Jesus calls the church of Thyatira to repentance for tolerating a false prophetess who led the people into idolatry and immorality. We must be on our guard not to allow false teaching or sin to creep into our churches today!
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Thyatira: The Church That Tolerated A False Prophetess
Revelation 2:18-29
We live in an age in which many are calling themselves Prophets or Prophetesses. This has come about largely due to the New Apostolic Reformation, a term which Peter Wagner coined in the late 1990’s. One of their major tenets is that God is restoring Prophets and Apostles in the church today in order to get the church ready for a massive revival that will lead to the second coming of Christ.
In the first century there were many who called themselves apostles and prophets. We have already seen that the church of Ephesus put to the test those who called themselves apostles and were not, and they found them to be false (Rev. 2:2).
Here, in the church of Thyatira, we have something very similar, only this time it is not those who call themselves apostles, but someone who called herself a Prophetess.
What we will discover about this church, is that the issues Jesus rebukes it for are very similar to the issues He rebukes the church of Pergamum for.
1. The Author (2:18)
The Son of God. This is the only place in the book of Revelation where Jesus is given this title. It is the only part of the description of Christ that is not taken from Revelation 1. Of course, this title teaches that Jesus Christ partakes of the very same nature as Jehovah God Himself. He is God Almighty.
Who has eyes like a flame of fire. This description comes from Revelation 1:14. It intimates that Christ sees everything, with an eye to purging it from evil. Jesus is seen in chapter 1 as walking among the lampstands, examining the churches carefully. His eyes miss nothing. They see every good deed, and every foul deed. He will commend the good deeds, and bring judgment on the evil deeds.
His feet are like burnished bronze. Bronze in Scripture is often associated with judgment. It was a bronze altar at which the animal was slain and judged typifying Christ being judged for the sin of the world. For Jesus to have feet like burnished bronze suggests He will trample sinners in His wrath, just as vine-growers trample the grapes in order to produce wine (Rev.14:19-20).
So, in Jesus’ description of Himself, He introduces Himself to them as God Almighty, the One who sees and knows all things, and the One who will bring about judgment on sin. Church beware! The Savior is also the Judge!
2. The Recipients (2:18)
What do we know about life in Thyatira at the end of the first century?
It was the least significant of all the seven cities mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3. Ironically, it is given the longest letter.
Thyatira was about 40 miles southeast of Pergamum. The route a postal carrier would take from
Ephesus is due north to Smyrna, then cut northeast to Pergamum, and then start down the other side of the horseshoe to Thyatira.
About the only unique thing to note about Thyatira is that it was a union town. The commentator William Barclay writes, “From the inscriptions which have been found in the neighborhood it is clear that Thyatira possessed more trade guilds than any other town of its size in Asia.” It was a town marked by manufacturing. Archaeologists have uncovered inscriptions trade guilds of all kinds: wool workers, leather workers, tanners, bakers, potters, and metal workers.
Do you recall a woman in Acts 16 who was from Thyatira? Paul runs into her on the Sabbath day by a riverside. Her name is Lydia, and she is a saleswoman. She sells purple fabrics. She is just one example of multitudes in Thyatira that were connected to various trade guilds. In fact, it would be nearly impossible to survive if you were not a member in one of these guilds, because they had a corner on the work.
But that presents a huge problem for these early Christians. All members of these guilds would be expected to attend and participate in their feasts and celebrations. At these religious feasts, all members would need to worship their patron god. They would do so by eating the meat of an animal which had been sacrificed to that god, and then pay for the services of a temple prostitute.
What was a Christian to do? If he quits the guilds, he faces want, hunger and persecution. But if he attends these religious festivals, he denies his Lord. It was a very real and very serious threat that these early Christians had to face.
3. The Commendation (2:19)
Their deeds were seen in their Love, Faith, Service and Perseverance. Their love for God and His people resulted in service. They served the Lord and His people. Their faith in God resulted in their perseverance. Love and Faith are two great hallmarks of a true child of God (Eph.1:15; Col.1:4).
What’s more, their deeds of late are greater than at first. They were growing in love and faith, service and perseverance. They were making progress.
This is the opposite of what we see in the Church of Ephesus. Jesus told them to repent and do the deeds they had done at first, implying that they were regressing in their deeds.
The church of Ephesus emphasized truth over love. The church of Thyatira emphasized love over truth.
