Tolerance

Well, good morning everyone. Can I repeat the welcome that Alistair gave early on?

We're delighted to have you with us, whether you're here in the building or at home.

And we're continuing today the series where we're looking at the messages from the Lord Jesus

to seven churches in Asia Minor in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

And if you can, it will be helpful to have Revelation 2 in front of you.

It will help you to follow what I've got to say.

This is the kind of church I want to belong to.

There's a real love for the Lord Jesus and for each other.

And that's shown in very practical ways.

People have a really strong faith, trusting the Lord Jesus through all of life's circumstances

and coming together to pray, not just as a routine or going through the motions,

but really as an expression of faith and of dependence on the Lord Jesus.

People are active in serving the Lord Jesus.

There are no passengers in this church.

Everyone wants to be involved and to do their bit in serving the Lord and serving others.

And they've got perseverance.

When they go through difficult times, it doesn't put them off their faith.

They don't drop away.

Rather, it increases their devotion to the Lord Jesus.

And there are signs of real spiritual growth.

It's not a church where people have been enthusiastic for a while and then have thought,

well, take a step back and maybe not work as hard now.

Everyone is doing more than they did when they first became Christians.

And, oh no, in this church, there is flirting with other religions.

There is sexual immorality.

What's gone wrong?

And that's the question we have to ask about the church in Thyatira, which was the one I was describing.

You look at verse 19 of Revelation 2 and you think this is the perfect church.

It's got everything going for it.

There's love.

There's faith.

People are working hard.

And they appear to be growing in their faith.

And then you come to verse 20 and the following verses.

And you realize there is something that is very, very wrong.

And you have to ask, why is that?

Why does the Lord start slating this church, which to begin with looked such a model to all of us?

Well, the short answer is that as soon as you depart from the truths of the Bible,

then you're on a slippery slope and things will continue to go wrong.

Now, as always, it's a little more complex than that.

And we'll think a bit more about the reasons a bit later in the service.

But I think it will be useful to begin with to get a bit of the context of the church to which the Lord Jesus is writing the church in Thyatira.

So we're going to pay an imaginary visit to first century Thyatira.

We get off a boat, maybe, around Pergamum, which is on the southwest coast of Turkey, just across from Lesbos.

And we take the road that leads to Sardis.

We were at Pergamum last week.

Next week we will be at Sardis.

And we're taking the road between the two of them.

It's not one of the great arterial roads that all led to Rome in those days.

But it is quite an important one.

If we're thinking UK terms, we might say it's an A road rather than a motorway.

It was an important road, particularly for trade.

And when we've gone about 30 miles on our journey, we come to the small city of Pergamum,

sitting in a valley between two rivers.

It's the smallest and least important of all the cities that we'll be looking at in our journey around Asia Minor in Revelation.

Now, as we come to Thyatira, the first thing that we see is an army garrison on the outskirts of the city.

This is a military city.

It was first built in the time of Alexander the Great and was built to protect the routes between Sardis and Pergamum.

And in times of peace, it was there to protect traders going between the cities.

In times of war, the garrison that was there was a first line of defence.

If you've got invaders coming, say, from Sardis towards Pergamum and they get to Thyatira,

there's an army there to slow them down.

Now, they're not going to do it for very long because, as I said, Thyatira is in a valley.

It's not in a good position from a military viewpoint.

But it probably leaves them long enough to bring in reinforcements from Pergamum or at least to get the city ready for the attack that they know is coming.

That's why Thyatira was built.

As we go through the passage, we'll see there are quite a number of military references in it.

But let's go into the city.

And the first thing we spot as we get into the centre of Thyatira is that there's a big temple.

It's a temple to the local god who's called Tyrimnus, but is actually identified with Apollo, the Greek god.

And the worship of Apollo is a big thing in Thyatira.

It is the centre of worship for this god Apollo.

Not on the scale of Ephesus or in Athens in terms of big temples and so on,

but nevertheless is a very important part of the city.

And we'll also notice shrines to quite a number of other gods as we move around.

The other thing that we notice in Thyatira is that there are a lot of skilled tradesmen there.

There are a lot of people going about their business doing skilled work.

