Revelation 2:18-28

All right, so we are back in the book of Revelation tonight.

This summer, if you've been with us, we've been studying Jesus' seven letters to the

seven churches of Asia Minor.

And we've been seeing that these letters are sort of like spiritual sort of diagnoses,

that Jesus addresses each one of these churches for their spiritual health, and in his letter

to them, he gives them exactly what they need, the kind of prescription, as it were, to either

become or to stay healthy and vibrant in their walk with him.

And of course, these letters are for us to today because we see our own lives and we see

our own churches oftentimes in these sort of spiritual diagnoses.

You know, often people will ask, well, how do I grow spiritually?

How do I get healthier, more vibrant?

How do I flourish in my relationship with God?

And that's part of what these letters are here for, to help us to do just that.

Tonight, we're looking at the fourth letter in this series, the letter to the church in

a city called Thyatira.

And it's found in the book of Revelation, chapter 2, verses 18 through 29.

Revelation 2:18–29

That's page 1029 in the Pew Bible, if you want to follow along there.

Let me encourage you to turn there, actually.

It'll be on the screen above as well.

Page 1029, Revelation chapter 2, verses 18 through 29.

Revelation 2:18–29

All right, let me read this for us.

And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, the words of the Son of God, who has

eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works

exceed the first.

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess

and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed

to idols.

I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw

into great tribulation unless they repent of their works, and I will strike her children

dead.

And all of the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will

give to each of you according to your works.

But to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned

what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.

Only hold fast what you have until I come.

The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over

the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron as when earth and pots are broken

in pieces, even as I myself 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.

Let's pray.

Lord, we ask that you would give us ears that hear what your Spirit is speaking to us tonight.

God, we pray that as a church and as individuals, you would open our hearts to rightly respond

to this message before us.

And God, as I seek to explain this passage, grant that I would do so with clarity and

with grace, Father.

Come before you in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

So what does the church need today?

What do we need?

What does the church need to be effective in its call to evangelism?

That is, sharing the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ to heal our relationship

with him?

What do we need to actually sort of do that in a way that people will actually listen and

that people will even want to listen?

And what do we need today to be effective, not just in evangelism, but in discipleship?

What do we need to be effective in helping one another to live in line with the truth of

the gospel?

To encourage one another and to teach one another to live a life more and more shaped like Jesus?

Jesus.

And what do we need today to be effective in our highest calling?

Our calling to display the glory and the beauty of God to the world in our life together?

What does the church need to reflect God's awesome nature out into the world and to reflect

the praises of creation back to him?

What do we really need to be, in other words, God's image bearers, sort of that mirror of

his glory in the world as a church?

Well, the answer, what we need, you and I, might seem kind of simple at first.

The answer is love.

Jesus himself said, people will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

That's John 13, 35.

And of course, Jesus isn't talking about a breezy, kind of self-serving, take it or leave

it sort of love.

You know, that sort of love when it's convenient for my schedule kind of love.

No, the sort of love that Jesus has in mind is the kind of trusting, sacrificial, stick

it out through thick and thin sort of love.

You know, that same night when Jesus told his disciples what I just read to you, he said

this, he said, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

And how did Jesus love us?

He says in the next verse, John 15, 13, greater love is no one than this, that someone laid down

his life for his friends.

That's the kind of love that Jesus has shown us.

He's loved us with a sacrificial, lay down your life sort of love.

And friends, that's what we need today, you and I, we need that kind of love.

And this church in Thyatira that Jesus is talking to here, if you look at verse 19, that's exactly

what they had, a trusting, sacrificial, stick it out through thick and thin love.

Jesus says, I know your works, your love, your faith, your trust, your service, your sacrifice,

and your patient endurance.

Here was a truly loving church.

And not just that, it was an increasingly loving church.

And the rest of verse 18, Jesus commends them.

I know that your latter works exceed the first.

You know, often when you get sort of excited about something, like, you know, my wife and

I were just, we just moved into a new place and, you know, we're sort of excited about

it.

We're, we're like doing lots of projects around the house and painting and scraping and

cause it's an old place, you know, building stuff.

But look, I know, and you, I mean, you and I both know that sooner or later that thrill

is going to sort of wear off, right?