It is a very difficult thing to hold both of those virtues with equal fervor, and not emphasize one at the expense of the other. May God give us grace here at The Bridge to hold Truth and Love firmly and equally.
4. The Correction (2:20-25)
You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. Evidently there was a woman in the church of Thyatira who called herself a prophetess. That’s a direct giveaway that she was not a true prophetess. She called herself a prophetess. Others were not calling her a prophetess by observing her “ministry.” Remember that the church in Ephesus tested those who called themselves apostles, and were not, and found them to be false. The problem in Thyatira is that the believers were not testing Jezebel. They lacked discernment and were swallowing her teaching.
No doubt this woman’s name was not actually Jezebel. It’s hard to imagine any parents deciding to name their baby girl Jezebel! That would be like parents today deciding to name their little baby boy Judas, or Adolf! But Jesus calls her Jezebel, because her influence on the church was similar to Jezebel’s influence on Israel.
Jezebel was not an Israelite. She was the daughter of a Sidonian king. Ahab, the wicked king of the northern ten tribes of Israel married her, no doubt to form an alliance with the Sidonians. However, it was the worst decision he could have ever made.
What do we know about Jezebel? We know that she was a worshiper of the god Baal, and was able to persuade Ahab to do the same. Ahab even built an altar to Baal in the house of Baal in Samaria. 1 Kings 16:33 says “Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” God, in response, sent a drought on the land for three and a half years.
We also know that Jezebel murdered the prophets of the Lord. She did everything in her power to stamp out the worship of Jehovah, the true and living God.
When Elijah called down fire from heaven in the presence of 450 prophets of Baal, Jehovah was vindicated as the true God. Elijah called the people to bind the prophets of Baal, and then had them executed. This led to Jezebel making a declaration that she would have Elijah killed within 24 hours. Thankfully, her threat was never made good on.
Later King Ahab wanted to buy the property that was adjacent to the palace. When Naboth refused to sell it, he sulked around the palace. At that point Jezebel decided to take matters into her own hands. Ahab is seen as a weak and passive man. Jezebel is seen as a powerful and dominating woman. She concocts a plot to frame Naboth for cursing God and the king, and then have him stoned. When this is done, Naboth takes possession of his vineyard.
2 Kings 9:22 informs us that Jezebel was famous for her harlotries and witchcraft. In the end, Jezebel is thrown down from an upper story, is trampled under Jehu’s horse’s hoofs, and then the dogs ate her remains.
So to sum up, Jezebel is the epitome of godlessness and wickedness. She did much to eliminate the true worship of God and His prophets. She murdered hundreds of true prophets, tried to kill Elijah, and had an innocent man murdered just to get his vineyard. She was involved in harlotries and witchcraft. The worship of Baal was accompanied by fornications and sexual immorality of the worshipers with the religious priests and priestesses.
So, it is no wonder that Jesus nicknamed this woman “Jezebel.”
She teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. How was she leading them astray? By her teaching. In 2:24 we learn that her teaching is called the deep things of Satan. Remember how important it was to be part of a trade guild in Thyatira in order to get ahead in life? Well, apparently this so-called prophetess was prophesying that she had a word from God. That word was that they could go ahead and be involved in the pagan worship associated with these trade guilds. After all, these idols were not really gods at all. God didn’t expect them to jeopardize their families. They could go ahead and participate with a clear conscience. However, Jesus says that her teaching is Satanic! (2:24).
And make no mistake, Jezebel’s teaching was not obvious to everyone that it was from Satan. She came from within the church. She was seen as a Prophetess of God. And Satanic teaching will come into the church today, but will come from within. It will come from Christian books, radio, television, websites, and Christian counseling. The error will be seen by those that give unrelenting exposure to the Truth.
You tolerate… That was Jesus’ rebuke of the church. They tolerated her! Today, according to popular culture, the greatest sin is that of intolerance. Well Jesus here rebukes them for being tolerant. Brothers and sisters, we must never tolerate false teaching or sin in the church. Wherever we find sin or false teaching, it must be repented of and renounced. This church tolerated sexual immorality and idolatry. What sins are we tolerating in the church today?
