Introduction
The fourth message of Christ was addressed to the church in Thyatira, a small town located about 40 miles southeast of Pergamum.
At this time in history, Thyatira was a working person's town, a center for manufacturing. The city was filled with many trade guilds for commerce, such as cloth making and dying (coloring), leatherworking, bronze working, and pottery making.
It was famous for the manufacture of purple dye, and numerous references are found in secular literature regarding that fact.
We hear of Thyatira Acts 16:14-15 where the conversion of Lydia is recorded: "And a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.”
There is no record in Scripture of any evangelical effort in the city of Thyatira. The gospel may have been first brought to the city through Lydia.
It’s quite remarkable that Jesus singled out a very small church in a relatively obscure city for such an important letter.
Unlike the previous cities we studied, Thyatira was not important as the center for any temples to particular gods, although Apollo was worshiped as the guardian of the city:
- Emperor worship was also required.
- Besides Apollo and the emperor, each trade guild had its own patron god, or idol, with its own festivals.
With that brief introduction open your bibles to Revelation 2:18-29.
v.18, “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this”:
- The word “angel” (in the Greek text, angelos), “To the angel,” in this case, is referring to a human messenger.
- Christ’s describes Himself here, as the "Son of God":
o “Son of God” emphasizes His deity, stressing the truth that He is of one essence with the Father:
§ He and the Father are One, therefore, Jesus is God.
§ This is a significant change in identification.
o Remember in chapter 1, Christ was described as the “Son of Man” in verse 13:
§ That title emphasizes His humanity and His ability to sympathize with believers and to act as their merciful high priest.
- In this passage, Jesus is identified as the “Son of God”:
o The emphasis is not on His humanity/humility, but on His Deity. That’s because His approach to the church at Thyatira is not as a sympathetic high priest, but as Divine judge, as we’ll see later.
o The title "Son of God" also sets Him against Apollo, the emperor, and the rest of the craftsmen’s idols.
o The title, "Son of God" is used nowhere else in Revelation.
- The “Son of God” has eyes of blazing fire”:
o As the Divine Son of God, Jesus has piercing, laser-like vision and He sees all. Nothing can be disguised, covered, or hidden from Him.
o A church may feel satisfied with itself; it may have a good reputation in the community, or even with other churches. But we need to remember that eyes of the Lord see it as it really is.
- The description of His feet as being "like burnished bronze" is symbolizing His purity and holiness, as He tramples out iniquity. The feet also indicate strength for executing judgment.
- The blazing eyes indicate the penetrating power of His sight, in that, He sees all things.
v.19, “I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first”:
- As Jesus had done with the previous churches, He praises the church of Thyatira before letting them know His concerns about them.
- Here, the believers are commended for their:
o “love,” their love for God and for one another. The word translated as “love” is the Greek word, agape, which is that sacrificial love for others.
o “faith,” here, means their faithfulness, dependability, reliability and consistency.
o “service,” in the expressing of love and faithfulness through meeting the needs of others.
o “perseverance,” refers to their continuing to bear up in difficult times.
- And they were doing more as time went on (in contrast to the Ephesus church, which did less).
- Christ was pleased to see their deeds were “greater than at first”:
o “greater,” here, refers to greater in quantity, not quality.
o They were doing more faithful, consistent, loving deeds now, than when they had first begun. They were growing in their walk with the Lord.
o That’s a question that each of us should ask ourselves: “As I’ve grown in my Christian walk, am I more loving, more faithful, more dependable, more reliable than when I first became a Christian?”
o “Do I express love for my brothers and sisters in the Lord through faithful service, trying to meet the needs of others?
o “Have I become a more persevering person? Do I continue through the difficult times in my life, or do I give up?”
- Despite these evidences of Christian life and testimony, the church at Thyatira had some very serious problems.
v.20, ‘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.”
- Thyatira had the opposite problem of Ephesus. Whereas the Ephesian church had been good at dealing with false teachers, but lacked love, the church in Thyatira had lots of love, but had become tolerant of a false teacher, whom Jesus referred to as “Jezebel.”