So there are weavers.

There are leather workers.

There are potters.

There are people working in bronze.

And in the first century, that was the key thing in Thyatira.

It wasn't a big city politically.

It wasn't a big city culturally.

But it did have lots and lots of tradespeople.

And the one person from Thyatira many of us probably have heard of is a woman named Lydia,

who was Paul's first convert in Europe.

And she was a trader in fine purple clothing.

So Thyatira was a kind of upmarket centre for people who went about trades.

And if you were in a trade in Thyatira,

you had to belong to the Trade Association or the Trade Guild.

It's still kind of the same today.

You have trade associations.

They lobby for their members.

They promote the work that they do.

And they set standards.

And they also have convivial events.

These days it might be awards evenings or things like that.

But they have celebrations together.

And that was very much part of the Trade Guilds in Thyatira.

That they got together regularly and they had a party.

And they would start by making sacrifices to Apollo or to the particular god of that trade

and sharing the meat of the sacrifice round.

There would be lots of wine flowing.

And by the end of the evening, people's morals had been loosened

and they were getting involved in sexual immorality.

That was the context.

That was what happened in Thyatira.

And that was the temptation which faced the church there.

If you wanted to be a skilled tradesperson in Thyatira,

you had to belong to the Guild.

If you belonged to the Guild,

you were expected to go along to these evenings and to participate in them.

And the Christians perhaps were feeling,

well, we're not sure if we should really be doing this.

And along comes a woman who's called Jezebel in the passage.

And she says, actually, it's okay.

As Christians, you can go and get involved in these evenings

and you don't need to worry about it.

And how attractive that must have been for many in the church,

feeling a bit goate.

And then someone comes along and says,

it's all right, I've had a message from God.

You are okay.

You can keep going.

So then three things, just to remind you,

it was a military city in terms of context.

The worship of Apollo was a big thing.

And there were lots of trade guilds,

and all of them relevant as we go through.

Before we move on from the context,

let's look at verse 18, which I think is part of it.

Verse 18, as with all the letters in Revelation,

is where the Lord introduces himself.

And he says here, these are the words of the Son of God.

Only time Son of God is used as a phrase in the book of Revelation.

The contrast here is with Apollo, who is the son of Zeus,

the king of the gods.

So in that sense, too, was a son of God.

But this is saying this is the true Son of God,

whose eyes, it says, are like blazing fire.

Again, contrast with Apollo.

Apollo was the sun god.

So he did have, if you like, blazing eyes.

And the Lord Jesus is saying here, I'm like that.

But the purpose of his blazing eyes is that he can see through all the deception

and the hypocrisy in the church.

And his feet are like burnished bronze, it says.

Now, there's a nod to the trades of Thyatira.

One of them was making high-quality bronze.

But it's also, as we'll see later down in the passage,

our reference to the power of the Lord Jesus

and the authority that he has.

And looking back to Psalm 2, which we'll come to later on.

So our introduction, our context, the Lord Jesus gives

is very relevant to Thyatira.

So if that's the context, we then have the Lord's commendation.

Now, we're not going to take a lot of time over this,

but let's just note how positive it is.

It's kind of easy to skip over verse 19 and to say,

this was a dreadful church.

How could such things be happening?

But if you look at what's there in verse 19,

it is a tremendous testimony to the church in Thyatira.

Love, faith, service, perseverance,

and more now than at first.

I wonder if the Lord was to look at our church at Brunsfield.

Could he give the same kind of commendation for us?

Is our love for him evident?

Is our love for each other?

And for those who don't yet know the Lord Jesus,

a reflection on that.

Do we live lives of faith and of trusting in the Lord for everything?

Are we involved in working and serving the Lord Jesus

in doing our part in building up the body of Christ?

And when things are hard, when times are hard as they are just now,

do we persevere?

Does our faith remain strong?

Do we still depend on the Lord Jesus?

And here's the real challenge.

Are we doing these things more now than we did at first

or less than we did at first?

Has our love for the Lord Jesus grown

and all the other things grown along with it?

Or has our love waned,

like the church in Ephesus we were looking at a few weeks back?

And have we lost something of that initial fervor

and zeal and love for our Lord Jesus?

