Dear Thyatira | Dear Church | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we're continuing our sermon

series, Dear Church, where we're looking at the

letters in the opening of the book of Revelation

that are written from Christ to the church. And

today our guest preacher, Bill Crawford, is taking

us through the letter to the church in Thyatira.

Jesus has some harsh words for this church. Words

about compromise from within and the dangers

of tolerating false prophets. So what does Christ

have to say to them, and what warnings does Christ

have to offer to us? Our readings today are from

the book of Revelation, beginning with chapter

1, verses 4 -5, and chapter 2, verses 12 -17.

John, to the seven churches in the province of

Asia, grace and peace to you from Him who is,

and who was, and who is to come. and from the

seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus

Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn

from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of

the earth. To the angel of the church in Thyatira

write, These are the words of the Son of God,

whose eyes are like blazing fire, and whose feet

are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds,

your love and faith, your service and perseverance,

and that you are now doing more than you did

at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you.

You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself

a prophet. By her teaching, she misleads my servants

into sexual immorality and the eating of food

sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to

repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.

So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and

I will make those who commit adultery with her

suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.

I will strike her children dead. then all the

churches will know that I am he who searches

hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you

according to your deeds. Now I say to the rest

of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to

her teaching and have not learned Satan's so

-called deep secrets, I will not impose any other

burden on you except to hold on to what you have

until I come. To the one who is victorious and

does my will to the end, I will give authority

over the nations. That one will rule them with

an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces

like pottery, just as I have received authority

from my Father. I will also give that one the

morning star. Whoever has ears, let them hear

what the Spirit says to the churches. The word

of the Lord. For those who don't know me, my

name is Bill Crawford. I am... I coordinate the

men's ministry programs here at Trinity. And

for the last year, I've also led the group that's

put together the monthly community meals. uh

here at trinity uh and i'm very happy to to say

that uh actually just a few days ago on thursday

we uh we started year two of our community meals

we've been running them for a whole year uh we've

done 12 and and we we have about 60 65 people

on average they're coming every month And it

was a real nice, for me, a privilege to be part

of that community meal program here at Trinity,

serving the hungry and lonely in our neighborhood.

And I also, I'm a deacon in training, known as

a DIT to my friends here at the church. D -I

-T, DIT. Lovingly known as, I'm hoping. And so

as part of that process, Rob has asked me a couple

of times to preach in front of the church, which

is a great honor, and I'm so glad that Rob trusts

me with that responsibility. But I have noticed

that it's always when he is here at the church.

It's almost as if, you know, if I go off the

rails, he can go, Bill Crawford! everybody and

then move on to something else. So let's hope

that doesn't happen, Rob. But feel free if it

does. So we're right smack in the middle of a

sermon series called Dear Church, Ancient Letters

for Today's Church. And today we're going to

be talking about Jesus's letter to the church

of Tyre Tyre. So let's get started with a prayer.

May the words of my lips and the meditation of

all of our hearts be now and always of you. In

Jesus' name, amen. Home. Home is where we feel

safe. Inside the four walls of our homes, we

feel secure. We feel protected. There are outside

forces, both natural and unnatural. but our homes

repel the rain and keep us dry. They keep unwanted

guests from getting inside. Home is our refuge.

We even have the phrase home church, and Trinity

has been my home church for over 30 years. But

we use that phrase to identify that place of

worship where we feel safe and the most comfortable.

But what happens... when it is not an outside

force, but the threat comes from within. You

may be familiar with the old horror film trope

called The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs. It

started with a movie called When a Stranger Calls,

way back in 1979, and they did a remake in 2007,

but there's lots of other movies that use that

trope or make fun of it. It goes something like

this. A teenage girl is babysitting at night.

The children have been put to sleep upstairs,

and the babysitter is downstairs watching television.

The phone rings. The caller tells her, check

on the children. The adolescent dismisses that

first call, goes back to watching television.

The anonymous caller dials back several times.

The caller uses her name in the call, which is

creepy. And another call, he says that he can

see her. I'm looking at you right now. Super

creepy. Eventually, the babysitter calls the

police, who inform her that they will trace the

next call. The stranger calls again. And then

the police return a call. And they say, we traced

the call. It's coming from inside the house.

What happens next? You might want to know. I'm

not going to tell you. I don't want to ruin it

for you. But there's lots of different versions

of that film, that movie. And they all have slightly

different endings. But I'm just going to give

you a bit of a spoiler. Most of them are pretty

gruesome. So be careful. But this scenario is

exactly what happened to the church of Thyatira.

If you recall from last week, the church of Pergamum

was being assailed by external influences from

all sides, economic, religious, social, medical.

They were getting battered from the outside in.

The church of Thyatira had a different problem.

They were exposed to a lot of the same... external

forces as pergamum was but were fairly well insulated

probably because of their faith and their good

deeds as jesus described them in the letter yet

there was an unchecked threat from within and

if left alone it was going to be their ruin Now

let's start with a little background about the

little town of Thyatira. It was a small town.