Like pretty soon we're just going to be sick of doing projects around the house and it's going

to peter out.

And isn't that how it is with so much of our life?

And yet here, Jesus is saying, no, actually you have an increasing sort of love that when

you first heard this unbelievably good news that God sent his son to pay for your sins

and to reconcile you free of charge back to him.

When this church came to believe that and when they came alive through God's spirit, they

began to love each other and they began to meet each other's physical needs and their

emotional needs and they, and they started to overlook each other's faults and forgive

each other's wrongs.

There was this love and peace instead of bitterness and gossip and all these ways.

And then here's the amazing thing.

Jesus says it didn't actually just trickle out and run out over time.

This wasn't just a passing fad or an enthusiasm for something new.

That this stream of love became a river.

That as the amazing news of God's love for them settled deeper and deeper into their hearts,

they loved each other more and more.

Their latter works exceeded their first.

Now, friends, isn't that the kind of church that you want to be?

Isn't that the kind of church you want to be a part of?

Where the love of God for us in Christ becomes just this torrent of love toward one another.

I mean, imagine how much easier our witness would be to our neighbors.

Think of how much easier evangelism would be if I knew that like when my neighbor showed up

to Trinity, they would just see a bunch of people who loved each other like crazy.

I mean, I'm pretty sure that would increase their awareness or at least their curiosity

into what this Jesus thing was all about.

Jesus commends this church in Thyatira for their love.

But you know, there's a danger.

There's a danger for churches that love well.

And there's a danger for Christians that love well.

And it's actually the opposite danger that we saw back in the beginning of chapter 2

in the letter to the church at Ephesus.

If you remember back there, we saw a picture of a church that was passionate about truth

and sound doctrine, all very, very, very good things.

But, Jesus says, you have no love.

The problem in Ephesus was a loveless orthodoxy.

But here in Thyatira, the problem is nearly the reverse.

They love, but they haven't been careful to preserve what's true.

In particular, they've tolerated, as Jesus says at the beginning of verse 20,

a kind of teaching that undermined holy living.

And this teaching, it seems, was being spread by a person

that Jesus actually likens to the character of Jezebel in the Old Testament.

And in case you're not familiar with the Old Testament,

that's not a very flattering comparison.

We learn about Jezebel in the book of 1 Kings,

starting in chapter 16.

She was the wife of a really bad king, Ahab,

in the northern kingdom of Israel.

And along with Ahab, she promoted idol worship

and despised the words of the prophets

and took advantage of the poor.

Pretty bad figure.

And apparently here in Thyatira,

there was a person, it seems a woman,

who was promoting and seducing people

into a certain kind of teaching

that then led into just an embrace of idolatry

and sexual immorality.

And she may have even been a prominent figure in the church.

Who knows?

She might have been a deacon.

She might have been a recognized officer.

She was maybe even a prophetess,

someone who had the gift of prophecy,

so it seemed.

And if you look down at verse 24,

we see that this group, led by this particular person,

was claiming to have some sort of secret knowledge,

it seems.

That they claimed to have figured out

some sort of deep spiritual truth.

Maybe like Paul sort of references in 1 Corinthians 10,

maybe this group was sort of teaching that,

you know, idols aren't really anything.

We know that there's one God,

so these idols aren't nothing.

Therefore, it doesn't matter if you go to the temple

and feast with them and worship them.

It doesn't matter,

because we know idols aren't real

and we figured out that deep, secret spiritual truth.

And maybe they were also teaching that,

you know, that for truly spiritual people

who've understood these deep, secret things,

you know, once you sort of see the truth as it really is,

it doesn't really matter what you do with your body.

I mean, it's the spiritual thing that counts.

So, you know, sex outside of marriage, not a big deal,

because what you do in your body

doesn't really affect your soul.

So, you know,

this is a sort of deeper teaching of Christianity.

Christianity.

This is probably the kinds of things that they were saying.

And Jesus looks upon all of these claims

to a deeper insight.

These claims to really know the truth,

and Jesus says,

it's all a lie of Satan.

That's what he says.

He says, these deep things of Satan.

So, as I think we look over this letter,

I think the first lesson for us is this.

As we strive as a church to love well,

and we should strive as a church

with all the strength that God gives us to love well,

we have to also be discerning.