There's a challenge there for us,

even as we look at the commendation in Thyatira.

But I don't want to spend a lot of time on that this morning

because I think it's really important

that we try to get a bit beneath the surface

of what's happening in the church.

And so we then have the Lord's condemnation.

So that's in verse 20.

He says,

Nevertheless, I have this against you.

And what is it that the Lord Jesus has

against the church at Thyatira?

Well, he says,

You tolerate that woman, Jezebel,

who is a false teacher.

So the first thing that he has against the church at Thyatira

is that they're listening to false teaching.

They're not being discerning and recognizing it for what it is.

Rather, they're following it.

Now, the criticism here of Jezebel

is not that she was a prophet.

She actually wasn't a prophet.

It wasn't a criticism of prophets.

Prophets were very much part of the New Testament church

as the full will of God

having yet been revealed through the Bible.

We, in that sense, don't need prophets today

because God's will has been completely revealed.

We have the whole Bible that we can refer to.

But in the first century church,

there were prophets to whom God revealed things

that hadn't yet been written down

and become part of Scripture.

And that was perfectly normal.

Nor, I think, was the issue that Jezebel was a woman.

This is not a passage we look at and say,

Well, this says that we shouldn't have women teaching in the church.

There are others that would do that.

Not this one.

Prophetesses were common in the New Testament.

We start with Anna right at the beginning of the Lord's life.

We go through to the daughters of Philip,

seven daughters of Philip,

towards the end of the book of Acts.

And prophetesses were accepted,

and there's no condemnation of them.

As I say, I'm not saying anything here

about the role of women in general teaching in the church.

But prophets, in fact, Jezebel was a woman

isn't really the point here.

The point here is that she was a so-called prophet,

but she wasn't a genuine prophet.

She was saying,

Here is what the Lord has said to me.

The Lord has revealed this to me.

And it was nonsense.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 14,

1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

Paul talks quite a lot about prophets

and talks about their importance.

But one thing he says is,

You have to weigh up what they say.

Don't just accept that everyone who says,

I've got a word from the Lord,

really does have a word from the Lord.

And in Jezebel's case,

it's very clear she didn't.

What she's teaching,

that it's okay to get involved in idol worship

and sacrifices to idols,

that sexual immorality is all right,

it is clearly against God's revealed will in the Bible.

You only have to look at the Ten Commandments.

No gods and no other gods before me.

Do not commit a doubtry.

And you can see that what Jezebel is teaching

is not in line with the Bible.

How important it is,

whenever we get a preacher or anyone else saying,

Here is what God says,

that we look and see,

Well, is it what the Bible says?

Because if it's not what the Bible says,

it's not God's word and we can't depend on it.

And we as Christians,

we need to be like the Christians in Berea

who search the scriptures

to see whether what was being taught from the front,

in this case by Paul,

really was consistent with what God has revealed.

Because as I said earlier,

as soon as you depart from God's word

and you try to take the scripture

and make it fit in with what you would like it to say

so that you can do the things you would like to do

that other people are doing,

you're on a very slippery slope.

Now that's not to say we can't disagree about things

as Christians.

There are many secondary matters

in which I'm sure many people in this church

would disagree.

Indeed, occasionally at our elders' meetings,

we come across relatively minor matters of doctrine

where we don't have the same viewpoint on them

and that's fine.

But the fundamental truths of the Bible,

the truths of the gospel

and of our God

and of the Lord Jesus

and how we win salvation

through the Lord Jesus,

these are fundamental

and they flow into the way that we act.

And if we get away from them,

then we will be on a slippery slope

to conforming to the world

rather than doing the things

that we know are right.

So we need to guard against false teaching

and this woman, Jezebel,

was bringing false teaching.

I don't believe Jezebel probably was her real name.

It is referenced to Jezebel in the Old Testament,

the wife of Ahab,

who led the Israelites astray.

But I think there was a real woman

and she was leading the church in wrong ways.

We need to be very careful

to make sure that we stick to the truth of Scripture

and don't compromise on it.

So the first condemnation is for false teaching.

Second thing is what I've called dark secrets.