In fact, it was one of the least important of

the seven churches that received letters in the

book of Revelation. Its only real significance

was that it was a popular trade route, or it

was on a popular trade route between Pergamum

and Sardis. Originally set up as a military garrison

that mostly served as an early warning system

of an invading army heading to Pergamum. But

over the centuries, it became an economic hub,

attracting a number of tradespeople and artisans,

including those who worked with wool, linen,

dyes, leather, and bronze. And they set up trade

guilds to help grow and protect their businesses.

These trade guilds, which... also doubled as

social and religious clubs, became quite powerful

and exerted a lot of influence over the people.

Basically, if you wanted to work in your trade

in Thyatira, you needed to be a member of a guild

and to participate in their activities and their

festivities. Out of all the letters in Revelation

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

chapters 2 and 3, this one is the longest. but

it's written to the least important city. And

this tells me something. What mattered most to

Jesus was not how big or how powerful the city

was, but how faithful his people were. Let's

get into the letter. The main body of the letter

is very similar to other letters to the seven

churches. The first part is a commendation. Basically...

Jesus complimenting them on what they were doing

well as a church. The second part is the condemnation,

and that is Jesus' warning, highlighting what

they are doing wrong. The third part is the promise.

Each letter concludes with a promise and a blessing

or a reward for the one who overcomes. In verses

18 and 19 we read, These are the words of the

Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire,

and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know

your deeds, your love, your faith, your service

and perseverance, and that you are now doing

more than you did at first. Jesus starts by letting

them know who he is. He is the son of God, big

S, big G, the son of God. And he's telling them

that he's more powerful than the gods, lowercase

g gods, that are worshipped in the temples. He

has eyes like blazing fire, symbolizing his ability

to see everything. Nothing is hidden from him.

Not our struggles, not our secrets, not even

our motives. His feet of bronze show his purity

and his ability to trample evil underfoot. Our

all -knowing and all -powerful God takes a look

at the church of Thyatira and sees a faithful

church doing good works and even growing. That

sounds great so far, but there is a problem.

and there always has to be a but. But in this

case, it's a nevertheless. Jesus says, nevertheless,

I have this against you. You tolerate the woman

Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her

teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual

immorality and the eating of food sacrificed

to idols. So Jesus rebukes the church for tolerating

the false prophet Jezebel, who is leading believers

into sexual immorality and idol worship. But

the question is, who is Jezebel? And Jesus calls

her Jezebel, but that's likely not her actual

name. One of the commentators in the books that

I read in preparing for this sermon said, no

one in that time would ever, ever... ever call

one of their children Jezebel. It just was not

a name that would be used because of the historical

significance. So Jesus calls her Jezebel in this

letter as a symbolic reference to the Old Testament

queen Jezebel who promoted Baal worship and idolatry

in Israel. You can read about her story in the

Old Testament books of 1 Kings chapter 16 to

1 Kings 16 · chapter mention

21 and 2 Kings chapter 9. These chapters detail

2 Kings 9 · chapter mention

her marriage to King Ahab, her promotion of Baal

worship, her persecution of God's prophets, her

role in Naboth's death, and her own violent end

where she is thrown from a window and trampled

by horses. It's great reading. Just go home today,

look it up. Amazing stuff. And there just happened

to be someone who pulled out their phone and

took a quick pic. This is the actual scene. Jezebel

thrown from the window. She's on the ground.

She's being dashed by horses. It's a real photo,

guys. Just as the original Jezebel led people

into sin and immorality, the woman in Thyatira,

who claimed to be a prophet but was not, was

teaching the church to engage in similar practices.

The name serves to highlight the wicked and corrupting

influence of her teachings, and the lifestyle

within the community. She called herself a prophet,

a role of authority and leadership within the

church. There are lots of examples in the New

Testament of the apostles choosing a member of

the church, setting them apart to lead, but this

is not the case here. She was self -appointed.

She did have some authority within the church

to teach, but her teaching misled the faithful

into sexual immorality and the eating of food

sacrificed to idols. Scholars don't know for

certain, but she was likely teaching a version

of antinomianism, which is a belief rejected

in the New Testament that Christians are not

bound by God's moral law, viewing it as a license

to sin. From the Greek words anti, meaning against,

and nomos, meaning law, antinomianism is the

view that the law, particularly that of the Old

Testament Mosaic law, is no longer binding or

relevant for Christians after they have received

God's grace. They basically have a license to

sin or a free hall pass. If you get my meaning.

You can see how this would be appealing to the

Thyatarian Christians because it would allow

them to fully participate in trade guild activities

and festivities. They would be able to keep their

jobs, feed their families, remain in good standing

with the trade guilds. Jezebel's teaching told

them that they could worship other gods, they

could commit sexual immoralities, and eat food

sacrificed to idols. and not suffer any consequences

because it didn't really matter what Christians

did after they had received God's grace. Later

in the same letter, in verse 24, Jesus refers

to her teaching as Satan's so -called deep secrets.

