The Book of Revelation: Part 6

Revelation 2:18-29 (BSB)

To the Church in Thyatira

Today we are in week six of our sermon series on the Book of Revelation, or as it’s more accurately titled: The Unveiling of Jesus Christ. I think it’s important to remind ourselves of that title so that as we go through each section each week, we can notice what is being revealed by and about Jesus. This week, we are looking at the fourth of seven letters which were written to seven different churches. This week’s letter was written to the church in Thyatira. But before we read through it, let me give you some background on this city.

Thyatira, which was inland about twenty miles southeast of Pergamum, is now the city of Akhisar in Turkey. Today, it’s a modern city known for its exports of tobacco, olives, wheat, and other crops. Back then, the city was an important trade center, and it was known for its trade guilds. Each guild specialized in a different product. One of these guilds, for example, manufactured purple cloth made of wool, which was dyed purple from mollusks. Other guilds made bronze, wool, pottery, leather, and linen products, just to name a few. These guilds held great influence and power within the city.

The only other time this city is mentioned in the Bible is in Acts 16:14-15, when Paul and Silas are in Philippi, spreading the Gospel. It says: “Among those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us.”

Most scholars think Lydia was not Jewish but was a proselyte to the Jewish faith. She was from Thyatira, as the text tells us, but she also had a house in Philippi. Acts 16:40 tells us that “After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house to see the brothers and encourage them. Then they left the city.”

As far as we know, Lydia is Paul’s first convert in Philippi, and her home there became an important meeting place. It was large enough to host her whole household of servants and still had room to host these men. It became the first church in Philippi, which we can read about in the letter to the Philippians. Her name is not mentioned in that letter, although there are some, like me, who think it is possible that she is whom Paul is referring to in Philippians 4:3, when he says, “Yes, and I ask you, my true yokefellow, to help these women who have contended at my side for the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.” This directive is to someone whom the BSB translates simply as “yokefellow,” but that word is better understood as partner or colleague. It’s possible that was directed to Lydia, especially as it is an appeal to help fellow women.

In the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, it says that Lydia, “was probably the instrument of first carrying the Gospel to her native town.” We don’t know for sure, but indeed someone would have had to spread the Gospel in Thyatira for a church to be there, and that church became significant enough that it was one of the seven churches that received a letter.

All that to say, the people of Thyatira were not localized to this area. They were cosmopolitan, traveling far to sell their expensive goods, and because of that, this city had influence. As we read through this letter, we will see how the Lord calls out some of the unique characteristics of this city, just like He did in the other three letters we’ve looked at so far.

Now, let’s read Revelation 2:18-29. It says:18 To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: 

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a blazing fire and whose feet are like polished bronze.

19 I know your deeds—your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance—and your latest deeds are greater than your first.

20 But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 

21 Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling.

22 Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds. 

23 Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

24 But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned the so-called deep things of Satan: I will place no further burden upon you

25 than to hold fast to what you have until I come. 

26 And to the one who overcomes and continues in My work until the end, I will give authority over the nations. 

27 He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery—just as I have received authority from My Father. 

28 And I will give him the morning star.

29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Like the other three letters we’ve looked at so far, this one also begins by saying, as verse 18 does, “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:” and then a unique description of Jesus. It says, “These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a blazing fire and whose feet are like polished bronze.”

In his commentary on this verse, Ellicott points out that every other time, throughout the Book of Revelation, the term “the Son of Man” is used, and it’s only here that the phrase “Son of God” is used. As to why that is, we can make some guesses. Each trade guild had a “patron deity,” and according to N.T. Wright in his book, Revelation for Everyone, “the patron deity of the bronze trade, was ‘Apollo Trymnaeus’, who appeared on local coins together with the ‘son of god’, that is, the Roman emperor” (p. 25). So, most likely, Jesus is rightfully asserting that He alone is the Son of God, not these false gods that were worshipped by most everyone in this city.

Other than that notable change, the description Jesus gives of Himself matches the description that John wrote at the beginning of this book. In Revelation 1:14-15, he had said, “…His eyes were like a blazing fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace.”

Knowing that this city was known for its trade guilds, we can see the intention in Jesus’ feet being like polished bronze. This church would know exactly what that would have looked like. And as to His eyes being like a blazing fire, that is telling us that Jesus sees all things. And again, Jesus says that He knows. He says in verse 19, “I know your deeds—your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance—and your latest deeds are greater than your first.”

In the letter to the church in Ephesus, they are chastised by the Lord that their latest deeds were not like they were at first, and He urged them to return to doing the things they did before. Not so with these in Thyatira. They are doing even better than they did at first, and are loving people, are full of faith, are performing acts of service, and are persevering through persecution.

But maybe, in their efforts to love people, they have gone too far off course, because verse 20 says, “But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.”

Who is Jezebel? Is she a specific person, or is she representative of the Jezebel from the Old Testament, like Balaam was? There is a lot of debate about this. It could be either; we don’t know for sure. Some people think she merely symbolizes Jezebel, who was a wicked woman who married King Ahab and led him and the Israelites to worship Baal. The effects of her influence were widespread. 1 Kings 16:32-33 says, “First, Ahab set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he had built in Samaria. Then he set up an Asherah pole. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel before him.”