Why do you think they tolerated Jezebel’s influence? In 2:21 we are told that she had committed immorality, and in verse 22 we read of her adulteries. If this is to be understood literally, how in the world would a church tolerate the teaching of a woman who was guilty of sexual immorality and adultery? We could ask the same question of the Christian leader who was tolerated for nearly 30 years, and looked to as a Prophet, even though he was a sexual predator who groomed young women in his ministry over and over and over. How could this take place? Why would he be tolerated? Because somehow he had convinced them of his supernatural anointing as a Prophet. In fact, he stated that he was the new King David. He would convince young and naïve Christian women that it was okay to be intimate with him, because God had revealed to him in a dream that his wife was going to die, and he was going to marry them. If someone can convince another that they hear the voice of God in a way that no one else does, it gives them a kind of status in the Christian community, and it causes the rest to hold him in awe, so that he is not susceptible to the same measures of accountability that the rest are. Why should they hold him accountable? He is so far closer to God than everyone else, he is not even in their category.
What do the names Aimee Semple McPherson, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Baaker, Ravi Zacharias, Earl Paulk, Ted Haggard, Bob Coy, T. B. Joshua (Africa), Bill Gothard, Doug Phillips, Carl Lentz, Bill Hybels and Kathryn Kuhlman have in common? They were all prominent Christian leaders involved in sex scandals. It is a very precarious thing to be a famous Christian celebrity. It seems that there is a very high percentage of them who fall into sin. But maybe the reason for that is that they are able to convince their followers that they are somehow closer to God than all of them, and that they are above being accountable to other people.
Brothers and sisters, we need to reject any leader in the church of Jesus Christ that teaches that Christians can sin with a clear conscience.
The Christians that lived in Thyatira may have been tempted to be “loving” and “affirming” of their pagan neighbors. Therefore, rather than avoid completely their pagan festivals, they actually joined in. Brothers and sisters, it is not loving to affirm others in sin. It sends the wrong message – God doesn’t hate sin. In fact, He is so loving that He will overlook it. Wrong!
I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. From this description, it is likely that this “Jezebel” was not even a Christian. Paul says in 1 Cor. 6:9 that adulterers and idolaters will not inherit the kingdom of God. Yes, a Christian can fall into these sins, but will repent when the Holy Spirit convicts him.
Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness. God is going to bring judgment upon her imminently.
And those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. So, God is going to judge not only this Jezebel, but also those who follow her in her sinful deeds. This “great tribulation” should not be seen as a time in the final seven years of earth’s history. Jesus is talking to people living in the first century. He identifies what will happen in this “great tribulation” in verse 23, “And I will kill her children with pestilence.” Perhaps this refers to her natural born children. The result is that all of the churches will know that God searches the minds and hearts, is a holy God, and will give to each one according to their deeds.
But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira. Evidently, there were two groups within the church. There were those who followed Jezebel in her teachings, and those that did not.
Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. The rest of the church must relentlessly hold fast the truth until Jesus comes.
5. The Promise
Authority over the nations. Jesus is alluding to Psalm 2:8-9. Jesus was given authority over the nations of the world, and He was told that He would rule them with a rod of iron. Well, Jesus is telling his overcomers that they would share with Him in this future authority and rule. What is Jesus referring to?
I believe He is speaking of the Final Judgment. In 1 Cor. 6:2 we read, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” This must mean that in some sense, Jesus Christ gives His church the right and permission to participate in the judging of the world. Christ will say to the goats on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels…” When Jesus pronounces His condemnation of the wicked and their destiny in the lake of fire, the church gives its “Amen!” This is exactly what we find in Revelation 19:1-3, “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.” And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever.”
The Morning Star. This is a direct reference to Jesus Himself. We find in Revelation 22:16, “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” Jesus promises Himself to those who overcome this compromise some are making with the world. If they are faithful to Him, Jesus promises uninterrupted intimacy with them throughout eternity. They will know and love Him in a far greater way then than anything they have experienced in this life.
Conclusion
So, what was the issue in Thyatira? The Christians were being led to compromise with the world in terms of idolatry and sexual immorality.
We face the same temptations today don’t we? Nothing has really changed in 2,000 years. It seems that for them, they bowed to the idol of Cultural Acceptance for economic gain. I wonder if that is one of the idols facing the church today. Is our desire for the Approval of Man greater than our desire for the approval of God? If so, this has become an idol for us! We all feel the pressure from the world to go along with the new sexual revolution. If we bow to this pressure we are worshiping at the idol of Cultural Approval.
What about the idol of money? Are we willing to lie and cheat in order to become successful in life? If so, money has become our idol.
May God help us to reject any teaching, even if it is from a so-called Prophet, that leads the church into sin!
Discussion Question: what idols are we tempted to bow down to today?
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