All right, so we are back in the book of Revelation tonight.
This summer, if you've been with us, we've been studying Jesus' seven letters to the
seven churches of Asia Minor.
And we've been seeing that these letters are sort of like spiritual sort of diagnoses,
that Jesus addresses each one of these churches for their spiritual health, and in his letter
to them, he gives them exactly what they need, the kind of prescription, as it were, to either
become or to stay healthy and vibrant in their walk with him.
And of course, these letters are for us to today because we see our own lives and we see
our own churches oftentimes in these sort of spiritual diagnoses.
You know, often people will ask, well, how do I grow spiritually?
How do I get healthier, more vibrant?
How do I flourish in my relationship with God?
And that's part of what these letters are here for, to help us to do just that.
Tonight, we're looking at the fourth letter in this series, the letter to the church in
a city called Thyatira.
And it's found in the book of Revelation, chapter 2, verses 18 through 29.
That's page 1029 in the Pew Bible, if you want to follow along there.
Let me encourage you to turn there, actually.
It'll be on the screen above as well.
Page 1029, Revelation chapter 2, verses 18 through 29.
All right, let me read this for us.
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 sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw
into great tribulation unless they repent of their works, and I will strike her children
dead.
And all of 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.
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 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 earth and pots are broken
in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
And I will give him the morning star.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Let's pray.
Lord, we ask that you would give us ears that hear what your Spirit is speaking to us tonight.
God, we pray that as a church and as individuals, you would open our hearts to rightly respond
to this message before us.
And God, as I seek to explain this passage, grant that I would do so with clarity and
with grace, Father.
Come before you in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
So what does the church need today?
What do we need?
What does the church need to be effective in its call to evangelism?
That is, sharing the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ to heal our relationship
with him?
What do we need to actually sort of do that in a way that people will actually listen and
that people will even want to listen?
And what do we need today to be effective, not just in evangelism, but in discipleship?
What do we need to be effective in helping one another to live in line with the truth of
the gospel?
To encourage one another and to teach one another to live a life more and more shaped like Jesus?
Jesus.
And what do we need today to be effective in our highest calling?
Our calling to display the glory and the beauty of God to the world in our life together?
What does the church need to reflect God's awesome nature out into the world and to reflect
the praises of creation back to him?
What do we really need to be, in other words, God's image bearers, sort of that mirror of
his glory in the world as a church?
Well, the answer, what we need, you and I, might seem kind of simple at first.
The answer is love.
Jesus himself said, people will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
That's John 13, 35.
And of course, Jesus isn't talking about a breezy, kind of self-serving, take it or leave
it sort of love.
You know, that sort of love when it's convenient for my schedule kind of love.
No, the sort of love that Jesus has in mind is the kind of trusting, sacrificial, stick
it out through thick and thin sort of love.
You know, that same night when Jesus told his disciples what I just read to you, he said
this, he said, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
And how did Jesus love us?
He says in the next verse, John 15, 13, greater love is no one than this, that someone laid down
his life for his friends.
That's the kind of love that Jesus has shown us.
He's loved us with a sacrificial, lay down your life sort of love.
And friends, that's what we need today, you and I, we need that kind of love.
And this church in Thyatira that Jesus is talking to here, if you look at verse 19, that's exactly
what they had, a trusting, sacrificial, stick it out through thick and thin love.
Jesus says, I know your works, your love, your faith, your trust, your service, your sacrifice,
and your patient endurance.
Here was a truly loving church.
And not just that, it was an increasingly loving church.
And the rest of verse 18, Jesus commends them.
I know that your latter works exceed the first.
You know, often when you get sort of excited about something, like, you know, my wife and
I were just, we just moved into a new place and, you know, we're sort of excited about
it.
We're, we're like doing lots of projects around the house and painting and scraping and
cause it's an old place, you know, building stuff.
But look, I know, and you, I mean, you and I both know that sooner or later that thrill
is going to sort of wear off, right?
Like pretty soon we're just going to be sick of doing projects around the house and it's going
to peter out.
And isn't that how it is with so much of our life?
And yet here, Jesus is saying, no, actually you have an increasing sort of love that when
you first heard this unbelievably good news that God sent his son to pay for your sins
and to reconcile you free of charge back to him.