Now this is in verse 24,

if you've got your Bible in front of you,

where the Lord talks about Satan's so-called deep secrets.

What's that about?

Well, we can't be absolutely certain,

but it appears likely that the teaching of Jezebel

went something along these lines.

If you're going to live and be a strong Christian,

be a witness to those around about you,

you need to understand what their beliefs

and their practices are.

You need to understand how Satan has gotten to their lives

and you need to see them in action.

And then once you've seen that,

you'll understand them

and you'll be able to witness to them about the gospel.

So go along to the dinners.

Take part in the sacrifice of the idols.

You know that the idols are nothing,

that they're not real.

You're not doing any harm if you go along

and you get involved in that.

Stay on.

Have a drink or two.

You're strong Christians.

You'll be able to manage the situation

and come out of it well.

Or maybe she's going even further.

And we know some first century teachers did.

And maybe she's saying,

actually, we know that flesh is evil.

Our bodies, they're doomed to destruction.

What matters is not our bodies, our souls, our spirits.

We can do whatever we like with our bodies.

We know the Lord Jesus

and what happens in our bodies,

that is separate from our relationship with him.

Our spirits, our souls are what matter.

Our bodies are doomed to destruction anyway.

Flesh is evil.

Just get involved however you want to

in the activities at these trade guild festivities.

Can't be certain.

She may well have been saying something like that.

She was saying,

you're strong Christians.

Our followers were strong Christians.

You can do almost what you like

and it won't affect your relationship

with the Lord Jesus.

That is really dangerous teaching.

None of us is as strong as we would like to think

in our own strength.

When I was about 16,

my scripture union group from school

went for a weekend away to Alowa.

Can't remember who the preacher or speaker was.

Can't remember much about what he said.

But I do remember one thing.

And at one point when he was speaking to us,

he said that he was in the habit

of buying top shelf magazines from news agents

so he could look through them,

find anything he thought was illegal

and complain about it.

And he said,

I can only do that

because I'm a strong Christian.

Even at that age,

I thought this is a really dangerous thing

to be doing.

Also totally inappropriate

to be talking to teenage boys about.

But someone who says,

I'm a strong Christian,

I can do things

I wouldn't recommend to other people.

Let all of us be aware

that we are not as strong

in our own strength

as we would like to think.

And it's very, very dangerous

if you get involved in things

that you would recommend to others

that they don't

because you think

they're weaker Christians than I am.

You are not able to stand

as much as you might expect.

Paul, in writing in 1 Corinthians,

talks about temptations

and he says,

if any of you think

you are standing firm,

be careful that you don't fall.

And Jezebel was encouraging

the Christians in Thyatira

to be reckless,

to be getting involved in things

that they really shouldn't have

had anything to do with.

And she was putting them

in great danger

and the Lord condemns her

and the church for accepting

what she had taught to them.

We need to be aware

of our weakness

and only with the Lord Jesus

are we ever going to be strong.

Our strength comes entirely from him.

Now I'm not saying

don't ever go on a night out

with your work colleagues.

I'm not even saying

don't ever go on a night out

with your work colleagues

and have a drink or two.

But I'm just saying

in every situation

where you're coming to,

where you might face temptation,

be really careful.

If we keep going on the night out,

I can recall Christians

in many ways

who appear to be

very strong Christians

who had too much alcohol

at a night out

and got involved in brawls

or who said and did things

that were totally inappropriate.

They weren't as strong

as they thought they were.

And there are other situations too

we could talk about.

It's not just talking

about alcohol here.

So let's be aware

of our weakness

and our own self,

our strength in the Lord Jesus

and avoid the kind of thing

that says you're a strong Christian.

You're not going to be affected

if you get involved

in things that are generally

unwise for Christians.

And then thirdly,

the condemnation is for giving

into peer pressure.

This comes back to where

we were at the beginning.

That the Christians in Thyatira

were under a lot of pressure

to be involved

in these trade guilds

and in their evenings.

And not to be involved

probably meant

you couldn't apply your trade

in the city.

You couldn't be involved

in working in it.

There was a lot of peer pressure

involved.

And peer pressure

for all of us

is very dangerous.

Then come back to that

weekend away.

We had an aloha.

