of bronze working and the well-known guilds there at Thyatira, Christ having flaming eyes and feet as burnished bronze would connect very well with the people of Thyatira, don't you think? I think it would connect with them very well. And they who had an understanding of the Old Testament would understand even better because they would see this is the Christ of judgment. This is one who has, he isn't just one who goes in there and works. He is the one who has the bronze on himself. Not just stands in front of the bronze implements in the temple. He is bronze himself. He is fire himself.

Now, verse 19. I know your deeds and your love and faith and service and perseverance, that your deeds of late are greater than at first. Now, one of the things that doesn't come out in the English is there is a definite article in front of most of the nouns in this verse. And it's hard to translate it in English and have it come out smoothly. Even the relative adjective greater has an article in front of it. So it's the greater. But as we've come to the prior messages, there's a comparison here.

Christ in each case tells them, I know this, I know that. It means he sees and perceives, he understands. There's nothing that escapes him. But look at the list of things here that Christ acknowledges. Have you noticed how big and long it is? He says, your deeds are your works. I know those. Your love, I know your love. I know your faith. That's a good thing. He says, I know your service. I know your perseverance. You're hanging in there. And look at the last part. Deeds abounding more and more.

That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? That sounds really good. And this is actually probably as much as, maybe even more than is acknowledged for any church we've read about so far. That sounds really good. It's simple. It's basic. It's not complicated. It's positive. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? If we could stop here. all would be well. But you know what? There's 10 more verses. There's 10 more verses. I think we better read on. As a matter of fact, the beginning of the next verse doesn't sound so good. Let's read it.

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. Now, notice what the core of the problem is. Note that the problem was that the church at Syatira tolerated the woman Jezebel. You see that word?

Tolerated. Now these days, there's no doubt, we've been given a message of toleration, haven't we? We've been given this message to tolerate this and that and the other thing. Perhaps we've even been told that it's a Christian virtue. And indeed we are to bear up under trials and personal affront and even loss. And we are to live out Christ's love and his life in place of our own. But this and a great many other passages make it clear that we're not to tolerate immorality and false teachings within the church.

You see the distinction there? Take a look at page one of your handout. There's two columns. The first column has a listing of passages in the New Testament that call for Christians to examine everything, compare everything to scripture, expose falsehood, and to contend for the faith. You see that list? That list is not exhaustive. There's others. This is just a start.

The next column has a listing of passages in the New Testament that calls for Christians to separate from deliberate false teachers and those who insist upon living out and promoting immorality in the Church. And while that's fairly thorough, that list is not exhaustive either. Now it's critical to note that although we're called in these passages to separate from deliberate false teaching and willful immorality, first of all to do that we must know and understand God's Word. Essential, isn't it? We have to be able to use the yardstick. We have to be able to know how to use it. To know what to separate from and what not.

The other thing is, we're not being called the total isolation. And we'll take a look at more about that in a minute. This does not mean that we don't love these people. Let me put that in reverse. This does mean that we love those people. In fact, let's kind of follow through the sequence here.

We do this because the Lord of Glory first loved us, and because we loved Him in return as sharers of His glory, and we love those within the church who are also sharers of His glory, and because we love the false teachers and immoral whom Christ is calling to repent. And we love those who need to see Christ's life lived out clearly in contrast to this world. See, the problem there with Jezebel and the way that Jezebel was living and teaching others to live is there was no contrast with the world. What she was advocating and drawing and seducing other people to in the church there at Thyatira was live like the rest of the world does.

How is anybody to know the difference between that and what it means to be a Christian? Between that and the life of Christ? That's the real contrast, isn't it? It's what is the life of the old man? And life is probably not the right word. What does the old man live like? And what does Christ live like? And it's not a question of just following a list of here's what Christ lived like. But believers are to be living their lives by Christ's life. And that's where the contrast needs to be taking place. Jezebel being right in the midst of the church and being tolerated, being allowed, was muddying up this contrast.

That's the problem. Now while we must separate from the immorality and false teaching, are every prayer and hope and contact and communication with those that we separate from, because there will be contact, is directed towards their repenting and is based on our loving them. Okay? See the difference there? It's not a matter of treating them disdainfully and hating them. It's a matter of loving them and desiring in every way, praying for them that they come back and return. Now, Christ says to the church at Thyatira that he holds against them that they tolerate the woman Jezebel. Notice these things about Jezebel.