- What was happening at Pergamum was also happening in Thyatira, in that they were tolerating false teaching that was attempting to compromise with the pagan society.
- In this case, the problem was Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess, a woman from among the believers, who claimed to have the gift of prophecy.
- She may indeed have had an unusual gift, but she was using her influence to teach things that were contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ, thereby misleading the believers.
- Like Balaam, she was leading the people into sexual immorality and idolatry, probably by teaching that immorality was not a serious matter for believers.
- Her real name may have been Jezebel, or John may have used the name Jezebel to symbolize the kind of evil she was promoting.
- Jezebel, a pagan Philistine queen of Israel, was considered the most evil woman who ever lived. She had led Israel's king, Ahab, to Baal worship, and eventually had spread that idolatry throughout all of Israel. You can read about that in 1 Kings chapters 16,19, 21, and 2 Kings 9:1-37.
- This Jezebel was being tolerated in the Thyatiran church – either no one had the courage to stand up to this woman or no one realized the severe danger her teaching was causing for the entire church.
- Her teaching was misleading with regard to sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
- It appears that she had been able to convince the church to compromise with the morals of society. A very dangerous thing to do!!
- These two sin issues were probably tied in with the guilds of Thyatira:
o Most of the people in this city were tradesmen, so they belonged to various guilds or trade unions.
o These guilds each had an area in the city and a meeting hall, which functioned as a center for the union’s religious and civic activities.
- Each guild would hold a banquet once a week, and these banquets would often be centered on the worship of idols, that is, eating meat sacrificed to their idols and some form of sexual activity as part of their meeting.
- Jezebel was probably encouraging the believers to continue to take part in their guilds’ activities, essentially condoning this sin and encouraging their participation.
- A refusal to join the guilds and take part in their activities would have meant economic hardship if not financial disaster.
- Jezebel’s ways were to compromise with the world system.
- Christ was not pleased with this woman's teaching or with the fact that the church had tolerated her.
v.21, ‘and I gave her time to repent; and she does not want to repent of her immorality.”
- Here's a very interesting comment.
- The Lord, in His mercy, had given Jezebel “time to repent” of her wicked ways, but she would not turn away from her immorality:
o Not only did she not turn, but also she did not even want to turn away from her immorality.
o This is one example of the truth that people love darkness rather than light
- As a consequence, God is going to punish her with sickness and suffering.
v.22, ‘Behold, I will cast her upon a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her [their] deeds.”
- The word "Behold" means to pay attention to what’s about to be said next. Look at what’s about to happen to her:
o The word is also in the imperative tense, meaning that it’s a command, “Behold! Look at this!”
- Because Jezebel refused to repent, Jesus declares, "I will cast her upon a bed”:
o The word bed is sometimes used symbolically of plagues, death, and even eternal death.
- "Bed" or "couch" can mean a bed used for resting, for banqueting, or for sickness:
o Some commentators suggest that this is a bed of sickness or suffering, seen as an act of God's judgment.
o On a bed she sinned, on a bed she will suffer; and those who committed adultery with her will also suffer – intensely.
- The words “and those who commit adultery with her" refers to those who were involved in sexual immorality and in idolatry because of her teaching. So those involved would also be punished, unless they turned away from their evil deeds.
- Sexual immorality is always serious, because sex outside of marriage always hurts someone:
o It hurts God because it shows that we prefer to satisfy our desires our own way instead of according to His Word.
o It hurts others because it violates the commitment so necessary to a relationship.
o It hurts us because it often brings disease to our bodies and adversely affects our personalities.
o Sexual morality can destroy an individual, families, churches, and communities because it destroys the integrity upon which these relationships are built.
o God wants to protect us from hurting others, and ourselves, therefore, we are to have no part in sexual immorality, even if our culture accepts and encourages it.
v.23, ‘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.”
- "I will kill her children with pestilence" literally means “I will kill them with death.” This is very serious!
- The phrase "her children" most likely refers to Jezebel's followers, that is, her spiritual “children.”
- Jesus wants the church to deal with Jezebel. This judgment would be an example so that all the churches would know that God sees (with his "blazing eyes"), the thoughts and deeds of every person.