The other thing I remember

from it was that

on Saturday afternoon

we had some free time.

And my friend said,

well, let's go to the football.

Now that created

a big problem for me.

I grew up in Brunsfield.

And when you grew up

in Brunsfield in those days,

football was considered worldly.

It wasn't something

that you went to

if you were a Christian.

I was very jealous

of my Baptist friend

who was allowed to go

and watch Hibs,

but I wasn't allowed

to go to the football.

And that's just the way

it was.

So I had a dilemma.

Should I stand up

and say,

well, actually,

I don't go to football matches.

My church doesn't believe

it's right.

Or would I go along

with them?

If I chose not to go,

they might think

I was a bit strange.

I might be left on my own.

They might decide,

well, let's go anyway

and leave Ian by himself.

So there was a bit

of peer pressure on me.

Now, to be honest,

I caved in.

I went to the football.

I enjoyed the football.

Allo Athletic

beat Sterling Albion 3-0.

It was a good game

and I've followed Allo

to some extent ever since.

But I did feel

a bit guilty about it

because I knew

that I was going

against the principles

that were inherited principles

in those days

and I knew

I was only doing it

because of peer pressure.

Now, just to be clear,

if any of my children

had shown an interest

in going to a football match,

I wouldn't have stopped them.

It's not a matter of principle

for me now,

but it was at that time

something wasn't expected

of people in this church.

Now, the peer pressure

that I was under

was as nothing

compared with the peer pressure

in Thyatira.

I might have my Christian friends

think it was a bit strange,

but for them,

it might be the end

of their livelihood.

They might even have

to leave the city

if they wanted

to keep going

in their trade.

And peer pressure

can be something

that makes life

very difficult

for us.

Jezebel and Thyatira

offered a way out,

saying,

you can just go along

with it,

it's okay,

and that was totally wrong.

But we will face

situations in life

where people are saying,

well, this is what we do,

this is normal

in our society,

this is normal

in our workplace,

and people expect us

to go along with it.

And we may say,

or may think,

well, I'm a Christian,

I'm not sure

that's the right thing

to be doing.

And we need to have

the courage

of our convictions.

If we think

we're doing something

or being called

to do something

that's wrong,

we need to stand up

and say,

I'm not getting

involved in this.

And we'll face

all sorts of situations,

some of them

very trivial,

like the one

I talked about earlier,

some of them

perhaps quite serious,

they could affect

our employment

or other matters

in our lives.

We need to be

willing to say,

as a Christian,

as a follower

of the Lord Jesus,

I stay within

the Scripture

and with God's guidelines,

and I don't get involved

in things

that I know

are not right.

And I don't adjust

the Bible

to justify

what I'm doing,

which is what was

happening in Thyatira.

So the condemnation,

false teaching,

dark secrets,

peer pressure,

were leading

to a church

which,

although on the outside

it looked fine,

on the inside

it had gone

for most of the church

totally wrong.

So as the condemnation,

let's look at

the consequences.

What are the consequences

for the church

in Thyatira

of what is happening here?

And we'll go fairly quickly

through the remaining verses.

So there are consequences

for Jezebel

and her followers.

They face judgment.

So it says Jezebel

had a chance to repent,

but she didn't take it,

and she's been cast

on a bed of suffering.

I would take it

this is probably

fairly literal,

that Jezebel

had been struck down

with some kind of illness

and was no longer able

to be actively involved

in the church.

And the message

for those who have

followed her

and have gone along

with her

is that they too

will suffer

a similar kind of fate

if they don't repent.

So there is judgment

for sin.

And we're aware of that.

We're Christians

and we're believers

in the Lord Jesus.

That is fundamental

to our understanding

of the Bible.

A God of holiness

has to judge sin.

There has to be

a reckoning

for what we have done.

But I think there's

a very positive message

here in Thyatira

because the message is

that repentance

brings forgiveness.

And our God

is a God

of second chances.

So even Jezebel,

even this wicked woman

who had been

stirring up the church

and leading people astray,

she was given a chance

to repent.

She didn't take it

but she was given

a chance to repent

and would then

have been forgiven

by God.

