Letters to the 7 Churches: Church of Thyatira - Revelation 2:18-28 | Pastor Daniel Reese

Welcome to another 563 Church Podcast, a production

of Cornerstone Church in Eldridge, Iowa. Today

we explore the message to the Church of Thyatira

in Revelation chapter 2 verses 18 to 28 as Pastor

Revelation 2:18–28

Daniel Reese unpacks Jesus' words of both warning

and encouragement. Discover what faithfulness

looks like in the midst of compromise and how

Christ calls His people to stand firm in truth

and holiness. We're on week four of our series

of going through the seven churches in Revelation.

We're not getting into all the crazy stuff, if

you will, just looking at the churches. As you

turn there, I'll just set this up for you. According

to Acts chapter 17, God has placed all of us

Acts 17 · chapter mention

here at this time. It's not an accident that

you are alive and living in this generation at

this time in this place. The times and the places

in which we live are set by God. And so this

is our 40 -year block of time, if you will, to

figure out what it looks like to actually follow

Jesus. So my thought with this series was that

since we weren't the first ones to try out this

church thing and figure out what it looks like,

to be the church, my thought process was maybe

we should take a look at other churches that

have done this before us. That way maybe we could

avoid some of the pitfalls that are there, but

also maybe see some of the things that they did

right and follow in those footsteps. And so we're

in week four of that. And so we started with

Ephesus. Ephesus started really raw, really gritty,

really honest with themselves. They would confess

their junk. But 60 years later, we find them

pretending and doing church as a hobby. It went

from, I was a part of some really wicked stuff,

prostitution and idol worship and pharmaceuticals

and bestiality and I was talking with demons,

all these things, but Jesus saved me from it

all. It went from that to the church just being

a place where you say, I'm fine, I'm good. I'm

not gonna give you anything that I'm struggling

with. I'm gonna make sure that my exterior life

looks perfect so that the people around me don't

view me any less. There is the need to not pretend,

and there is the need that we need Jesus to help

us with that. If we start to pretend, then we

get off of the narrow path, and that is so destructive

to our souls. Then we looked at the church in

Smyrna where Jesus begins to redefine wealth.

They were this really poor place, but Jesus said

that they had soul wealth. They did not give

into the pressure of the culture and they remained

faithful to the Lord in spite of many of them

being killed. Many of them having their material

possessions ripped away from them, many of them

being thrown into prison. In spite of all of

those things going on externally around them,

Jesus still calls them rich. He reminded them

that if they keep their eyes focused on the goal,

that they would be victorious. Then last week

we looked at the church in Pergamum, and Pergamum

started off really strong. They looked really,

really good, but it ends in this train wreck

of a discussion. It was just horrible. They were

unwilling to separate themselves from the rest

of the culture, and what they did was they just

added Jesus' name to what they were doing. And

we learned that we need to be aware of the heart.

We need to take the risk of being known. We need

to not be so self -absorbed that we miss everything

else going on around us. And then this week,

we're going to look at the church in Thyatira

in Revelation chapter two. As I read that text,

if you're willing and able, we'd love for you

to stand as we honor the Lord's word together.

I'm gonna start in verse 18, and we'll go through

28. 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 sick bed and those who

commit adultery with her I will throw into the

great tribulation unless they repent of her works

and I will strike her children dead. And all

the churches will know that I am He who searches

mind and heart. 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

that some call the deep things of Satan, to you

I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.

Only hold fast that 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. And when earthen pots are broken in pieces,