She calls herself a prophetess. Now, being a prophetess was valid during that period of time. We know from Acts 21, 8 and 9 that there were indeed female prophetesses. So there's a reference there. Although, the purpose of a prophet was a stopgap gift up until the completion of the New Testament. With the writing of the book of Revelation, what do we have? The completion of the New Testament. So its use was fading rapidly. With this book as the last of the bookend, its use would have dropped away.

But notice it still says she calls herself that. It doesn't even give her that much. It also says she teaches. And guess what? That's a problem. It appears that she was teaching men in 1 Timothy 2, 12-14 makes it clear that is not to be taking place. And then the next thing is, she leads my bondservants astray. This word astray means to cause others to wander about. She caused others to wander about. Spiritually, morally, drifting. They are lost. in terms of the way they're living.

And notice that then she's committing acts of immorality and eating these things sacrificed to idols. And the problem was not explicitly in the eating things sacrificed to idols, as we looked at last week. That by itself, as Paul wrote to other churches, was not something that was forbidden. The difficulty was it was all happening right in the context of sacrificing to idols and everything else going on in the temple.

That was the problem. Now, one of the things you may have noticed is that these are very much the same problems in the kind of outward appearance as we saw last week with the teaching of Balaam, right? This happened at Pergamum. Now, something to take a look at here. Balaam was a real person, wasn't he? There was not, in last week's study, there was not a reference to some guy who was named or nicknamed Balaam. We just talked about the teaching. Here we have a different situation and we need to take a look at it.

Is this person Jezebel, is that a real name or is that a nickname given to somebody? Now the Bible, in the scripture, we should take things literally. But one of the things that that allows for is figures of speech. We use the figure of speech to communicate something literal. And I believe on the basis of context and character here that this name Jezebel is a nickname label given to an actual person. The person is literal, the person is real, and he's applying this name.

And the reason is because the character that Jezebel lived out was so much like what this person was promoting and living out and leading others into there in Thyatira. And let's take a look at some of the reasons why. What was Jezebel like? There's a couple of passages here. We could look at more, but these, I think, give us enough indication. Here is Jezebel. Jezebel was the non-Jewish wife of Ahab, king of Israel. And she came in. We get the description there from the first passage, 1 Kings 16, that she brought in all these foreign idols and everything that came along with it.

Some of the excavations of the religions of the Baal and the Asherah are so gross that the archaeologists digging some of these things up have been grossed out. Accounts of they would pickle babies. I mean, terrible things. And I won't go into some of the other details. That's some of the lighter stuff that they get into. This gal was really gross.

Now here's another one, 2 Kings 9.22, it quotes Jeroboam saying to Jezebel's son Joram, what peace so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many. And we find out that Jezebel's son Joram was killed. And we'll find out later how even that's relevant to this passage.

Jezebel was not a Greek name, so it would be unlikely that someone there in Thyatira unless they were Jewish, would have this name Jezebel, but even at that, what Jew would want to name their daughter Jezebel after this? So that's another reason why I'm convinced this is really a nickname, a symbolic name, but it's attached to a real person. The Jewish presence in Thyatira was not strong, but the Greek presence was.

And the behaviors described here in Revelation are typical of the craft guild meetings of the Greek temples. Also, as we see here, typical of Jezebel. They fit Dovetail well. So that's why he's used the nickname Jezebel for a real woman there at Theater who is causing these problems. Verse 21 says, I gave her time to repent and she does not want to repent of her immorality.

This aspect of the Lord's mercy is one that perhaps causes many questions and may even drive us to distraction at times. Here's some for instances. Why did the Lord wait well over a century to destroy mankind before the flood in Noah's time when the thoughts of men were only evil continually? Why did the Lord wait hundreds of years to take the Jews into the Promised Land to wipe out the Canaanites when the Canaanites had been evil for centuries? Why does the Lord allow bad people now to go on and on?

And the answer is It's the same answer we just read. Because He wants to give them time to repent. Because God's very character is that He is merciful. That's why. You see, even what we're going to read in the months ahead, in chapters 6 through 19 of Revelation, is going to describe some incredible judgments of the Lord upon the earth.

In the midst of that, and knowing full well that these judgments come from God, People will be persistently evil. As was read this morning. People said, no, I am not going to repent. These horrific judgments will come from heaven. There will be no doubt where they came from. And yet people will say, no, I'm going to insist on the life that I'm living.

We might even wonder why the Lord is going to give them seven years as they go through this. Why would the Lord give them that time? It's because the Lord is merciful. One of the things I noticed, the phrase, His mercy endures forever, 41 times in the Old Testament, it says, His mercy endures forever.