The followers of Jezebel,

those who had gone

along with her,

they are being given

a chance to repent.

And if they repent,

again they can come back

into fellowship

with God

and all the good things

that are happening

in the church,

they can be part of

having been restored

to the truth.

And for all of us,

that's a great message.

Repentance brings forgiveness.

All of us are sinners.

All of us are unworthy

before God.

All of us deserve

to be judged by God

for the wrong we've done.

But Jesus died on the cross

for our sins.

And when we put our trust

in him and turn our back

on these sins,

we can be forgiven.

We can come into

a relationship with God.

And if we are Christians

and we have gone astray a bit

and there are things

in our lives

that we're not very proud of,

that we know are wrong,

if we repent of them,

we can also know

God's forgiveness.

If we confess our sins,

says John,

he is faithful and just

and will forgive us

our sins

and cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

repentance brings forgiveness.

And then for those

who hold to the truth,

there's a message of hope.

They're under pressure

in the church.

It looks like the church

by and large

has gone along with Jezebel

and there are relatively

few of them

who are remaining

faithful to the Lord Jesus.

And so the Lord says

there's a message

of hope for you.

I won't impose any burdens

except to hold on

to what you have

until I come.

Is this a military

allusion here?

Remember we said

Thyatira,

the army would keep

the invaders away

for a short time

while reinforcements

came to back them up.

Perhaps that's the reference

here by the Lord Jesus

saying,

hold on,

persevere

with the truth

because that will

bring rewards.

Verses 26 and 27

are an allusion

back to Psalm 2

in the Old Testament,

a psalm about

the Lord Jesus,

about the fact

that he is the Son of God

and that he is the one

who will rule

over the nations

and saying

those who are faithful

to the Lord Jesus,

those who are part

of his work,

they too

will have that

exercise of authority

as alongside him.

And then verse 28

he says,

I will give that one

the morning star.

The morning star

probably is a reference

to the Lord Jesus himself,

that they will have

him with them,

they will be with him

eternally.

But the key message there

is that faithfulness

brings rewards.

If we stay faithful

to the Lord Jesus

and to his truth,

then he will reward us

for it.

So repentance

brings forgiveness

for all of us,

faithfulness

brings rewards.

Let me just finish

with three analogies

from the military.

We've had a military theme

a bit going through

today,

and let me make

three analogies

I hope will help

to remind us

of the key points

that I was making

about the issues

in Thyatira.

When you join the army

or I think probably

any of the military services,

you take an oath

of allegiance

to the Queen.

You say that you

will be loyal

to Queen Elizabeth

and to her successors

and that you

will serve her.

And that oath

is an important one.

And it's important

that people stick

to it.

If you're in the army,

it is your duty

to be loyal

to Queen

and country.

And if you come across

anything

that would suggest

that others

are being disloyal,

that there is dissension,

that there is possibility

of rebellion

or mutiny,

then you can't

go along with that

or just accept it.

You have to report it

and make sure

it's dealt with.

So it is here

when there is

false teaching,

when there is

in that sense

rebellion

against the Lord Jesus.

We can't just tolerate

and say,

yes, it's okay,

I don't agree with it,

but let's just

let it ride.

We have to take steps

to make sure

that the truth

continues to be proclaimed.

We have to,

as Paul says,

guard the gospel.

And when you're

in the army,

you have to be loyal

to the Queen.

When we are

in Christ's army,

when we are part

of the church,

it is our duty

as well

to be loyal

to the Lord Jesus

and to serve him

and him alone.

Second analogy,

when you're in the army,

you are strong together.

You are a band

of brothers.

In war,

there are often

great acts

of individual bravery

and we rightly

recognize

and honor them.

But the army

is no place

for bravado,

for saying,

I know this is

the way things

are meant to be,

but I'm stronger

than the others,

I'm fitter

than everyone else,

I'm going to go away

and do my own thing,

I'll go and engage

with the enemy myself

and I won't worry

about what's happening

with other people.

The army,

you're part of a structure

and that structure

gives you strength.

You're strong together.

And in the church,

we're strong

as we are together

and particularly

as we are together

with the Lord Jesus.

None of us

on our own

is strong enough

to say,

I can do things differently

because I'm stronger

than other people.