even as I myself have received authority from

my Father, Father, I pray right now that you

will give each and every one of us an ear to

hear what you have to say to our hearts. I pray,

Father, that this text will become clear. I pray

that we will be able to understand it. I pray

that you will help me communicate it well. Father

your spirit needs to move freely in this place

for us to be changed and so we ask those things

in Jesus name. Amen Now Thyatira was a town that

was founded by Alexander the Great It is now

located in what is now known as Akashar, Turkey

and it was formed as a city, as a fort, if you

will, to make sure that there was always a presence

of the armies in the region. Now the armies of

Alexander the Great worshiped the god Apollo,

and Apollo in that region was also known as the

son of God. So if you are a Christian in this

place, In Thyatira, you had to make a choice

because like the other cities that we have discussed,

their culture is built around the guilds. The

guilds are like essentially a labor union, if

you will. You lived in a certain type of town

based on what you did, but it was more than just

a labor union. It was a group of people that

you did life with. And these guilds would hold

festivals often which would include going to

the temple of Apollo and worshipping him. Now

if you chose not to go to that festival, if you

chose not to go to the temple of Apollo and worship

him, you risk the chance of being kicked out

of the guild. Because we don't want, they didn't

want to make Apollo mad. If you make Apollo mad,

there's a good chance that business is going

to go bad for you. So every Christian essentially

in Thyatira had a choice to make, follow Jesus

or keep your job. Those were your options. Now,

Thyatira is not a bustling city like Ephesus

or Smyrna, but it is a wealthy town because of

the business in which they had. The goldsmiths

and the silversmiths and the bronsmiths are all

the best of the best. They had the best idols,

if you will. They formed the best sculptures.

The textiles they made were renowned around the

world. In fact, the first recorded convert from

Europe was Lydia in the book of Acts chapter

Acts 16 · chapter mention

16. She was from Thyatira. She is described in

Acts chapter 16 as a seller of purple goods,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

which tells us that she lived in the textile

guild within Thyatira. And so because of her

conversion in Acts chapter 16, she now has to

Acts 16 · chapter mention

make the choice, do I continue? to follow my

career, do I continue to go into the textile

business, or do I follow Jesus? That's her reality.

And Jesus starts off, I know your works, your

love, your faith, and service, and patient endurance,

and that your latter works exceed the first.

Now if we stop right there, that sounds like

a place that we want to be a part of. That sounds

like a place we want to bring our children to.

This is a church that we want to join. Christ

has just said this, I know that you are full

of love. I know you have persevered. I know you

have great faith. This is the only church that

we know of that is actually growing. And I'm

not talking about numerically, but rather in

depth because Jesus just said that what you are

doing now is greater than what you were doing

at the beginning. Right. That's different than

Ephesus. That's different than Pergamum. They

started off strong but ended badly. Thyatira

here is they've grown in how they are doing things.

It sounds like it's a hopping place to be. But

then we get to verse 20. 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 So so real

quick. Let's talk about Jezebel Now it is highly

unlikely that this woman's name is Jezebel because

Jezebel in the Old Testament It was this queen

of Ahab, this wife of Ahab who was basically

a mass murderer. Jezebel was the wife of the

king of Israel who basically convinced the Israelites

to worship Baal alongside worshipping God. And

they were worshipping Baal to the extent that

they would literally sacrifice their children

as an act of worship to Baal. Now, God's judgment

on the nation of Israel, because of Ahab and

Jezebel, this was the final straw before He gives

them over to their enemies and they end up in

captivity. So just for the record, in both the

Old Testament and the New Testament, God doesn't

take lightly the worship of anything but Him.

And so typically, Now I don't know everybody's

name here, but typically you don't name your

children after those types of people right It

would be like today naming your kid Hitler There's

just like a stigma about it. You don't really

want your kid carrying around that way So so

we tend to stay away when we name our children

we tend to stay away from the mass murderer type

names That's just my advice to you But even sometimes

today you will hear the name Jezebel in some

songs, and it's usually a guy singing about some

girl that did him dirty or some girl that broke

his heart, and he calls her Jezebel. And then

verse 21 continues to talk about her, I gave

her time to repent, but she refuses to repent

of her sexual immorality. And so here's what

you got. You got this church. You got this church

where things are going really well. things are

looking really good. And in the middle of this

church, you have this woman who is teaching things

that are false and are leading people astray.

And if you look at the accusation of Christ towards

this church, it's not towards the woman. The

accusation is not towards Jezebel, but towards

the church that tolerates her and will do nothing

about her in their midst. Listen, I don't know

what she's teaching. The scripture doesn't tell

us. I don't know how she is leading them astray,

but for some reason they don't want to call her

out on it. For some reason they don't want to

deal with it. I think they keep thinking that

somebody else will handle that. Like maybe they

recognize it's wrong, but that's somebody else's

responsibility. We're not going to deal with

it. I mean, we have all been there from time

to time. Maybe she's just this really scary woman.

like we all know somebody like that right nobody

in this room of course but maybe she's just really

scary woman maybe if you say something to her

in the wrong tone of voice or with the wrong

look she will just turn on you and rip you to

shreds i don't know what the situation is here

with jezebel maybe the church has a feel to it

to what several family reunions feel like like

like when you would get together even though

you're all the same flesh and blood even though

your family you really don't know anyone Like

we have the same last name, but I really don't

know who you are. You know what I'm talking about

when we're talking about those types of reunions?