But I’m thinking that it’s better to err on the side of assuming things are literal unless we are shown otherwise. And the main reason I think she was a literal woman named Jezebel is because she “calls herself a prophetess,” and the things she was teaching Christians to do were the same things that those who followed the way of Balaam taught people to do. I think if she wasn’t an actual woman, the Lord would have simply said some believers in this church were tolerating the people who follow the way of Balaam again.

But maybe this woman had listened to that false teaching, and believing it fully, called herself a prophetess, telling the believers that she had a message from God, leading them to practice these vile sins. We know in this city of Thyatira that there were many temples and altars to false gods and to political rulers. It would have seemed natural to them to have a prophetess in their church, for there were many prophetesses in their pagan temples.

What’s funny to me is that some scholars say Jezebel was not a person but was symbolic, and then they also point out that part of the believers’ mistake is that they allowed “her” to teach. They cite Paul’s injunction not to permit women to teach. Well, which is it? If she is symbolic, then how can “she” teach? Regardless, the crime is not that they allowed a woman to teach, the crime is that she is telling the believers that God permits them to commit sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols. These are clearly sins that no one should be participating in. Yet these believers are tolerating her and allowing her to be a part of their church.

What is going to happen to Jezebel? In verses 21-23, Jesus explains and says: “Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling. Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds. Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.”

I think this is further support that she is an actual woman, for Jesus wanted her to repent. That shows us how incredibly patient and forgiving He is. But as He said, “She is unwilling.” So, He is going to allow her to get sick, and anyone “who commits adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent.” Whether the children she births are her literal or spiritual children, doesn’t really matter. Either way, they will die, and then all the Christians will realize that Jesus is the “One who searches minds and hearts,” and He will repay everyone according to what they have done.

That last statement alludes to Judgement Day, and it is a truth that is stated many times in Scripture. In Romans 2:6, Paul writes that exact thing, and is quoting from Psalm 62:12, when he says, “God ‘will repay each one according to his deeds.’” Jezebel will be punished for her deeds because she is unwilling to repent, and anyone who goes along with her teachings will also be punished, unless they repent.

But then Jesus continues in verses 24-25 and says: “But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned the so-called deep things of Satan: I will place no further burden upon you than to hold fast to what you have until I come.”

The others, who are not committing sexual immorality or eating food sacrificed to idols, He simply tells them to continue doing what they are doing well. Jesus says, “I will place no further burden upon you than to hold fast to what you have until I come.” This wording seems to be an echo of a verse I mentioned last week as well. Acts 15:28-29 says, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond these essential requirements: You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.”

Now that they have been warned not to tolerate Jezebel and false teachers like her, He wants them to keep holding on to love, faith, service, and perseverance, and to continue to keep away from those sins. He wants them to keep doing the good they are doing.

That is what we all are to be doing, isn’t it? Like the Christians in Thyatira, we must keep on doing the good things we are doing. We can’t stop, thinking that we’ve done enough love, faith, service, or perseverance. The church in Ephesus got the part about excluding false prophets correct, but they stopped doing the good things they had done at first, and Jesus told them that unless they repented and returned to doing those things, He was going to remove their lampstand. It’s a warning we all should listen to.

In MacLaren’s commentary, he says that a Christian’s life is to be one of continual progress. He writes: “The same law holds good in regard to all regions of life. Everybody knows, and a hundred commonplace proverbs tell us, that practice makes perfect, that the man who carries a little weight to-day will be able to carry a bigger one to-morrow;…that he that begins by a short march, though he is wearied after he has walked a mile or two, will be able to walk a great deal farther the next day…In the same way, for the Christian course, continual progress and an ever-widening area of the life conquered for and filled with Christ, manifestly ought to be the law. ‘Forgetting the things that are behind, reaching forth toward the things that are before, we press toward the mark.’ Every metaphor about the life of the Christian soul carries the same lesson.”

These Christians in Thyatira are to continue doing the good things they are doing—the good things that are even better than what they had done at first. They are not to stop doing those good works. None of us are supposed to stop striving to do more and to do better.

This is something that we have to continually remind ourselves about because our modern society has programmed us to think the opposite. Modern people have been told that they will reach an age when they can retire to decades of leisure and rest. But that is not a Biblical concept. It’s not even an ancient concept. We must always be continually growing and producing good works, and that growing and producing will not end until we reach eternity. That is why verse 26 adds, “And to the one who overcomes and continues in My work until the end, I will give authority over the nations.”

We are not ever supposed to stop doing good works. We are to continue doing the work the Lord has given us to do “until the end,” and then, after that, we will be given other jobs to do. MacLaren in his commentary on this letter also writes, “Thus this promise of my text, in its deepest meaning, corresponds with the deepest needs of a man’s nature. For we can never be at rest unless we are at work; and a heaven of doing nothing is a heaven of ennui and weariness. Whatever sneers may have been cast at the Christian conception of the future, which find vindication, one is sorry to say, in many popular representations and sickly bits of hymns, the New Testament notion of what that future life is to be is noble with all energy, and fruitful with all activity, and strenuous with all service.”

