Thyatira: Seduced by Sin

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We’re going to be in Revelation chapter 2 this morning. Revelation chapter 2. Continuing on with our look at the seven churches in Revelation and really looking at those as a way to hold the mirror up to ourselves and our church and say, what are we doing well?

What are we maybe not doing so well? Where can we improve? Where does Jesus just say this is flat out unacceptable and you need to stop this?

The whole spectrum of church behavior is found in these seven churches. And we’re going to look at the church at Thyatira today. And reading about what Jesus said to the church at Thyatira, these things always make me think of examples from our own lives and things that we know about.

There was a man a few years ago named Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, and I had to practice saying that name correctly. It was about six years ago, a man named Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, and what he is famous for is that he was someone who worked directly for Osama bin Laden. Now, the U.

S. military and the U. S.

government had a policy after 9-11 that they were going to go after Osama bin Laden, and they were going to take him out, dead or alive. They just couldn’t find him. And so they thought, in the meantime, we’re going to weaken al-Qaeda and eventually destroy it by, we’re going to try to cut the head off the snake, and if we can’t find the head, then we’re going to go after the neck.

And other stuff. And they went for anybody in the inner circle. And they would find them.

They would either capture them and take them back to Guantanamo, or they would kill them. Well, they came across Abu Bakr al-Ku. .

. I’m sorry, Abu Bakr is somebody else. They’re all my practice out the window.

Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. They ran across him by a wiretap on a satellite phone. And they knew that he worked directly for Osama bin Laden, and what he did was he was a courier.

He was a courier because part of the reason bin Laden was able to hide for something like nine years he didn’t use telephone or internet or Skype or any of it. He used couriers. He used people to carry messages from one place to another.

And so this man worked directly for Osama bin Laden, and the policy should have been, I mean, if you just applied the policy the way you applied it everywhere else, we see Abu Ahmed al-Kawaii. We take him out. We send in special forces.

We send in a drone. We do something, or we try to capture it. One of those things, you don’t just let him continue to carry messages.

But something happened because the U. S. military and U.

S. intelligence knew that he was a courier who worked directly for bin Laden. They said, if we just let this guy continue what he’s doing and watch, we’ll be able to find Osama bin Laden.

And that’s exactly what they did. Now, anybody who was part of the inner circle of al-Qaeda knew, hey, if the U. S.

knew where we were, we’d be captured or we’d be killed. So for months, Abu Ahmed al-Kawadi is running around Pakistan and he’s running around Afghanistan and he’s delivering messages and he’s arranging terrorist meetings and he’s arranging terrorist plots and probably thinking the U. S.

has no idea where I am. They haven’t seen me. Nothing bad’s going to happen to me.

I’m just doing my thing and I’m getting by with it and I’m going to get by with it for a long time, not realizing that they knew exactly who he was and exactly where he was. They gave him, they gave him, as the old saying says, just enough rope. Now the thought was, I’m fine.

They don’t know where I am. Nothing bad’s going to happen. Otherwise, it would have already happened.

They don’t know anything about me. And then eventually, we know how the story ended, that the man led U. S.

forces directly to Osama bin Laden, where he was hiding in Pakistan, kind of in plain sight. And yet, for all those years, for all those years, the thought was, I’m just continuing on with my terrorist work, or whatever he would have called it, and nothing bad’s going to happen, because if they knew where I was, I’d be ready. And sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, we think the same thing when it comes to God.

You know, he was doing something evil, and even though we don’t like to call it evil when it’s our own actions, if it’s a sin against God, it’s evil. Sometimes we as human beings, in terms of our relationship with God, think, yeah, what I’m doing is evil, but if God was going to do something, he’d have done it already. So nothing bad is going to happen.

I’m never going to get caught. I’m never going to get brought to justice because if God was going to bring me to justice, he’d have already done it. And yet we’re taught in the Bible that God is merciful.

Now the Bible does say in the book of 2 Peter, God is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slack. And that’s what that means is he’s not negligent. There’s this idea that, hey, if God was going to judge me, he’d have already done it because look at all the stuff I’m doing and have done.

If God was going to judge me, he’d have done it already. And Peter reminds us, God is not negligent about his promises. God’s not negligent about promising to judge sin, as some men think he’s negligent, but he’s merciful and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

He looks at us and says, what you’re doing is wrong, and I could destroy you. I should destroy you, maybe even, but I’m going to give you just a little more time, just a little more time to either repent and be saved, or just give you a little bit more rope. Well, this was the attitude of the church at Thyatira for some of them.

For some of them. Some of them had gotten so settled into the world, so comfortable with the world, because really they’d never left the world. Everybody at this time, nobody was raised in church at this time.