Those kind you dread that you're being dragged

to because we're family, we gotta go. You have

conversations that are small talk, but you never,

they never really go anywhere because you don't

have a relationship with them. You are family,

but because of distance and lack of real relationship.

you run out of things to talk about. So you just

start looking for things to do with them. So

maybe even though they are a church that is doing

really well, maybe their relationships are just

really shallow. And so maybe that's why they

won't confront her. I don't know why they won't

confront her and I don't know why they continue

to let this go. And so Jesus says, my problem

is not that Jezebel is among you. My problem

is not that Jezebel is coming to church. My problem

is that you won't do anything about it. And if

you keep reading through Revelation, Jesus is

going to say that you're going to be destroyed

from the inside. This is going to rot you away.

This is going to kill you internally. This should

never have gotten this far where Jesus is having

to confront it. Jezebel should not have had the

opportunity in the church to become what she

did. And so Jesus, who lived in the absolute

best way possible, is gonna say, listen, there's

a way to handle this situation where Jezebel

doesn't become Jezebel. There's a way to handle

this situation that is full of love. There's

a way to handle this situation so that people

being wooed away into the darkness and so Jesus

tells us how to handle situations like this and

it's in Matthew 18 now Matthew 18 is a very familiar

passage to us recently and he tells us how to

answer and how to handle this situation and how

it should have been handled in the past so it

didn't get to where it was and so in Matthew

Matthew 18:15

18 verse 15 Jesus says if your brother sins against

you Now this few words right here is thick with

meaning. Jesus is now making an appeal to us

as a family. If your brother sins, if your sister

sins, if somebody in your family is in trouble,

if it looks like they are drowning, if someone

that is a part of your body, part of the same

beautiful family, that's who he's referring to.

Now listen if you are a part of the community

of Christ you have no enemy that wears flesh

And I know that isn't our culture right now and

so I just really want to be clear because our

culture That we live in right now is that if

you disagree with me if you view things different

than me Then you are the enemy There seems to

only be two sides to every situation. You're

either with me or against me We have to remember

that our enemy does not have flesh. I mean, even

the Democrats and Republicans, whatever side

you fall on, they are not your enemy. The abortion

clinics are not your enemy. We have no enemy

that wears flesh and bone. Our battle... according

to the scripture is not against flesh and blood,

but against the spirit and principalities of

the evil one. And our weapon isn't knowledge,

our weapon isn't debate, but it's prayer and

fasting and seeking after the Lord. We forget

that so many times, instead of somebody that

views things differently, instead of attacking

them, we should be falling to our knees and praying

for them. Our enemy is not wearing flesh. When

our kids were young, and we just moved to La

Mesa, we had two kids at the time, and we just

moved to La Mesa, and we had to spend a few months

living with our in -laws. Yeah? If they ever

want, it was the best time of my life. If they

ever see this. But we had to live with my in

-laws for about four months while we were waiting

to close on our house, and my in -laws live on

a lot of acreage, so their house is just, in

the middle of nowhere. And so when our kids were

young and we were living with them, our kids

could go out the front door and we wouldn't really

worry about them because they're off the road

far enough. We're not worried about them getting

hit by a car. And so they just had this freedom

to run wherever they wanted to go. Well, when

we moved into our house and we moved into an

actual neighborhood within the first few days

we were in our new house, Attlee and Asher, they

walk out the front door because that's what they're

used to and they just walk across the street

and are playing across the street. And so Cena

yells at me and says, hey, the kids are across

the street. The kids are across the street. Now,

if I said, I said, they'll be okay. They'll be

fine. Let's finish watching our show. Let's finish

doing what we're doing. We'll go get them later.

If I said that, if that was my response, that

wouldn't be love at all, right? Would it? No.

Instead, we jumped up. We made sure they were

safe. We firmly made sure they both knew it was

not okay to be out there. It was not okay to

cross the street without us. We started going

over all the ramifications of what could happen.

We went over all the consequences as if we caught

them again. This is what was going to happen.

