Thyatira: Beware the False

Revelation 2:18-29

HOW CAN YOU RECOGNIZE WHAT IS TRUE OR FALSE? HOW DO YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE?

18 “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. 19 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 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. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 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 her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all 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. 24 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. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

BACKGROUND

Thyatira was originally founded as a Macedonian colony after the fall of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great. It was known for its production of a purple dye of brilliant color, known today as Turkish Red. Even today this trade continues in the modern city, named, Akhisaar. In Acts 16 the apostle Paul encountered Lydia who was a seller of purple cloth from Thyatira. She likely was a trading partner of a guild from Thyatira selling her cloth in Philippi. 

Thyatira was an international city, populated by Jews, Greeks, Italians, and other nationalities, who brought their various religious beliefs and practices with them.

Trading guilds were popular in Thyatira and each of them had a patron deity. Thyatira had more trade guilds than any other city in Asia Minor. This included guilds for linen-workers, garment makers, leather-workers, tanners, and bronze-smiths, among others. 

The most popular deity in Thyatira was Tyrimnos, identified with the Greek god, Apollo, though other false gods were also worshipped. Membership in the trade guilds required participation in false temple worship which included temple prostitution and eating meat sacrificed to idols. The Christians of Thyatira were probably pressured greatly to participate in false temple worship to maintain their businesses, which was a serious problem. Refusing the practices of the trade guilds would result in persecution. So it is today with any Christian who does not participate in the sins of the world. Ridicule and persecution follow. 

The last Christian community of Thyatira was forced to leave the city in 1922. There are no known Christians there today.

EXAMINATION

IF GOD APPEARED BEFORE YOU IN ALL OF HIS GLORY, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD DO?

(V.18) “The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.”

This is the only place in the book of Revelation where Jesus is identified as the Son of God. It stands in contrast to the worship of Apollo, who was considered the son of Zeus. Jesus is the true son of the true God and he speaks with authority to the church of Thyatira. 

Eyes of fire and feet of burnished bronze. This is a reference back to a vision of God found in Daniel 10:6. “His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.“ It is the God of Daniel who is speaking to them. When this apparition appeared to Daniel he fell on his face in terror. But then an angel spoke and the first thing he said was to call him, “Man greatly loved” (V.11). For Jesus to use this same vision with Thyatira is to say more than the fact that he is omnipotent. He is saying they are greatly loved.

(V.19) “I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.”

Just like our previous study, Jesus begins his revelation to Thyatira with a word of encouragement. Notice the good things the church has: works, love, faith, service, and patient endurance. With Ephesus the Lord urged them to return to their first works. But here, Thyatira exceeds their first works. This is a church that is growing in their faith. 

Notice the two things that Jesus praises in the Thyatiran church. 

• He praises their attitude—their love and faith
• He praises their actions—their works, service, and endurance. 

This church has all of the elements of a church that loves and serves Christ faithfully. But they don’t just maintain their works and love, they are growing in them because he says, “your latter works exceed your first.” 

But there is still a problem.

(V.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.”

DO PROPHETS EXIST IN THE CHURCH TODAY? WHY OR WHY NOT?

Just like Pergamum, Thyatira is tolerating sin in their midst. And it’s the same kind of sin that plagues the churches before it. False temple worship that involves temple prostitution and eating meat sacrificed to idols. 

Who is Jezebel? Likely, the name is symbolic, harkening back to Jezebel of I Kings 18-19 who was the wife of Arab, king of Israel. She enticed Israel to worship false Canaanite deities just as this Jezebel was enticing the Christians of Thyatira to engage in false temple worship. For our purposes I will continue to refer to the woman of Thyatira as Jezebel. 

Where the sin of Pergamum was engaged in by the believers, there did not seem to be a particular person in leadership who was driving the Pergamum church to sin. But in the case of Thyatira it was different. Jezebel is someone who goes beyond just enticing the church into false worship. Jesus says she called herself a prophetess. This assumes she had some kind of authority or leadership role within the church. She spoke and people listened to her, though she spoke falsely. She used her assumed authority to lead members of the congregation into sin with the pagan trade guilds.