At least none of the adults at this time were raised in church because there hadn’t been a church. This is just a few years after the crucifixion and resurrection. The gospel has just come to these Greek areas.

So nobody was raised in church. they were all raised up in pagan practices, or if they were lucky, they were raised up in Jewish homes. But most of these people in the Greek areas were raised up in pagan families.

They weren’t raised in church. And so they were out all sorts of sinful practices, all sorts of immorality, all sorts of idolatry and offerings to pagan gods, and some of them just had never quite gotten away from it, and they were comfortable with it. They were comfortable having one foot in the church and one foot in the pagan temple.

And many of them thought, many of them thought, hey, if God was going to do something, if this was that big a deal to God, hey, Paul, you talk about it all the time, but if it was that big a deal to God, he’d have already done something. And Jesus, through the Apostle John, reminds the church at Thyatira that just because God hasn’t judged yet, doesn’t mean that judgment isn’t. And it’s a reminder that God gives us time.

And whether we use that time to repent or we use that time to solidify our choices and take the rope to hang ourselves. God is merciful enough to give us time, but that doesn’t mean that judgment isn’t on the way. And so we look at Revelation chapter 2, starting in verse 18, and Jesus says, unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write, these things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass.

So he identifies himself again here, this is Jesus speaking, and he says that he is the Son of God, and he says that he has eyes like unto a flame of fire. Now this is partly symbolic, but it’s also interesting to me because if you’ve been a parent or had a parent, which I assume everybody in here has had a parent, you’ve probably seen a look that could be described as eyes that are like a flame of fire. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Christian comedian Mark Lowry, but he tells a story that he talks about one time when his mom had enough, and he says he wishes that God had put on the back of every mom’s head, a red light that goes off 10 seconds before, enough.

I’ve seen that look. That’s not just confined to moms. I have given that look. I gave that look on Friday.

But there’s a look of enough. And that’s sort of the picture that I get here when the Son of God describes himself as having eyes like unto a flame of fire. I’m sure there’s more to the symbolism than that.

But when you read the rest of the letter to the church at Thyatira, you can’t help but feel like God had had enough. Not with the whole church, but with what was going on in a large section of it. He had had enough.

They were way too comfortable with the world. They were way too comfortable with the life they were supposed to have come out of and come into Christ. And so he says he has eyes like unto a flame of fire. There’s also something about fire that the Bible teaches that fire is purifying, that things are put into a furnace and all the garbage is burned off, what the Bible calls dross is burned off, and the gold is refined, it’s purified, what’s left?

Well, there’s something to be said about our Savior being able to purify us. And so he’s coming not just in the sense of having enough, he’s coming in fiery judgment and he’s coming to purify, he’s coming to clean house, and he has feet like unto brass, fine brass, refined, pure. And so he says to them, I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more than the first. He commends them and says, here’s what you’re doing right, at least a portion of the church.

This is like last week, the church at Pergamos, where you had part of the church was a faithful remnant, and you had part of the church that just thought they could do whatever they wanted. Part of the problem with the church at Pergamos was it seems like the part that said, we’re going to follow Jesus, was sort of indifferent to what was going on on the other side. We’ll follow Jesus over here.

You live like you want to. God will sort all that out. I don’t know this for a fact, but I get the sense from the church at Thyatira that there was part of the church that was faithful and realized the other part of the church was wrong and maybe had tried to confront it but really didn’t know what to do about it he comes to the end of it and says after every criticism he gives to the part of the church that was not faithful, he says, now back to you who are faithful, he says, I’m not going to put any other burden on you than what you’ve been doing.

You keep doing. He basically says, I’m not really talking to you. You keep doing what you’re doing.

So that leads me to think that maybe they had tried to correct the problem that was going on in their church, unlike Pergamum. So he says to the faithful at the church at Thyatira, I know your works. I know what you’ve been doing.

I know how you live your life. He says your charity. That means that word a lot of times when we see charity in the King James, it means love.

It’s a translation of the Greek word agape. It means God’s kind of self-sacrificial love. I know your love for one another, your service.

I know the way that you serve one another. I know your faith, their belief in Jesus Christ, their trust that he had not only their eternity, but their lives as they’re struggling. not only dealing with the government and the pagan world outside, but in some cases the pagan world inside their church.

He says, I know that you have this trust, you have this faith that God’s going to take care of it. He says, I know your patience. And he says, and by works, and your works again, I don’t think Jesus forgot what he was saying.

I think he repeats it here for emphasis. And I know the way you live your life. And he says, and the last to be more than the first, I know that you are growing in those things.