People were attracted by the idea of receiving

special knowledge or having the inside scoop.

on the Christian faith. It was appealing. It

was exciting. And she was offering a way to alleviate

the conflict between their faith and their work

life, something Christians in Thyatira were probably

already trying to reconcile for themselves. But

Jesus confirms that it was false, and in fact,

from the devil himself. Okay, so what was the

problem? Jesus does make it plain that Jezebel

was a clear and present danger from within the

church. She was a problem that she was, she was

a problem, but she was not the problem that Jesus

had with the church of Thyatira. Jesus says,

I have this against you. You tolerate that woman

Jezebel. So here's the real problem. The church

did not confront her. They tolerated her. They

said, we don't want to cause division, or maybe

it's not our place to judge. Or perhaps they

thought, you know, she's helping us reach more

people, so maybe we should just let it go. Tolerated

compromise is the problem. Jesus, who sees all,

is condemning the church for turning a blind

eye on the negative influence of Jezebel from

within the church. I have given her time to repent,

Jesus says in verses 21 to 22, of her immorality,

but she is unwilling. I will cast her on a bed

of suffering and I will make those who commit

adultery with her suffer intensely. unless they

repent of her ways. This is the consequence.

Jesus basically says, you had your chance to

intervene and you did nothing. So now I'm taking

care of it. He said he gave Jezebel a chance

to repent and she refused. So she is going to

be punished for her discretions, as well as all

those who fell for her false teaching, unless

they repent. Then everyone will know that Jesus

sees into the hearts and minds, hearkening back

to his description of himself in the beginning

of the letter, and everyone will get what is

coming to them according to their deeds. Verses

26 and 28 read, To the one who is victorious

and does my will to the end, I will give authority

over the nation. I will also give that one the

morning star. This is the promise. Not everyone

in Thyatira was following this false prophet,

and Jesus offers a reward to those who hold fast.

Authority over the nations and eternal life with

him. In verses 24 and 25, Jesus says, To you

who do not hold to her teaching, I will impose...

I will not, sorry, I will not impose any other

burden on you except to hold on to what you have

until I come. Isn't that good news? That's great

news. Jesus doesn't pile on impossible expectations.

To the faithful, he simply says, hold on. He

says, stay faithful. He says, turn off the phone.

He simply says, do not give up. So what can we

do to hold on? Well, the first thing we can do

is we can read the Bible. I'm hoping your Bible

isn't as dusty as that Bible in that picture.

It's begging, please read me. When I worked as

a poll officer for the elections, we received

detailed training manuals describing exactly

what we needed to do in any given situation.

Every time someone asked the trainer what to

do, he always said, the first thing you do is

go back to the manual. That's true for us as

Christians. The first thing we need to do is

to go back to the Bible. Romans 15 .4 states,

for everything that was written in the past was

written to teach us so that through the endurance

taught in the scriptures, and the encouragement

they provide, we might have hope. What else can

we do to hold on? Well, we can pray. Prayer should

be our go -to response to whatever it is that

we're dealing with. Don't know the right thing

to do? Pray about it. Don't know what to say

in any given situation? Say a prayer. Not sure

if what is happening is good or it's right? Pray

on it. Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says, do not be

anxious about anything, but in every situation

by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present

your request to God and the peace of God, which

transcends all understanding, will guard. Your

hearts and mind in Christ Jesus will guard your

hearts and mind. What else can we do to hold

on? Well, we can test everything. We can test

all things. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 20, 22, we're

told test all things and hold fast to what is

good. Reject every kind of evil. And this passage

is crucial. for dealing with false prophets,

which is the situation that the church in Thyatira

has found itself in, by providing a balanced

approach. Don't reject all prophetic utterances

out of hand, but rather diligently test them

to distinguish truth from falsehood, and then

embrace what is good and reject what is evil.

1 John... was a book that was written to a church

that was dealing with false teachers. And chapter

4, verse 1 reads, Dear friends, do not believe

every spirit, but test the spirit to see whether

they are from God, because many false prophets

have gone out into the world. In a different

one of the seven letters to the churches in Revelation,

Jesus commended the church in Ephesus for knowing

how to deal with fake prophets. It's amazing.

As you look over the seven letters of the churches,

some churches, they're all in the same area of

Asia Minor, but some churches knew how to do

something right while other churches were having

difficulty. The church in Ephesus knew how to

deal with fake apostles, but the church in Thyatira

needed work to do that well. Because they weren't

doing it. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked

people, that you have tested those who claim

to be apostles but are not and have found them

false. So to wrap up, Jesus warns of compromise.

Even a faithful, growing church doing good deeds

can become susceptible to compromising influences.

And we need to watch out for false teachings

from the inside out. We may be ready to guard

ourselves from the more obvious external pressures

that attack our faith, but we also need to be

aware of and protect ourselves from the less

obvious potential threats from within. We can

guard ourselves by reading the Bible, by praying,

and by testing all things. Jesus wants us to

hold on, to stay faithful, and to not give up.

The Bible promises that we don't have to worry.

Through prayer, petition, and thanksgiving, we

can present our request to God, and the peace

of God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ

Jesus. Now to he who has an ear, let him hear

what the Spirit says to the churches. Amen. Thanks

for tuning in to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This sermon was recorded at Trinity

Church Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario on

September 28th, 2025.