Prophets were an important part of the early church. Both men and women were known as prophets and exercised some leadership within the church (Acts 21:9, I Corinthians 11:5). To have a prophetess in their church was probably a high mark of status in a culture where the Thyatiran Christians had no status. The problem, however, was that Jezebel was a false prophetess. The scripture told us how to regard such a false prophet. “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die” (Deuteronomy 18:20). As we will see, Jesus threatens judgment against the false prophet of Jezebel. 

(V.21) “I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.”

The church, or members of this church, likely confronted Jezebel for her sin. Remember Jesus’ word about church discipline. Matthew 18:20 says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” This was a word about church discipline. So, when Jesus says he gave her time to repent, he is likely referring to some kind of church discipline that took place among the members that he was present with through his Holy Spirit. 

What’s interesting here is that church discipline does not happen quickly. Notice that Jesus says he “gave her time.” Sometimes it takes a while for a person who is confronted about their sin to actually deal with it. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin (John 16:8). Sometimes people recognize their sin right away and repent. But for others, it takes time for sin to lose its grip and repentance to come. But the longer we wait, the more judgment may increase until it overtakes us. This was true with Jezebel. She was unrepentant. Thus, judgment was about to come.

(V.22) “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 her works…”

Sickness was sometimes used by God in the Old Testament as a punishment for sin (II Chronicles 21:11-20, 26:16-21). So too it was with suffering. Only repentance restores a person’s relationship with God. It was the bed onto which Jezebel and her followers sinned and it would be the bed onto which she would be punished. But what kind of punishment would come?

OTHER THAN HELL, WHAT WOULD BE THE WORST KIND OF PUNISHMENT YOU COULD IMAGINE?

(V.23) “I will strike her children dead.”

The reference to “her children” may not literally mean her offspring, but rather those who follow her teaching. This type of reference is used in other scripture as well. In II John, 1:4, “I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth.” 

But literal children could also be involved.

Notice how serious their sin must be for Jesus to say, “I will strike her children dead.” We should be careful not to be distracted by this passage into something secondary. Our natural inclination is to wonder, “Why would God kill children?” But that’s not the emphasis of this passage. The emphasis is that their sin is so serious that he would have to threaten something like this in the first place. The fact is, unpleasant as it sounds, God has, in the past, resorted to this kind of terrible judgment. 

• Children died in Noah’s flood. 
• Children died in the judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah.
• Children died in the judgment of the nations Gods dispossessed when Israel took the promised land. 
• Children died when God ordered the destruction of the Amalekites. 
• David’s child died as a result of his sin with Bathsheba, abuse of his power, and murder of Uriah the Hittite. 
• And in the future, in the coming apocalypse, many children will presumably die. 

But we should not be distracted by this. How terrible must our sin be to warrant this kind of judgment? Jesus wants our focus to be on repentance and holiness so that we never fall under that kind of judgment. 

(V.23) “And all 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.”

The sins of Thyatira are a warning to other churches around them. To Jesus is ascribed omniscience. He knows the mind and heart of every person. As he knows Jezebel’s heart and those who follow her, so too he knows our hearts and all we engage in and make excuses for. Out of the heart flows our actions, which is why he says he will, “give to each of you according to his works.” Salvation is free, but there are rewards and punishments for works. What kind of works do you have in your Christian life? 

(V.24 & 25) “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 good news here is that though the church tolerated Jezebel, not everyone in the church was guilty of this. There was a remnant that held fast to Christ. Otherwise, there would have been no one to exercise church discipline with Jezebel.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE DEEP THINGS OF SATAN?

What are the “deep things of Satan?” The gnostics believed that to know the powerlessness of sin, one had to commit it in order to gain final victory over it. This was a twisted view of scripture. In terms of Thyatira one did not need to participate in the sins of the trade-guilds in order to gain victory over sin. The so called “deep things of Satan” do not need to be experienced to gain victory over them. 

Paul taught that the power of sin is the law (I Corinthians 15:56). But we have been set free from the law in Christ (Romans 8:2). While we follow the moral law, we do not need to come under all of the law to find victory. Our victory over sin is found in the blood of Christ shed for our sin. 

What is the burden they must have until Christ comes? Essentially, to live in faithful holiness before God. In other words, don’t participate in the sins of Jezebel and her followers. Remain faithful to Christ. This meant not participating in the pagan trade-guilds that included worship of pagan deities. Do not syncretize your faith in Christ with false religious practices. You belong exclusively to Christ and must live that way. 