We have to recognize, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13,

that great love chapter in the New Testament,

that love does not rejoice at wrongdoing,

but rejoices with the truth.

That that's part of what it means to love.

In other words, we need love and truth.

We need love and holiness.

True love cares deeply about both.

In fact, it's almost as if Jesus is telling them here

that, look, if you have this love

without the sort of the skeleton

of the truth of the gospel,

it's all going to just turn into a puddle.

Imagine a body without a skeleton.

It's not going to be a body much longer.

And the second lesson,

I think that we see here,

is that Jesus' stern warning here,

his stern warning,

doesn't mean

that there's no place for sinners in the church.

No, no, no.

If you want to be a part of the church of Jesus,

then you have to admit

just that,

that you're a complete moral failure.

You know,

that's the only way in.

The only way in

to the church of God

is through admitting

that you're a sinner

and you're broken

and you can't do it on your own.

In other words,

the gospel of grace

is just that.

A gospel,

a good message of news,

of grace,

of undeserved favor

for people like you and me

who don't get it

and don't deserve it.

So Jesus isn't saying here

that there's no room

for sinners.

But he is saying

that unrepentant sin,

sin that we

don't acknowledge

and don't turn away from,

is deadly

and is dangerous.

Look at verse 21.

Jesus,

in his mercy

and in his kindness,

gave this particular teacher

time to repent.

He had been

beckoning

to them

to turn around,

to realize

that you're headed

in the wrong direction

and to come home.

Come back.

But it seems

in this particular instance,

this particular teacher refused.

So friend,

maybe you're here tonight

and maybe you're feeling

like you've completely

and utterly

blown it.

That you've stumbled

into sin

that maybe it's big

sort of obvious sin

and maybe stumble

is kind of a euphemism

because you just

dove right in

with both feet.

Friends,

the message

of this text

for you

is that Jesus

is saying,

come home.

There's a place

for you

at my table

and in my kingdom

and my love

for you

hasn't changed

so come.

There's time

to turn

tonight

and come back.

It's not too late.

The third lesson

I think we see here

is that there's a warning.

There is a warning

for those

who willfully

teach

and support

false teaching.

In verse 22

through 23,

Jesus issues

a massively

stern warning.

Sickness,

suffering,

even death,

he says,

is the outcome

of knowingly

and willingly

teaching and leading

God's people astray.

This is very serious.

And just as Jesus

welcomes absolutely

everyone who turns

from sin,

no matter what

that sin is,

and comes to him

for grace,

he also warns

that those who persist

in leading others astray

are going to face ruin.

Particularly those

who are in positions

of authority

and leadership

who lead people away

and who don't

turn and repent.

Jesus is the one,

he says,

who searches

minds

and hearts

and will give

to each

according to their works.

Now what does that mean?

It doesn't mean

that Jesus

is going to take

all our good deeds

and all our bad deeds

and weigh them

on a scale,

see which way it tips

and say,

okay, that's what you get.

That is nowhere

in the Bible.

He's not talking

about the amount

of deeds.

He's talking about

the disposition

of the heart.

That's what it means

that he's going to give

according to their works.

You see,

for those who

humbly listen to Jesus

and turn to him

in repentance and faith,

he's going to grant

abundant grace.

Even if you have

a modicum

of turning to him,

he will meet you

with an overflow

of grace.

But,

to the one

who refuses

to listen,

the one who

proudly thinks

that they can

do it their own way

and find the loophole

or the spiritual secret

to justify their actions,

to that one

who remains unrepentant,

Jesus says,

okay,

I'll give you

what you ask for.

If you want to live life

your own way,

if you want to keep

going in that direction,

fine,

it's yours.

And that path

is the path

of ruin

and disintegration

and ultimately

death.

But,

you know,

this stern warning

isn't the last word

of Jesus

to this church

and to us

tonight.

Jesus issues

this call

to repentance

with a fresh glimpse

of his person

and of his promises.

You know,

he opens in verse 18

by describing himself

as he who has eyes

like a flame of fire

and whose feet

are like burnished bronze.

Now,

on the surface,

Jesus is talking

about his glory

and his holiness here.

He's the one

who sees our hearts.

He's the one

who shines

with the glory

of the Father.

