The Church In Thyatira

If you think about the history of the church, or indeed the history of an individual believer, what would you say were the greatest threats? What were the things that seemed to be the most disruptive of people's faith in Jesus Christ?

Well, as a matter of fact (and according to the bible) there are three great threats. The first threat is persecution. The second threat is heresy. And the third threat is sexual immorality. Those threats are spelt out for us with emphatic symbolism in the book of Revelation, chapters 13 and 17.
But tonight we are going to be looking at Revelation chapter 2.18-29 For we come to the last in our studies entitled Warnings for the Church. And this week, as last week, we are to study one of the seven churches that your read about in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation. And tonight is the Church in Thyatira. And, as we shall see, it was sexual immorality that was threatening the spiritual life of the Church in Thyatira - as indeed it is threatening the spiritual life of many churches in the West, not least Anglican churches. You see, the Thyatirans seem to have withstood persecution for they were persevering under pressure. And they were not without faith. But there was immorality in the church and it was serious.

And you will see that my headings are, first, "THE WORDS OF THE SON OF GOD"; secondly, "YOU TOLERATE THAT WOMAN JEZEBEL"; and, thirdly, "THE REST OF YOU IN THYATIRA".


First, "THE WORDS OF THE SON OF GOD" - verse 16:

these are the words of the Son of God".

So what is needed for this Church in Thyatira? More love and faith? No! For this church in the commercial town of Thyatira which (for those of you who are interested) was a colony in Asia Minor of Philippi in Macedonia and Thyatira was the home town of Lydia, the dealer in purple cloth, who emigrated to Philippi and helped plant the church there as you read in the Acts of the Apostles - this church scored well in terms of love, faith, service, perseverance and growth. So it did not need more love and faith.

Look at verse 19:

I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

This wasn't a church like the church in Ephesus that we were hearing about last week where the Christians had "forsaken their first love." This church is strong on love. This is a "loving" church. So what did this church need? It needed to hear the risen Christ's words that they were too tolerant of sexual sin. They needed "the words of the Son of God" (verse 18) ...

whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

They needed to know that his eyes, like blazing fire, get and see everywhere - "he searches hearts and minds" as we are told in verse 23. So he knew all that was going on in Thyatira. People can't cover up their sexual decadence either by physically trying to hide it away or by verbally trying to cover it up with all sorts of euphemisms. For Christ sees it and sees it for what it is - disobedience to God's law, dangerous, unhealthy, unnatural and quiet often offensive or disgusting - like people having sex in the streets of Rhodes and littering the place with condoms. So what does Christ say? What are his words? After his words in verse 19:

I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

he goes on in verse 20,

Nevertheless, I have this against you.

And that brings us to our second heading.


Secondly, "YOU TOLERATE THAT WOMAN JEZEBEL".

Look at verse 20 in full:

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

So here was this good church with good Christian people in it, but there was a terrible blot on their spiritual copy book. They were tolerating Jezebel and her teaching.

I had to do a BBC Wales programme this morning. It was a discussion of four people - three plus myself about the Archbishop of Wales possibly being the next Archbishop of Canterbury. They were saying he was such a lovely, spiritual man. But I had to say, "nevertheless, he believes in ordaining practising homosexuals and doesn't think that holiness requires giving up a homosexual lifestyle. That cannot be tolerated. It disobeys the plain teaching of the bible." It is the strychnine principle. One tiny amount of strychnine makes a large cup of good coffee lethal. So defiance of God's ethical standards in matters of sex can destroy a good church - like the Church in Thyatira. Notice it is the generality of the Church at Thyatira that is being addressed here. You see, there are four groups here at Thyatira.

First, there are the general church members, so to speak - faithful people but (unlike the people at Ephesus who, we are told, could "not tolerate wicked men") they tolerated Jezebel. They didn't do anything about her. That was their great sin.

Then, secondly, there is "that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess" who taught that sex is OK in certain circumstances outside marriage.

By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality.

When I was at Theological College as a student there were clergymen doing that - misleading people into sexual immorality. This was the beginning of the new morality that has led the Western World to escalating divorce, escalating teenage pregnancies, and an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases that is causing misery to millions. One of the leaders at the time was Harry Williams, the Dean of Trinity College, Cambridge, Prince Charles' College. This clergyman was invited to take part in the ill-fated wedding of Charles and Diana. On one occasion he cited a film in which a man had sex with a woman who was not his wife and in the film (which was pure fiction) their love making was made out to be beneficial, and Harry Williams says this: "where there is healing, there is Christ, whatever the Church may say about fornication."