Exact same phrase. It's like it's important. It's like it matters. It's like that is basic to the Lord's character. His mercy endures forever. And that's why He gave her time to repent. He could have just said, okay, that's it. You're done. But no, he gave her time. But what's her response? She doesn't want it. Okay. So now, the consequences. 22 and 23.

Behold, I will throw her in 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. The Lord is saying that the consequences, at the right time, will be definite and they'll be severe.

How did Jezebel die? Cast out a window, eaten by dogs. All they've found is body parts. You see, there's going to be direct and personal consequences. And he uses Jezebel as a very good nickname, picture, and illustration. of what he's going to bring about. Her bed of harlotries, because that's where she was carrying on all this, her bed of harlotries is now going to be turned into a bed of sickness. Before she rained from there, now she's going to reek from there.

This word throw, the Greek word is ballo. Guess where we get our word ball? Thrower. This isn't just some sort of a casual toss. This is going to be, he's going to throw her in there. It's the same word used in the verse we looked at previously, where it says the devil's going to throw you in prison, you know, for a time, some of you in prison. It's this casting, throwing.

Those who are her philosophical and spiritual offspring will suffer the consequences as well. One of the things that we just read here in the 2 Kings passage, in 2 Kings, Nine, it tells us that Jezebel's son was killed. So just like Jezebel's son was killed, this Jezebel and Thadara, her spiritual children, her philosophical children, those who follow in her footsteps, will get the same thing. The consequences will be severe.

And another thing to note, there is an offer to withhold the consequences if they repent. Do you notice that? The Lord keeps coming back. There is an opportunity for mercy. because the Lord's mercy endures forever. There is an opportunity, unless they repent. He keeps offering that. He says, I want to, I would like to, if you're willing.

Now, the phrase Great Tribulation here shouldn't be mistaken for the Great Tribulation that we'll be studying. That's going off into a specific and definite time that this is not referring to. But it just says a great deal of trouble is going to come upon them.

Now, take note of the message from Christ that all the churches will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. The consequences will be of such severity that all the churches will know of Christ's character. And are not we being told at this point in time some 1900 years later, in a hemisphere apart, that this is the case. We're among all the churches, aren't we? There's even more to this, though. There are some insights in this particular verse that show up in the Greek that don't come out very well in the English, so let me explain them.

One of them where he says, I am, it's the same construction that he uses in the Gospel of John, where he says, I am, and it's a claim to deity. so much so that the Jews pick up stones. It's the same construction that in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, where here's Moses, and there's God in the burning bush, and Moses says, you know, who will I say sent me?

And he says, I am. That's the Greek translation here. That's the Greek word's exact same structure. I am, Christ says. He isn't just one of those gods out there. He is. I am. You see the distinction? This is something that those people ought to just grip them. Just grab them. That's for starters. Now, the word translated searches here is a word that is used in other legal documents outside the Bible that means to conduct a legal investigation. That's the word, searches. Intensively, with legal consequence, with great intensiveness.

Now there's more. where it says it's translated the minds and hearts in English, literally in the Greek it means kidneys and hearts. In the kidneys and hearts, it's nephros kai kardias. Nephros kai kardias. Cardiologists, nephrologists, have you heard those words? That's where they come from.

The kidneys and hearts. Now, there are two reasons why the use of these words is significant. Reason number one, in the ancient Middle Eastern mind, the kidney and heart were the seat of the emotions and of the mind. I'm searching the kidneys and hearts, I'm searching the emotions and the mind. I'm looking at the deep parts of you. Searching intensively, searching with a desire to find out the truth.

Second reason why this is important, and this relates to one of the things they would do when they would sacrifice the animals, the priest would cut the animals open, And they wouldn't just say, okay, let's throw the entrails away. They would look at the entrails, including the kidneys and hearts, to predict the future. As a matter of fact, a king would not go out to battle without first having a priest cut open an animal and examine these kidneys and hearts to try to determine, am I going to win in battle or not? It was a means of determining prophetic things. But Christ isn't using this to go and find out whether somebody's going to win the battle. He says, I'm not fiddling around with animal kidneys and hearts.

I'm looking at yours. I'm looking at your emotions. I'm looking at your mind. I'm looking at what you're thinking. I'm looking at what you're feeling. I'm examining those intensively. You see the entire system, pagan priests, animal sacrifices, examining the innards for prophetic purposes, offering the animal to pagan idols is swept away by who Christ is and what he's done.