But,

you know,

to the citizens

of this particular city

of Thyatira

in western Turkey,

this sort of image

of Jesus

probably would have

resonated a lot

more deeply

with them.

Because one of the things

that we know

sort of from archaeology

and from history

is that the city

of Thyatira

on the one hand

was politically

and culturally

basically unimportant.

It was on the margins

and it didn't have

much status.

But,

the one thing

that Thyatira

was known for,

the one little

claim to fame

it had,

was its metalworking.

In particular,

in Thyatira

there was a guild,

which is sort of

a group of workmen.

there was a guild

of bronze workers

who were just

completely famous

throughout the region.

The city prided

themselves

on being able

to make

and fashion

a certain kind

of bronze

that you could get

nowhere else.

In fact,

some scholars

think that the

unique language

that Jesus uses

for burnished bronze

in verse 18

was a technical term

for that same sort

of bronze

that they made

in Thyatira.

This bronze

that you couldn't

get anywhere.

And this bronze

was made

by a specialized

process

that this particular

tradesman guild

in Thyatira

kept utterly secret

and they guarded

this secret

because it was

like their trade

secret, right?

It's like they

weren't just going

to sort of

broadcast it

all over the place.

Here's how you

make the one thing

that we actually

have worth out of.

And no one else

could get it

and no one else

could make it

and no one else

had a claim to it.

No one else

that is

except Jesus.

This prized

thing

that this city

celebrated,

this secret

protected thing

that made them

feel

the one thing

that made them

feel like they

were some

thing

or some

body.

Jesus says

what you're

actually looking

for

is me.

I'm the one

in whom all

the treasures

of wisdom

and knowledge

and worth

are found.

You're looking

for worth,

for importance,

for identity.

You're being led

astray by teachers

who are telling you

that they have

this special insight

but don't you see

that I'm the treasure

you're looking for?

How liberating

is the end

of verse 24.

Jesus says

to those

who aren't being

led astray

by this teaching,

look,

I'm not laying

on you.

I'm not laying

on you

any other burden.

Only hold fast

what you have

until I come.

In other words,

look friends,

there's not a second tier,

there's not a deeper

plane,

there's not a special

secret you have to learn,

there's no inner guild

that you have to join.

Jesus is saying,

if you have me,

then you've got it all.

I'm not going to lay

on you some burden

to prove yourself

or to initiate yourself.

Take my yoke upon you,

Jesus once said

in his earthly ministry.

My burden is easy

and my yoke is light

and you'll find rest

for your souls.

You see,

what Jesus is showing us

about his person

as he issues this call

for us to be both loving

and discerning,

what he's saying is,

is that,

look,

my eyes are like fire,

I see the very depths

of your soul,

but my feet are like

burnished bronze

on the treasure

that you're longing for.

And you know,

if we start to realize

that in Christ

we have all

that we really need,

then we actually can

love well

and make hard calls

when something isn't right.

Why did the church

in Thyatira

tolerate this false teaching?

Well, maybe it was,

you know,

maybe it was taught

in such a way

that made them feel important,

that they were getting

secret insight,

that they were

sort of advancing

beyond maybe

some of the other churches.

They were feeling special.

Or maybe they didn't

like just

not having people

like them.

They were a really

loving church.

They probably loved people.

And the thought of

sort of saying no

to something,

well,

they didn't want

that disapproval.

They didn't want

that sort of reaction.

But either way,

Jesus is saying,

look,

in me,

you've got all of that.

You've got the one

whose approval matters

more than anything else.

You've got the one

whose worth

and glory

will last forever.

But Jesus points

not just to his person,

but to his promises.

For those who

stay close to him,

for those who

overcome,

as he says,

he promises

that they will

rule with him

in authority

over the nations.

This image

there at the end

of our section

of breaking pots

and ruling

with a rod of iron

actually comes

from Psalm chapter 2,

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

Psalm number 2.

And it's a picture,

it's a very graphic

picture,

isn't it,

in the Psalm

of God's king

ruling the world

and putting down

and putting to an end

rebellion

and evil

and injustice

and all the things

that deep in our hearts

we cry out against

in the world.

It's a graphic picture

of God

bringing all of that

to an end

and establishing

once again

peace

and wholeness.

And Jesus is saying

to us and to this church,

look,

I know you don't feel

important now.