And "that woman Jezebel" would have said something like that, I am sure. And the people at Thyatira would have said, "she is such a nice woman - she is so spiritual." Indeed, Jezebel claimed to be a prophetess, that is to say, she claimed to speak God's word. And people were taken in. They allowed her to carry on even though she was contradicting the teaching on sex the Christians had received - it is referred to in verse 25 as "what you have". May be they would not have endorsed all she said; but, you can hear them say: "she is claiming to be in touch with the contemporary world, and perhaps we do have to keep up with the times."

You see, Thyatira was a centre for Apollo worship and there were guilds or a cult of Apollo - a bit like the Freemasons. To join them would have benefited your business. But the Christians knew they shouldn't join because it meant bowing down to Apollo as well as Jesus Christ and then, more often than not, ending up in bed with someone in the debauchery that accompanied the meetings. And Christ forbade that. They knew that he had taught that sex is for marriage alone. But here comes Jezebel - nice Jezebel - and says, "Oh! such strict teaching was appropriate for Palestine. But we have to relate to the Hellenistic world. We have to move on. If you want to live for Christ in the our world, you have to identify with it." It sounds so plausible. And it is half true. But the other half is totally wrong.

So there were the general church members, then Jezebel, then, thirdly, and sadly, there were those who didn't just tolerate Jezebel; they actually followed her teaching in a positive way. These were the Christians who she misled "into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols" (v 20), and (v 22) who "commit adultery with her". So some of these people were married people.

Perhaps you are saying, "is this possible? Is it possible for Christians to be taken in like this by such a woman?" The answer is "yes". You see, people like Jezebel don't come saying, "I am a false prophet or prophetess." Of course, not. As C.S.Lewis says, "they are men [or women] in suits". The bible says that they are "wolves in sheep's clothing". They can seem so nice and gentle. 2 Cor 11.14 says that Satan parades as an angel of light.

Now probably this woman at Thyatira was not called Mrs Jezebel. Some think that she was the wife of the bishop or a senior pastor of the Church in Thyatira. But John calls her Jezebel because she resembled the Jezebel you read about in the Old Testament in 1 Kings 16, 19 and 2 Kings 9 - the wife of king Ahab, one of the weakest Kings of Israel. Jezebel was a foreigner who helped introduce Baal worship and all the sexual immorality that went with that into Israel. And she was a schemer - with Ahab being too weak to stand up to her. She particularly opposed Elijah, the prophet, who opposed all the evil she stood for.

Well, John sees similarities between this woman in Thyatira and Jezebel from nearly a thousand years earlier. And undoubtedly there are Jezebels in the church in every age. And the consequences are dire. For there is judgment on the sin she was encouraging - sexual sin. Look at verses 21-23:

I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

You may not like this - but this is what the bible says. And it is true to life in our modern world. What is AIDS but the judgment of God on sexual sin? Now, of course, there are many AIDS sufferers who are innocent and have done nothing wrong. They are suffering because of the sin of others - haemophiliacs, for example and people whose husband or wife has been unfaithful while they have remained faithful and have been infected by the sinning partner. Of course, that is true. But the basic principle holds - namely that if you wait until marriage and marry someone who has also waited until marriage for sex and then you both are faithful within marriage, you will not get a sexually transmitted disease. And you certainly won't have pregnancies outside marriage.

That is the message the world today needs to hear, not least in the North East of England where we have the highest incidence of births outside marriage in the country and one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates. There is no safe sex outside marriage. Jesus Christ says here that there is judgment for sex outside marriage and it doesn't matter whether you are a prince of a pauper - he is fair, verse 23:

I will repay each of you according to your deeds [not your birth or rank].

I don't know what "a bed of suffering" means, or what "suffering intensely" means, " or what Christ means when he says, "I will strike her children dead." But that all sound pretty terrible. The consequences of sexual and marital sin are pretty terrible. And we must include divorce and remarriage - with the suffering for children and adults that results. Then when you visit places in Africa where people are dying of AIDS, that is terrible. And it is terrible in this country when people die of AIDS - like a member of staff who taught trainee clergymen at Cranmer Hall, Durham and was an advocate for the homosexual cause and wrote justifying it and so misleading people, but who tragically died just a year or two ago of an AIDS related illness.