I walked them down the street. I held their hands

and I walked them down the street a little bit

around the corner where I had seen some roadkill

earlier in the day. And I walked them right up

to it. I said, listen, if you keep playing in

the street, this is going to be you. And it wasn't

a fun conversation for me or for them, but it

was needed because I love them. And listen, I've

been on the other side of those kinds of conversations

where someone pulls me aside and says, listen,

if you don't get your acts together, if you don't

change some things in your life, you're in danger.

And they've had those conversations with me because

they love me. And so if your brother sins. Now

I want to be careful here because sometimes in

churches you have a group of enforcers who really

like to do church discipline like those of you

who like to go deer hunting. And so you go set

up your blind and you and you just kind of wait

and you watch for things to happen Maybe you

bait them a little bit with your corn, right?

Maybe you have a feeder I don't know how it works

here But maybe you said and you and you bait

them and then when things start to happen When

those things come into your view then boom boom

boom you take them out And then we like to mount

them, and then we like to hang them on our walls,

and we like to show what our trophies are. And

you'd be like, you see that one? You see that

one right there? That one liked to watch R -rated

movies that weren't about Jesus. Can you believe

that? Or that one over there? They just bought

the new Bad Bunny album, and there's some explicit

language in those things. Can you believe they

bought that? Can you believe they listened to

that? Or this one over here, I just didn't like

him. He looked at me funny and I just don't like

him anymore. Historically, that's how church

discipline plays itself out. We are constantly

on the lookout for somebody to mess up so that

we can call them on it. Or at least we can talk

all the way about them all the time so that somebody

else will call them on it. And Jesus is going

to say, if you haven't already extended love,

if they are not your brother, If you have not

already extended love, if you have not extended

friendship and grace, then keep your discipline

to yourself. If you have not already shown them

that you love them, shown them that you're going

to be there for them, that you care for them,

then keep your discipline to yourself. So let's

see how we're supposed to do it and said verse

15 again if your brother sins against you go

and tell him his fault Between you and him alone

if he listens to you you have gained your brother

Now, let me kind of show you how this plays out

I've had some great friends in the places in

which I've lived friends that know the kind of

man I want to be the kind of husband I want to

be the kind of father that I want to be and because

they know that about me Because they know those

things about me, and because they love me, they

take me out to breakfast sometimes and be like,

hey, what's going on? Something's off. You're

making decisions, or you're saying things, or

you're living in such a way that is not where

you want to be. Something's gotta change. And

because they do that, they show me that they

love me. And in that moment, when they call me

out on how I'm living my life or decisions I'm

making, I realize that there is someone who cares

about me. There is someone who loves me because

he sees that I'm off a little bit and he calls

me out on it. Now, if it were just some random

guy that I don't have a relationship with, that

would be a different story, wouldn't it? Like

like we don't like those times those things always

seem to go badly Like I've had those conversations

of people calling me out on what they view is

my sin And I'm like do I even know who you are?

Have we ever had a conversation besides this

one right now? but instead If it is someone who

does life with you if it is somebody who knows

your heart then in that moment You know that

you are loved Now, my kids are pretty well behaved

most of the time. Not all the time. I mean, when

they were younger, two, three, four years old,

they had their moments where they liked to test

the boundaries. But for the most part, I've had

some really great kids. They liked to see how

far they could push the rules before they got

in trouble. You know those kids? Like those are

my kids, they like to push the limits as much

as they could just to see what they're going

to be in trouble. And there have been days where

I came home from work and Sina wanted nothing

else to do except leave me with those children,

her children, and leave the house for a little

bit, right? Like there have been those moments

where she goes, I'm out of this house, they're

yours now, right? And the thing is, those days

that that happened were typically days that Sina

wasn't feeling her best. Or they came in the

middle of a week where I wasn't as home as often

because work was a busy week, or I just came

home exhausted. Those seem to be the days that

they like to test the waters the most. And I

think it's because they wanted to still know

that they are loved. They wanted to still know

that we care for them. They want to know that

in the middle of a crazy, busy week, or sick

week, they wanted to know internally at three,

four, five years old, does daddy and mommy still

love me? Do they still care for me? Is their

world still revolving around me? And I think

adults are the same way. I mean, how many people

have we met that stopped going to church for

a certain amount of time just to see if somebody

notices that they haven't been there? They just

want to get that phone call that says, hey, notice

you haven't been there. Everything okay. So listen,

when that happens to me, if it's my friends,

if it's my brother, and I listen because I am

loved, it says that you gain a brother. I know

they care for me, so I listen. But what if I

had the other reaction? What if they come to

me and I respond with, yes, I know you love me.