I know that you’re doing better at serving me. you’re doing better at living as Christians today than you were when you started out. I hope that that’s the case for all of us.

I hope that’s the case for any church, that we’re doing better now than the day we were saved. Sometimes we can look at ourselves, though, and say, you know, I’m kind of coasted. I’m not quite as excited as I was when I started out.

Not quite as on fire as I was when I started out. I’m not quite as purposeful and diligent as I was when I started out. I think that’s a lot of times the tendency.

We just, we start out well, and then we just think, I’m just going to kind of coast on into heaven. He says, you’re doing better now than when you started. And then he turns, notwithstanding, verse 20.

That’s a fancy word for but. But, I have something against you. When the God of heaven is telling you, you’re doing all these things well, you’re doing all these things correctly, and then says, but, it’s not good things on the way.

He says, notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee. Just a few. Because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

There was a woman in the church at Thyatira, apparently, who, I don’t think she was actually named Jezebel, but I think the Lord here is drawing an apt comparison between her and someone else we know from the Old Testament, who was not a godly woman in any way, shape, or form. He says, you have suffered that Jezebel. That’s a word we don’t use much anymore, but sometimes it just fits.

You have allowed that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet, and the implication there is she just calls herself a prophet. It doesn’t mean she is one. You’ve allowed this wild woman who says, who claims that she speaks on my behalf.

That’s what a prophet is, somebody who speaks on behalf of God, who says that she speaks for me, but really doesn’t. You’ve allowed this woman to teach and to seduce my servants, to lead them astray, to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. We see this development taking place here in some of the churches.

And it looks like what happens in one church is a little bit worse when left unchecked in the next church. And then it’s just full-blown. You’ve got somebody up there leading the charge.

It’s not something that’s going on. It’s not just something that is done in one church. Was it Ephesus?

They hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans. In Pergamos, it was the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. There’s actually a large swath of the church that believes this thing is okay.

And then in Thyatira, you’ve got the people coming out of the shadows, and you’ve got somebody leading the charge, and they’re saying loud and proud that this is okay for us to live however we want. And so this woman is teaching them. She’s seducing, she’s enticing them astray, and she’s teaching them to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

Now, Paul writes that it’s not so much the fact that the meat has been sacrificed to the idols, it’s the way that looks to the pagan world, as though we are agreeing to the sacrifice that was made, as though we recognize the gods they were sacrificing to. And so Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and said, hey, if it’s going to offend your brother, you know, the meat is not a big deal, but if it’s going to offend your brother, don’t eat that meat sacrificed to idols. That’s a warning given throughout the New Testament.

Don’t eat the meat sacrificed to idols. He said she’s encouraging them to eat this meat that was offered to idols, probably as part of idol worship. She’s encouraging them to commit fornication, probably, again, as part of their worship of these pagan gods.

She’s leading them astray into everything that is against what Jesus Christ taught. He says, and I gave her space. I gave her space to repent for her fornication, and she repented not.

Now, sometimes when the Bible uses fornication, the word fornication, it means actual fornication. It means immoral behavior. Sometimes when the Bible uses the word fornication, it’s really talking about idolatry.

Because God used, as an example many times, demonstrating his covenant relationship with Israel, he compared it to a marriage. And then he would talk about Israel being unfaithful, being an unfaithful wife, cheating on God, basically, with these foreign gods. When he says she’s convincing the church to engage in fornication, we see in other passages, in other parts of Revelation chapter 2, where they’re talking about actually going out and committing fornication.

So there’s probably some of that too. But they’re also being unfaithful to God. He’s given her time to repent.

Of all of this, ladies and gentlemen, falls under the heading of idolatry. And I really think idolatry, this is just my opinion based on what I observe in Scripture. You’re free to disagree.

But my personal thought on it is that idolatry is at the root of all of our sins. Whether it’s because we put stuff ahead of God, we get greedy, because we put stuff ahead of God. We put stuff in God’s place.

Adam and Eve said, you know what? I want to be like God. That was Satan’s promise to them, if they would eat the fruit of the tree.

It didn’t matter what God said, because I want to be like God, and so I’m going to put myself in a position of authority in my life that is reserved only for God. In our own lives, whenever we say, God, I don’t care what you want. I just care what I want.

We’re making an idol out of ourselves. And so, really, I feel like all of this comes under the heading of idolatry. And all the things she’s teaching, all the things that she’s doing wrong, and leading others to do wrong.

He has given space for there to be repentance. What that means is, is God saying, I could have come in, I could have come in and judged that right away. I could have come in and slapped that down and put a stop to that.

But you know what? Rather than destroy her, rather than destroy the people who are following her, I gave them time to repent. I gave them time.