I know you're tempted

to let these important

sounding teachers

in the door

and I know it's so much

easier to just go along

with it.

Look,

it would have been

very, very,

a whole lot easier

in a pagan city

like Thyatira

to just give in

to idol worship.

Look,

everyone was doing it.

The whole sort of

culture revolved

around these temples

and these practices.

It would have been

so much easier

in their context

to just not worry

about holiness

and sexual purity

and all those things.

But Jesus is saying,

look,

don't you see?

I know you're feeling

trampled now.

I know you're feeling

marginalized.

But hold on to me.

It's not always

going to be that way.

You are the kings

and the queens

of the world to come.

You are the new humanity

in the midst of the old.

You're the ones

who are going

to share my reign

in the world to come.

So don't be afraid

to make distinctions now

between what's good

and what's evil,

between what's right

and what's wrong.

Don't be afraid

to let your love

express itself

in holiness.

Friends,

you're going to share

my authority

one day,

Jesus says.

And Jesus promises

in addition to all that

in verse 28

at the very end,

I will give

to the one

who overcomes,

to the one

who conquers,

the morning star.

Now,

what in the world

is the morning star?

Well,

in the ancient world,

the morning star

would have been

the planet Venus,

actually,

as it sort of rose.

And it would have

stood out as sort of

the brightest star-like

object in the sky.

It would have been

sort of prominent

and brighter

than all the rest.

But it's interesting,

at the end of Revelation

in chapter 22,

verse 16,

Jesus calls himself

the morning star.

At the very end

of the book,

he says,

I am the root

and descendant of David,

the bright

and morning star.

The most radiant

object

in the night sky,

the thing

that you can't miss,

the beauty

among beauties,

Jesus is saying,

it's me.

And Jesus is telling them

to hold fast.

Hold fast.

And what will you receive?

He's not just going

to give you a throne,

friends.

He's saying,

I'm going to give you

my very self.

You get the morning star.

You get all of me.

You get me,

Jesus says.

And you know,

at the end of the day,

what Jesus is asking of us,

what Jesus is calling us to

in the gospel,

is to give our whole selves

to him.

To heed his word,

to trust his ways,

to give him our whole selves.

And you know,

friends,

we know

that that

must be

for our good.

Because Jesus Christ

has done the same thing

for us.

He has given

himself to us.

One day,

we're going to embrace him

in all of his beauty

and glory,

the bright

morning star.

But you know,

before that self-giving,

long ago,

before that,

he had already

given himself

on the cross.

That the morning star

actually went

into darkness.

And the ruler

of the nations

was crushed to pieces

by the rulers

of this age.

He gave himself

for us.

So that when we

give ourselves

to him,

we find righteousness

and life

and peace

and joy.

he gave himself

for us

so that all

who put their

trust in him

could rule with him

and could shine

with him

forever.

So friends,

as we wrap up

with this

letter,

let's love

one another.

let's love

one another

with a trusting,

sacrificial,

stick it out

through thick

and thin

kind of love

and in our

loving,

let's hold fast

to truth

and holiness

even if it makes

us unimportant

in the world's eyes.

Even if that makes

us incredibly

unpopular,

even despised,

not that we go

sort of looking

for people to not

like us,

but even if that's

a result,

even if it makes

life hard,

let's give

ourselves to Christ

with no reserves

because,

friends,

he's the one

who has given

himself to us

and who will

give us

so much more.

let's pray.

Father,

we do ask

that you would

give us the

courage

to love well.

God,

so often

we're fearful

and afraid

to love

our brothers

and sisters

in the church

and to love

our neighbors

as ourselves,

so God,

would you grant

us courage

to do that?

And Lord,

in our loving,

would you help

us to love

also what is

true and what

is beautiful

and what is good

help us to

hold fast

to truth

and to holiness

and would that

be an expression

of our deep

love for you

and for others,

God?

Jesus,

we need your

spirit

not just to

hear this

message

but to live

it out,

so would you

come and would

you dwell among

us?

Oh,

bright morning

star,

oh,

ruler of the

nations,

would you call

us forth to

yourself by

your spirit

so that we

might live in

a way that

pleases you.

Amen.

Well,

friends,

as a way of

responding tonight,

we're going to

take the Lord's

Supper together.

Um,

um,

um,