- No one can hide from Christ. He knows what is in every person's heart and mind:
o He plumbs the depths of person’s being, and on the basis of what He finds He will judge.
o No one can hide evil from Him.
o Our outward acts reflect our inner motives and are inseparable from them.
- Notice the end of v.23, “and I will give to each one of you according to his deeds.”
o He’s addressing the followers of Jezebel.
o Those who were working against Christ will be found out and will receive whatever they deserve.
- These words are applicable today to anyone who dares to corrupt the purity of the truth of God and spoil the worship of the Lord with idolatrous and sinful practices.
- Christ’s dealings with the children of Jezebel will become a matter of public knowledge, “all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts”:
o Here’s a warning for everyone else: sin in Christ’s church cannot be hidden from Him.
Jesus continues His appraisal of the state of this church. He now turns His attention to a brighter side of the church's membership
v.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.”
- Having warned the practitioners of Jezebel’s false teaching to repent, Christ gives words of comfort to "the rest who are in Thyatira,” those who did not hold to Jezebel's false teaching.
- This godly remnant is described as not holding the teaching of Jezebel, and not knowing "the depths" or the deep things of Satan:
o Satan is a liar, a schemer. He is at the heart of every false teaching, every false religion, and every cult.
- Here, the reference is made to the satanic system that is seen in great detail in the cults which compete with the true Christian faith:
o Just as there are the deep things of God, which are taught by the Spirit of God, so there are the deep things of Satan, which result from his lies and deceptions.
- To this godly remnant, Christ gives limited responsibility:
o The true Christians are urged to hold fast to what they already ready have and to wait the coming of the Lord.
v.25, ‘Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.”
- Here, for the first time in Jesus’ messages to the seven churches, there is reference to His coming for His church:
o This would give hope to those who are in a church that was infected with the sins of sexual immorality and idolatry.
v.26, ‘And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations”:
- As in the letters to the other churches, Christ closes His message to the church in Thyatira with a challenge to those who “overcome”:
o He promises that those who keep His word to the end, will be given responsible positions of judgment over the nations.
o The overcoming Christians are promised a place of authority. They will share in the rule of Christ over the nations of the world.
v.27, “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”:
- For the person that overcomes, “He shall rule them [the nations] with a rod of iron.”
o These will rule with Christ’s justice.
- The word for "rule" means, literally, to shepherd:
o Their rule will not be simply that of executing judgment, but also that of administering mercy and direction to those who make it through the tribulation and go into the Millennial Kingdom.
- The power to judge was given to Christ by His heavenly Father in John 5:22, “for not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.”
v.28, “And I will give him the morning star.”
- The overcomers in Thyatira are promised "the morning star."
- Some link this expression to Christ Himself, as in Revelation 22:16, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star”:
o Believers would receive Christ as the light of their lives.
o Or it may refer to the resurrection, in the sense that the morning star rises and sheds it light over the darkness of this world's persecution and offers victory over it.
o The promise of Christ's return is like the "morning star,” the sun rising because when the sun rises, all darkness is eliminated.
o When Christ returns to shine His light of truth, the darkness of sin will be eliminated.
- There are also some who believe this refers to Christ Himself as the returning One who will rapture the Church before the dark hours of the Great Tribulation preceding the dawn of Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom.
v.29, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
- Once again we see the words that are meant to spur the hearers of the message to heed with the Lord has to say.
Three important truths stand out from Jesus’ address to the church at Thyatira:
- First, this letter reveals the seriousness of practicing and tolerating blatant sin within any local church, and that God will judge continued, unrepentant sin in a church.
- Second, it is a pattern of consistent obedience that marks true Christians.
- Third, God's gracious promise to true believers is that, in spite of struggles with sin and errors within the Church, they will experience all the fullness of Christ as they reign with Him in His Kingdom.
- Those churches, like Thyatira, who fail to heed the message, will receive Divine judgment. Those who do heed its message will receive Divine blessing.
May the Lord bless you as you continue to learn more about our Lord and Savior.
By His Grace,
Gary T. Dromi Ph.D., D.Min.