(V.26 & 27) “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 earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.”

This promise from Jesus is a reference that goes back to Psalm 2:8-9, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Shared rulership was always an important promise of scripture. II Timothy 2:12 says, “If we endure, we will also reign with him.” Revelation 20:6, says that we, “will be priests of God and of Christ, and…will reign with him for a thousand years.”

The Christians in Thyatira had no political authority and had no religious clout within the community unless they participated in the pagan trade-guilds. I.E., they had no status in the community, which was important in ancient times. Jesus urges them to faithfulness and promises them that they will have all they need in the coming kingdom. They must simply endure patiently until that day comes. 

(V.28 & 29) “And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

The Morning Star is a reference to Jesus. He is also called The Morning Star in Revelation 22:16. The church in Thyatira could choose the practices of false gods of the trade-guilds or they could choose to have Christ himself. 

WHAT IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS?

Consider this difference. False religion offers practices and principles, but it was not said that one could know the god personally. This is even true of false religion today. One does not know or have a personal relationship with the deity. But the God of the Bible is different. We do not simply have the teachings of Christ, we have Christ himself through his Holy Spirit. We know him. Scripture says he leads us personally. Consider the promise of John 14:16-17, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper,to be with you forever,even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

A “helper” is personal. Jesus says, “You know him.” This is the great difference between Christianity and all other world religions. We know our God in a personal way. Consider one of my favorite passages from Jeremiah 9:24, “Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me.” Can you make this boast? 

INTERPRETATION

What is Jesus’ big idea for this passage? Beware of false teaching. Beware of false teachers and prophets. Stay faithful to Christ. 

False teachers and prophets were the bane of the apostles in the early church. The apostle Paul warned about them in Acts 20:29-31, “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert.” 

Notice that Paul says they will speak “twisted things.” This means they will twist or alter the plain meaning of scripture. This is Satan’s chief method of deception. To Eve in the garden he said, “Did God really say?” (Genesis 3:1). When tempting Jesus he used scripture, but applied it wrongly (Matthew 4:1-11). Paul says he disguises himself as an angel of light (II Corinthians 11:14). Just so, false teachers do the same. They twist the truth in subtle ways so as to give a false meaning and deceive.

Holding fast to Christ and the principles of scripture will help us guard against what and who is false. After issuing a warning about false teachers, Paul told his hearers how to judge between the true and the false. “For three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:31-35).

Notice seven things that Paul said:

1. A true teacher admonishes them. I.E., he encourages them in Christ, to be faithful. 
2. A true teacher prays for those he teaches. He says he commended them to God (cf., Ephesians 1:16-19)
3. A true teacher is not greedy. He didn’t desire silver or gold.
4. A true teacher works hard. He ministered to his own needs. 
5. A true teacher lives as an example of godliness. He said he worked hard in this way.
6. A true teacher helps the weak. I.E., those weak in faith.
7. A true teacher teaches scripture. He told them to remember the words of Jesus. 

If we remember these principles we need not be caught off guard by false teachers and prophets.

APPLICATION

1. Be aware of false teachers around us. False teachers are everywhere, on TV, the Internet, on the radio. Staying alert to what’s out there will help you avoid what is false.
2. Scrutinize the teaching of others. Does it line up with scripture? In the book of Acts, Luke praised the Bereans for checking Paul’s teaching against the scriptures (Acts 17:11). Do the same with what you are taught. Become a student of the word and hold your teachers accountable to it. 
3. If you’ve been deceived by what is false, bring it to God in repentance. Repentance is always the first step in turning from the false and being reconciled to God. When we believe something wrong about scripture we should repent of that false belief and confess it to God.
4. If you are taught what is false, confront the false teacher with scripture in love and humility. Some false teachers do what they do for personal gain while others are honestly deceived. If you use scripture carefully to confront you may turn someone away from what is false. Use Matthew 18:15-20 when confronting someone.
5. Help guard others against what is false by living according to scripture. Scripture is about more than what we know. It’s also about what we do. When we live by scripture daily we will guard our hearts. 
6. Keep the basics to guard your heart. Pray, read, study, witness.