We don’t know how or what it will look like to be given “authority over the nations,” but this is something that Jesus speaks about in the Gospels. It’s a part of eternity. We see this explained a little in His parable of the talents. He says that those who were faithful with what He has given them will be given more in eternity. Matthew 25:23 says, “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’”

We do not die and then lounge around doing nothing. We will be engaged in new tasks. We will be “put in charge of things.” But this authority we might be given is not authority that we have in ourselves. Any authority we carry will be a direct result of being under the Lord’s authority. It’s part of the work we will do. Verse 27 speaks more about this job. It says, “He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery—just as I have received authority from My Father.”  

We will see this concept of an “iron scepter” in Revelation 19, and there it is clear that Jesus is the One who rules with the iron scepter, but here it is speaking about how the people who overcame and continued in the Lord’s work until the end, will “rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery.” This could be a one-time event, when during Judgement Day, we believers are seated with Christ and, with Him, will make judgement on those who have rejected Him. At that judgement, all the power of the devil, all the pagan idols and beliefs, all the unbelievers who would not worship the Lord, will meet His iron scepter and be shattered like pottery, never to be put back together.

I like what MacLaren says about this verse: “It is for us to choose whether we shall share in Christ’s dominion or be crushed by His iron scepter. It is for us to choose whether, molding our lives after His will and pattern, we shall hereafter be made like Him in completeness.”

This is the question we all must answer. But the reward is so great, why would we ever hesitate to answer that we will choose to worship Him and strive to mold our lives after Him?

And then Jesus also adds, in verse 28, “And I will give him the morning star.” The morning star is the star that appears in the sky just before sunrise, shining brighter than any other star. It lets us know that the sun is about to rise and morning is about to break. We will see later, in Revelation 22:16, that Jesus says He is the morning star. So, to be given the morning star could mean that we are given Jesus. But it could also mean, as Barnes writes in his commentary, that those who overcome and continue in His work will be given, “a bright and brilliant ornament; something with which he who ‘overcame’ would be adorned, resembling the bright star of the morning.” This would be similar to receiving the crown of life or the white stone which other letters mentioned.

Then, like the other letters, it says in verse 29, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” But unlike the first three letters, this phrase ends this letter. The next three letters will also conclude this way. I don’t know why there is a change, but what is true is that this letter, like all the others, is written for all our benefit. We all should take seriously the messages these churches received and apply them to our individual lives.

The church in Thyatira was doing some things really well. They were showing that they were full of love, faith, service, and perseverance, yet some of them, and most likely the church itself, were tolerating Jezebel. They were tolerating sin. It seems like they had misunderstood what true love requires. In their effort to be loving, which the Lord commends them for, they were tolerating wickedness. I can’t help but parallel them with many of our churches today who, in a genuine effort to be loving, are tolerating the Jezebels of today.

Now, we might think we are not tolerating any Jezebels, either literal or figurative, because we might evaluate ourselves and think, “Well, I’m not committing sexual immorality or eating food sacrificed to idols, so I’m doing great.” If we think that is the whole point, I’m afraid we are missing the forest for the trees, so to speak.

Jezebel is represented today by many other names. There are broad movements within our churches today which are claiming to speak for God and are telling believers that the true way to be loving and kind is to be tolerant of sin, and anybody who holds to what Scripture says is accused by these modern false prophets as being bigoted and hateful. If we want to truly be loving, though, we will not excuse sin. It’s not loving to idly stand by while people are drowning in sin or leading other people to jump into the depths of Satan with them.

The Jezebels of today tell us that it’s okay to follow God and live in sexual sin at the same time. Those things are incompatible. Not only are we not to do so ourselves, but according to this letter, we are not to tolerate those who teach others to do this. The devil’s strategy does not change. He’s still deceiving people, trying to convince everyone that being tolerant of sin is a good thing. Tolerance is literally a buzz word in our society: we must be tolerant. No, we must not. We must do the opposite, in fact. We must have zero tolerance for anyone who tells other people to commit sexual immorality or worship idols. We must have zero tolerance for the “deep things of Satan.” This letter is for all of us, so let all of us pray that we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. It is only if we overcome and continue in our good works that we will receive the morning star. 

Jesus has revealed more of Himself. He continues to be patient and forgiving. Let us listen to this message of warning and take advantage of His forgiveness. If we are tolerating the false teachers of today, let us repent and hold fast instead to the unchanging Word of God. Let us overcome the influence of the world and Satan, and do the good works of love and service that Jesus has shown us to do. 

Pray:

Heavenly Father, we confess that we have sometimes tolerated the sinful things of this world instead of holding tightly to what Your Word says. Please forgive us, and please help us to discern the truth and not be taken in by the Jezebels of today. We need Your help to keep us on Your straight path. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.