Yes, I know you care for me. Yes, you're probably

right, but I'm still going to live my life the

way I want to, because this way seems to be more

fun right now. I'm going to ignore what you told

me. I'm going to do my life this way. Let's see

what he says in verse 16. He says, but if he

does not listen, take one or two others along

with you, that every charge may be established

by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If

he refuses to listen, listen to them, tell it

to the church. And if he refuses to listen even

to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile

and tax collector. Now I want to stop right there

because I want to explain this text. One of the

things I'm most passionate about is taking texts

that have been misunderstood and correcting them.

Because in church culture a lot of times texts

get taken out of context or misunderstood and

they grow legs of their own this text Historically

has been used many times to expel the immoral

brother because of his sin Just kick him out

of church So so what did the text just say he

says if your brother does not listen to the church

Then treat him as if he's a Gentile tax collector.

So we have to look at how Jesus treated the Gentiles

and the tax collectors. Because at this time,

the Gentiles and the tax collectors, they're

not a part of the promise. They are on the outside.

They are the unbelievers. How should unbelievers

be treated according to Jesus? By going to their

house and having dinner? by sitting with them

at the well, by doing life with them, by loving

them well. Jesus doesn't treat them by humiliating

them. He doesn't try to ruin their reputation.

It's to show love, then correct. But instead

we use Matthew 18 to just beat people into submission

historically. This is not how Jesus works. He

calls us to love each other well enough so that

we're able to see when things get off. He said

that during his letter that it's not our responsibility

to bring them to justice. He's going to handle

that. It's not our responsibility to bring them

to justice. He will handle that. It's our responsibility

to not let them influence us to the point where

we fail to worship God. That's our responsibility.

We shouldn't let Jezebel just continue to set

up shop here. Now this is the underlying theme

amongst the churches in Revelation. You see it

at Ephesus. We saw it in Smyrna. We saw it in

Pergamon. Now we're seeing it here in Thyatira.

There is this theme built into these churches

of community and right relationships and doing

life together. Because if this type of community

was around in Thyatira, Shelley, or whatever

her name was before they started calling her

Jezebel, wouldn't have happened. Someone would

have said, would have come to her, would have

taken her out to lunch, taken her out to breakfast

and said, listen, listen, I see these gifts in

you. I see you can contribute so much here. You

have this amazing quality about you, but you're

off. You're leading people astray. You're causing

issues. You're not quite there yet. Jezebel had

nobody to do life with in a church that was doing

well. That's what we have to avoid. That's what

we have to protect ourselves from. It's not letting

the Jezebels of the culture of the church be

able to influence us that it robs us of our worship

of God. And so I don't know what, where you are

on this. I don't know if this text makes you

feel uncomfortable. Cause you're like, I can't

call people out on their sin. Cause I'm a sinner.

It just, it just tells me we need to be in better

community together. Or we understand that we

need to hold each other accountable. We need

to behave in such a way like acts. We learn about

Acts in the Church of Ephesus where they just

brought all their grittiness, all their dirtiness,

all their sinful things. They say, look what

God has saved me from. And they stop pretending.

This is the worst place in the world to pretend.

This is the worst place to pretend that you have

everything figured out. This is a hospital for

sinners, where God comes and heals us. And so

I don't know how you walked in here this morning.

But if you are walking in sin and you are not

doing life in such a way where somebody can hold

you accountable to that, can get you, steer you

back to the narrow road, then you're not doing

life well. We don't want a bunch of just shallow

relationships in this place. We want to be a

place where we are known and known well. Not

by everybody, but by a select few. Because Christ

did not come and die and come back to life for

us to pretend that everything's okay. He came

so that we would have freedom in him. He came

so that our righteousness would not be ours,

but it would be because of him. So that's what

we're gonna remember this morning. That's what

we're gonna do this morning. So I'm gonna invite

the deacons and elders to come forward as we

get ready to take communion. Thank you for listening

today to 563 Church, a production of Cornerstone

Church, Eldridge, Iowa. For more information

about our church or just getting right with God,

please visit us at 563church .com. You can also

find us on Facebook and Instagram. Have a great

week.