Folks, God is merciful. Never forget that. God is merciful.

And we wonder sometimes, God, how can you let so-and-so get away with this. God, how can you let that person continue to act that way? God, how can you let this evil be done by this group of people?

Never forget that God is merciful. So it’s not that God condones what they’re doing. It’s not that God doesn’t see what they’re doing.

It’s that God is giving them space to repent. And as much as I see things being done to other people that are just not right, and as much as things are done to me and they’re just not right, and I want God to step in and judge somebody, I have to remember that he’s giving them the same space to repent that he gave at God. And so we wonder, why God don’t you step in and stop them from doing that?

He says, I’ve given this woman space to repent. She repented not. So never forget that God is merciful, but also never forget that God is just. God is just. It’s interesting to me, we talked about this same thing in Sunday school this morning.

This is the message I’ve had planned for a week. God is merciful and God is also just. God will for a time not neglect judgment, but God will for a time defer judge and say, I’m going to give you an opportunity. And this idea of repentance seems so daunting to us.

We think repentance means getting your whole life cleaned up and then coming back to God. Folks, part of our problem with God is that we cannot get our lives all cleaned up. If we could get our lives all cleaned up, we wouldn’t need Jesus Christ. It is impossible.

It is impossible for us to live a life that is pleasing to God. Repentance means, the Greek words literally mean to change your mind. God’s not telling them, clean up your whole act.

He’s not telling them, start being perfect and then I’ll love you. What he’s saying is, change your mind. Realize that what you’re doing is wrong and agree with me on that.

Because if we will agree with God, what I’m doing is wrong, we’ll be open to him to fix us walking away. It’s not a matter of us stopping ourselves. It’s agreeing with God that it is sin and giving him to work, to stop us, to clean up our lives.

It starts with changing our minds about that sin. Instead of saying, this is the way I live and I like it and I don’t care what God says, to say, God, this is the way I live my life, and it’s wrong, and I need it. It’s realizing that sin is wrong, and realizing that sin disobeys God.

He said, I gave her space to repent, and she repented not. He says, Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and then commit adultery with her into a great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

Okay, I believe in interpreting the Bible the way the writers originally intended it to be interpreted. What I mean by that is I believe you interpret the Bible literally unless it’s clear that he’s talking about something symbolic. For example, when Jesus says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I’d have gathered you under my wings, like, I can’t remember the exact phrasing, but basically like a mother hen.

Okay, we don’t assume from that that Jesus had feathers. We’re not looking at a wooden literal interpretation. We’re interpreting it the way they meant it.

So when he says here that he’s going to throw her into a bed, he’s not talking about a literal bed. He’s talking symbolically of her punishment. What’s he talking about is her fornication, spiritual and literal. And basically, and I don’t understand completely what he’s talking about doing.

I would have to know who this person was, exactly what happened to her, to be able to tell you this is what he meant. But the basic principle here is she’s made her bed, and now she’s going to lie in it. She has, she’s wandered away from God.

She’s taught others to do the same. She’s thumbed her nose at God all this time. And eventually time is going to run out to repent.

And God says, I will judge her according to her work. So he says, I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And so God even says here, Jesus even says here, there’s still a little bit of time.

Because he says, unless they repent of their deeds, it’s like one last warning. Unless you repent, he said. Unless you repent, then I’m going to take her and I’m going to take all of those who are following her and I’m going to judge them.

And I will kill her children with death. Again, I don’t know that this means literal children and literal killing. But this little sinful empire that they’ve built up for themselves, this little kingdom they’ve built out of their pagan teaching in the church, he was going to bring it crashing down.

whether it’s talking about the literal descendants of her or whether he’s talking about the result of her sin the offspring of her sin he was going to destroy it and he says and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts when they see this all the churches will know says that I am the one who who looks into the heart that sees into the heart what’s there the things that even that we can’t even admit to ourselves he knows they’re there he knows our hearts better than we do. They’ll know that he sees every hidden thing, every shadowy place of our hearts, and that he gives unto everyone according to their word. So he says, just a little more time.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because judgment hasn’t happened yet, that it won’t. He says, just a little bit more time, and the clock runs out. The clock runs out, and then judgment comes.

And then the judgment will be so spectacular that everybody will know that Jesus Christ looks and looks and sees the hidden sin and repays us according to. Verse 24 says, But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put on you none other burden. He says now back to you, those who are faithful at Thyatira, those who don’t follow this teaching, those who are the ones I’ve described in verse 19, talking about your works and your charity, your service, basically those who have remained faithful and have not fallen for this false teaching.