But you say, "does it give Christ pleasure to judge?" Of course, not. He wants repentance. Jezebel was to be judged not because she was tempted in the back seat of a car or as a student in her first week at the university and did something that she wished she had never done, and then sincerely repented of, because she knew it was very wrong. No! In fact Jezebel was given time to repent (verse 21), "but she is unwilling" (we read). Judgment is for those who persist and do not repent. There is a hint that the people she misled into sexual immorality, may still repent - (verse 22) they will suffer "unless they repent of her ways."

Of course, Christ will forgive any and every sin. No one is too bad to be forgiven, and no one is too good not to need to be forgiven. In a crowd like this I suspect there are people with some pretty messy sexual histories - heterosexual and homosexual. There were such people in the New Testament churches. The apostle Paul wrote to one church:

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

That was from 1 Corinthians 6. 9-11. Many of the Christians at Corinth had sordid pasts - but they repented, they trusted Christ, they saw that he had, in an amazing way, taken all their sin and guilt on himself at the Cross of Calvary when he died for sin. And they, in an equally amazing way, could take on his righteousness in exchange. That meant that God now looked not on their sin but on this new status they had - they were "washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

And if you trust Christ, whatever your past, you can be forgiven and accepted like that. Who needs to trust Christ tonight and receive his forgiveness and new life? Why not do so? If you don't and continue to live life your way, there will be judgment. You may be fortunate and get away with it in this life. But after death there will be that ultimate judgment.

So, first, there is the general membership of the church in Thyatira who are tolerating Jezebel and her teaching. Then, secondly, there is Jezebel herself. Then, thirdly, there are those who are mislead by Jezebel not just so that they tolerate her, but are sexually active in immoral ways themselves. However, there is a fourth group and that brings me to my last heading this evening. It is ...


Finally, "THE REST OF YOU IN THYATIRA".

Look at verse 24:

Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): 25 Only hold on to what you have until I come.

This group rejected Jezebel's teaching. Notice the stress on teaching. It is not just the leaders who do what is wrong that must not be tolerated. In the current church we can take ordaining people living with homosexual partners and homosexual lifestyles. It is those who teach that such action and behaviour is permitted, even if they do nothing themselves, that must not be tolerated. It is false teaching that is so serious. But this group rejected that teaching. This group weren't conned into thinking that this was "deep" stuff. What is translated in the NIV (the bibles in the pews) as "Satan's so-called deep secrets" is literally "the deep things of Satan". They saw what others called "deep things" as dangerous, heretical waffle. So what had they to do? Three things.

First, they must remain obedient to the basic Christian sex ethic - that is what they had - which is no sex outside heterosexual, lifelong, monogamous marriage - verse 25:

Only hold on to what you have until I come.

Yes, it is a rule. Yes, it is black and white. But God's rules are reasonable and not burdensome. 1 John 5.3:

This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,

And Jesus had said - Matthew 11.30:

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Secondly, they were not to add to God's rules. Look what Jesus says (verse 24):

I will not impose any other burden on you.

You see, when you are living in a time of sexual decadence, there is a great temptation to pull up the draw bridge and develop a false asceticism. This sadly happened in the early centuries of Church history. At a time when the theatre and even your friendly neighbourhood swimming pool were known more for their decadence and immorality than for culture and exercise, Christians started to think that sex itself was bad. But that is so wrong.

Sex is a good gift from God to be used properly in marriage. God made it. Don't let the sex mad culture of today and all the immorality around, drive you to the other extreme where you think that sex is nasty and dirty. The Bible has the right balance - Hebrews 13.4:

Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

So first this faithful group at Thyatira must "hold on to" the basic sex ethic they have been taught. They mustn't go with the new morality people, who are really the immorality people, like Jezebel. Then, secondly, they must not develop a new form of sexual rigidity.

But, thirdly, and with this I must conclude, they are to trust Christ's promise - verse 26:

To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations-- 27 'He will rule them with an iron sceptre; he will dash them to pieces like pottery' -- just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give him the morning star.

I haven't time to go into that in detail. But the bible is clear and Jesus is clear that as Paul puts it (1 Cor 6.2):

the saints will judge the world.

One day faithful Christian people will be involved in seeing that justice is done - not to satisfy any desire they have for vengeance but so that God's moral order is in place - a moral order which is good and perfect. For it is a moral order which comes from our all loving creator who knows what is best for us, his creatures.

And so the risen Jesus, "the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze" concludes with these words blockquote>