We need to stay together

as God's people.

We need particularly

to stay together

with the Lord Jesus

and we need to operate

within the structure

that we've been given.

We need to operate

within the scriptures.

We're not to be mavericks.

We are to be faithful

to God's word

and we are strong

when we depend

on the Lord Jesus.

If we start to depend

on ourselves,

we're weak

and things will go wrong.

And then thirdly,

we were reflecting earlier

that today is

Remembrance Sunday.

And on Remembrance Sunday,

we particularly honour

two groups of people.

There are those

who have given their lives

fighting for their country

in various wars,

who have paid

the ultimate sacrifice

for their country

out of loyalty

to their king or queen.

And then also,

there are those

who didn't die

but who had

life-changing injuries.

And we know some of these

can be mental

as well as physical.

So their lives

were irretrievably changed

by being in war.

And they all signed up to that.

When you join the Army

or join any of the armed forces,

you are signing up

to the fact

that you will be

putting yourselves

in harm's way

and you may be

a casualty of war.

And we rightly think on

and honour

those who are casualties today.

We remember those

who have died

we give thanks

for their sacrifice.

We remember also

those who had

life-changing injuries

as a result

of being in the war.

And the money we give

for our coppies

to some extent

helps to improve

their quality of life.

When we come to

the book of Revelation,

the churches in Pergamum

and in Thyatira

appear to have had

similar issues.

In both cases,

there was food

sacrifice to idols

and there was

sexual immorality.

The difference was

that the church

in Pergamum

was a persecuted church.

It was a church

under great pressure

and those

who didn't conform

to the ways

of the city,

they could have been

putting their lives

at risk.

The church in Thyatira

wasn't in that sense

a persecuted church.

church.

The pressures

were not on

people's lives,

they were on

their livelihoods.

And in some ways

that is actually

almost more difficult.

Without in any way

diminishing the sacrifice

of those who died

serving their country,

in some ways

for those who survive

and who've lost limbs

or who've lost

some of their mind

or have lost other things

and have terrible injuries,

injuries,

it is more difficult,

it's a long-term thing

and it is a real struggle.

And so the church

in Thyatira,

they might have said,

well, if we were

in Pergamum,

we would stand firm

for the Lord Jesus.

We would face up

to persecution.

Actually,

the pressures

in Thyatira

were maybe just as strong

because they were

ongoing temptations

and they were ones

that people

could easily

over time

give in to.

We don't face persecution

in any meaningful sense

today.

But we do face

peer pressures,

we do face pressures

to conform

to the world

around us.

Let's,

in the battle

that we all face

if we're believers

in the Lord Jesus,

let's make sure

that we stand

firm for Him.

Stand firm

in His strength

and in His

alone.

If anyone

is not yet

trusting in the Lord Jesus

for salvation,

just take the message

that we brought earlier,

repentance

brings forgiveness

and there is a relationship

to be had

with the Lord Jesus

for all of us.

There is forgiveness

and hope

if we trust

in Him.

Let's pray together.

Father,

we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this

rather solemn passage

we've been looking at

that a church

can in many ways

be doing extremely well

and yet

at another level

it is failing

really badly.

Help us to be

faithful

not just

in our love

and in our service

but also faithful

in our lives

that when we come

under pressure,

when being a Christian

is difficult,

that we don't give in,

that we don't

submit to the ways

of this world.

and help all of us

to have our trust

in the Lord Jesus,

to be repentant

for our sins

and to look to Him

for our salvation.

We thank you again today

for those

we have been thinking of

who have given their lives

or have had

life-changing injuries

in the service

of the country.

We thank you

for their willingness

to be a part

of our great armed forces

and we pray

for your blessing on them.

For those

who are going through

times of injury

and perhaps

will never

be healthy again.

We pray for your peace

and we pray for those

who care for them

that you will give them strength.

Pray for Christians

who are seeking

to help them as well.

For those

who have lost loved ones

perhaps in the more

recent wars

we pray that today

you will be a comfort

and a strength to them.

So we thank you

for your presence

this morning

and we ask for your

continued presence now

in the name of

the Lord Jesus.

Amen.