He says to you and who have not known the depths of Satan. There were some in the church who were going to the greatest depths of wickedness that they could find. And he says to those of you who have remained faithful, who have not bought into this teaching, who have not engaged in the depths of depravity, he says, I will put upon you none other burden.

I have nothing else to talk to you about. Not in the sense of I’m done with you, but I have no further instructions. You’re already doing what you’re supposed to be doing.

He said, but that which you already have, hold fast until I come. No other burden, no other instructions do I give you except keep doing what you’re doing. See, I think they had tried to fix the problems in their church.

I think they had tried to say, this is wrong, we need to stand for righteousness, and it hadn’t worked. And so at that point, God said, I really will fix it. Unlike the church at Pergamos that just said, well, we’ll just be quiet, let them do what they want, and God will sort it out later.

He says in verse 26, And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nation. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken into shivers, even as I received my father. And I will give him the morning star, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Now, the morning star is a name that’s used to indicate Jesus Christ, other places in the scriptures, those who overcome. And again, I want to make sure we understand when he’s talking about those who overcome. He’s not talking about those who do enough good works.

He’s not talking about those who are just good until the end. He’s talking about those who have overcome by faith. The book of 1 John says that those who are born of God overcome, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.

How do we overcome? How do we get into this last category he’s talking about? It’s by faith in Jesus Christ. It’s by clinging to Jesus Christ as our only hope for forgiveness of sin.

It’s by that repentance. It’s by that agreeing with God that we’ve sinned. It’s about recognizing that we can’t save ourselves.

It’s about recognizing that our sin has condemned us to hell, and rightfully so, and that Jesus Christ paid all the penalty that was due for our sins when he shed his blood and died on the cross. And so if we believe that, not just believe it up here, but if we truly believe that we’ve sinned and he died for my sins. He didn’t just die.

He didn’t just die to save the world. He died for my sin, and we ask God’s forgiveness on that basis. He saves us.

And because of that faith, we are among those who overcome. And so he promises that they will, he talks about the power to rule over nations. He talks about breaking things like shards of pottery with a rod of iron.

It’s not just power for power’s sake. What he’s talking about is they will reign with me. They’ll reign with Jesus Christ. The Bible talks about us being joint heirs with Jesus Christ, which is incredible to me because we don’t even, we’re sort of like the prodigal son.

We don’t even deserve to be servants in the father’s household. And yet he adopts us as his children through Jesus Christ. And not only that, he says we’re every bit as much his children as Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that we’re God. It doesn’t change our nature.

But he says, you’re my child and we’re joint heirs. Jesus Christ, we have an inheritance incorruptible through you. And so there are these promises to those who will trust. Now this church had some serious problem.

I look at our church and I don’t see a Thyatira type situation, thank God. Well, I don’t see half or more of the church out worshiping pagan idols and committing fornication and who knows whatever else, and teaching that this is the way it’s supposed to be. But there are some principles that we can learn from Thyatira right now.

There are some principles that we can use as a, that we can learn and apply as a way to make sure that doesn’t happen. First of all, when there is sin, there must be repentance. When there is sin, there must be repentance.

Don’t ignore your sin. He tells them all throughout the passage, repent, repent. I’ve given you space to repent and you’ve repented not.

And he says, I’m going to judge you. I’m going to bring destruction. You’re going to feel the full weight of your sin unless you repent.

Whenever there is sin, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got to repent. We can’t just let it go. We can’t just ignore it.

Now, I believe when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He paid for our sins past, present. I mean, the Bible teaches that it was a once-for-all sacrifice. I read the book of Hebrews, and there’s still a lot I don’t understand, but what I do understand about the sacrifice, and comparing the sacrifice to the Old Testament sacrifices that had to be repeated over and over and over, and then talking about, in contrast, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that was once for all.

Folks, I believe the Bible teaches that His sacrifice was for all of our sin, even the ones that we haven’t committed yet. But that doesn’t mean we just sin with impunity. That doesn’t mean that we just sin and ignore it and everything’s okay.

Jesus has already forgiven it. First of all, if we live by the thought that, hey, I can just sin, Jesus has already forgiven me, so it doesn’t matter what I do, we might want to check and see if we really trusted Christ and been born again. Because if He’s already paid for our sins, if He’s already changed our hearts, our want-to is going to change, and the whole idea, I can just do what I want to, He’s forgiven me anyway, is a good indication He hasn’t forgiven me.

As believers, though, there are going to be times we sin, And we can either wallow in it and try to hide from God about it, or we can get it right. It’s sort of like a little kid. Why do I have to take a bath?

I’m just going to get dirty again. Now, we’re in a phase right n