It's all swept away. And so that's why he says, look, you've got this big system of temple sacrifices and you do all this stuff. He says, it is who I am and it is what I have done that matters. All these things are gone. Those people are looking at some animal kidneys and hearts. I'm looking at you and who you are. That's what Christ says.

All the pagan stuff just swept away by who Christ is and who he claims to be. I just wonder, just a question to ask ourselves, I think. All that this world has to offer, just in the same way these people in Thyatira had, all that this world has to offer, all the strategies and schemes and all the advantages that this world has to offer, Are they not swept away by who Christ is and what Christ has done? It's the message that he's giving them there, and it's precisely the same message that he's passing along to us. All the things that this world offers are swept away by Christ.

Paul tells us in Philippians 3, 7-10, Whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted lost for the sake of Christ, More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count the bit rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own delivered from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. Now, next he lovingly and mercifully and encouragingly says to the saints at Thyatira this, 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. Nevertheless, that which you have, hold fast till I come.'" You see, this message here is for the rest. Those who weren't participating under the things that Jezebel had brought in, who didn't fall for the siren song and all the seduction, they saw Christ as their life.

They had to. It was the only way that they could live under the intense pressures of these guilds that the people were being forced into economically. You imagine, somebody comes to you, how come you aren't joining the guild? It was probably just inconceivable.

In the midst of that, these people said, you know, Christ said, look, I understand the pressures you're under. I understand the things that you're dealing with. He says, for you, I place no other burden. Just hold fast. You see, they had nothing to fear and everything to look forward to when Christ would come. And that's the perspective that they held.

Okay, now, remember, we had three satanic strategies revealed in the messages to the seven churches. Remember that? as shown at the top of page 2 in your handout. The appeal here in Thyatira was to the Greek mystery religions. That was one of the satanic strategies. These Greek mystery religions appeal to deeper things, deeper understandings, insights and knowledge. Christ characterizes them as the deep things of Satan. What the woman of Jezebel was offering and what we have the same things offered today are called deep things.

You see, in the end, it's really like the mirage that we were looking at last week. Jezebel is saying, I've got something to offer you. But in the end, when you get there, it's just dry. It looks like a lake. It looks attractive. It looks like it'll be satisfying. But it's not. Jezebel is offering these same things.

The appeal by Christ to hold fast is the same word that he has used previously when he says, I hold the seven stars. And the word hold means to hold tightly. Just hold fast, hold tightly to what you have. Verse 26 says, He who comes and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him will I give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of the pot 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. You see, to everyone who is an overcomer, who stands on what Christ has done, and noticed that Christ refers to his deeds, there is a promise. He will rule with Christ in the new millennium. The word rule here is the Greek word poimone, and it means to shepherd or pastor. How about that? You will shepherd with Christ. That's the promise.

It's quoted from Isaiah 30.14 and also from Psalm 2. You can imagine this passage, the Pottery Workers Guild must have gone nuts. What are you talking about? All the stuff I worked for and I go on to put all this effort into and you're going to break it in pieces. I think that was probably the exact intent. All the things that you work on and count as valuable, it'll be nothing. It'll come to naught. Be careful where you invest. You see, we have some profound choices to make, don't we? We have to decide, are we going to invest in the things here on planet Earth? Are we going to invest in the things of the Lord? Where are we going to count our life as coming from?

The last promise, Christ will give him the Morning Star. That is referred to again in Revelation 22, 16. It says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star." Isn't that neat? What the Lord is saying here, I'll give the morning star to myself. Christ gives himself. We're invited to share in his triumph and glory. Now, now for the rest of the story.

Whatever became of the Church of We have some ancient writings outside the scripture, and they tell us two things. First thing, within 50 years, this church went charismatic. Within 50 years, this church went off. They had a prophet named Montanus and two female prophetesses. They didn't learn their lesson. Two female prophetesses, Prisca and Maximilla, and they came in and swept this church. And within another roughly 50 years, a century after the ink was dry on this book, the church died. It was gone.

And I think as we look at this, it just draws us. The Lord's call here was to look at who He is and why He would make the very claim at the outset, the Son of God, the one with eyes of flaming fire. The answer is always in who He is, isn't it? is, I'll give you the Morning Star. That's Christ. The answer is always in who Christ is.

The Lord desires for us to behold Him, to walk with Him, to grow in the knowledge of Him and the grace of Him. That is exactly here why it says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's pray. Lord, we do give You thanks for all this world tries to do to pull us away, to tug us and pull at us and to seduce us into the culture, that the answer is always who you are. And Lord, we come to you trusting in who you are and what you have done and rest and rely upon that. We just thank you in Jesus' name.