When this church came to believe that and when they came alive through God's spirit, they
began to love each other and they began to meet each other's physical needs and their
emotional needs and they, and they started to overlook each other's faults and forgive
each other's wrongs.
There was this love and peace instead of bitterness and gossip and all these ways.
And then here's the amazing thing.
Jesus says it didn't actually just trickle out and run out over time.
This wasn't just a passing fad or an enthusiasm for something new.
That this stream of love became a river.
That as the amazing news of God's love for them settled deeper and deeper into their hearts,
they loved each other more and more.
Their latter works exceeded their first.
Now, friends, isn't that the kind of church that you want to be?
Isn't that the kind of church you want to be a part of?
Where the love of God for us in Christ becomes just this torrent of love toward one another.
I mean, imagine how much easier our witness would be to our neighbors.
Think of how much easier evangelism would be if I knew that like when my neighbor showed up
to Trinity, they would just see a bunch of people who loved each other like crazy.
I mean, I'm pretty sure that would increase their awareness or at least their curiosity
into what this Jesus thing was all about.
Jesus commends this church in Thyatira for their love.
But you know, there's a danger.
There's a danger for churches that love well.
And there's a danger for Christians that love well.
And it's actually the opposite danger that we saw back in the beginning of chapter 2
in the letter to the church at Ephesus.
If you remember back there, we saw a picture of a church that was passionate about truth
and sound doctrine, all very, very, very good things.
But, Jesus says, you have no love.
The problem in Ephesus was a loveless orthodoxy.
But here in Thyatira, the problem is nearly the reverse.
They love, but they haven't been careful to preserve what's true.
In particular, they've tolerated, as Jesus says at the beginning of verse 20,
a kind of teaching that undermined holy living.
And this teaching, it seems, was being spread by a person
that Jesus actually likens to the character of Jezebel in the Old Testament.
And in case you're not familiar with the Old Testament,
that's not a very flattering comparison.
We learn about Jezebel in the book of 1 Kings,
starting in chapter 16.
She was the wife of a really bad king, Ahab,
in the northern kingdom of Israel.
And along with Ahab, she promoted idol worship
and despised the words of the prophets
and took advantage of the poor.
Pretty bad figure.
And apparently here in Thyatira,
there was a person, it seems a woman,
who was promoting and seducing people
into a certain kind of teaching
that then led into just an embrace of idolatry
and sexual immorality.
And she may have even been a prominent figure in the church.
Who knows?
She might have been a deacon.
She might have been a recognized officer.
She was maybe even a prophetess,
someone who had the gift of prophecy,
so it seemed.
And if you look down at verse 24,
we see that this group, led by this particular person,
was claiming to have some sort of secret knowledge,
it seems.
That they claimed to have figured out
some sort of deep spiritual truth.
Maybe like Paul sort of references in 1 Corinthians 10,
maybe this group was sort of teaching that,
you know, idols aren't really anything.
We know that there's one God,
so these idols aren't nothing.
Therefore, it doesn't matter if you go to the temple
and feast with them and worship them.
It doesn't matter,
because we know idols aren't real
and we figured out that deep, secret spiritual truth.
And maybe they were also teaching that,
you know, that for truly spiritual people
who've understood these deep, secret things,
you know, once you sort of see the truth as it really is,
it doesn't really matter what you do with your body.
I mean, it's the spiritual thing that counts.
So, you know, sex outside of marriage, not a big deal,
because what you do in your body
doesn't really affect your soul.
So, you know,
this is a sort of deeper teaching of Christianity.
Christianity.
This is probably the kinds of things that they were saying.
And Jesus looks upon all of these claims
to a deeper insight.
These claims to really know the truth,
and Jesus says,
it's all a lie of Satan.
That's what he says.
He says, these deep things of Satan.
So, as I think we look over this letter,
I think the first lesson for us is this.
As we strive as a church to love well,
and we should strive as a church
with all the strength that God gives us to love well,
we have to also be discerning.
We have to recognize, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13,
that great love chapter in the New Testament,
that love does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
but rejoices with the truth.
That that's part of what it means to love.
In other words, we need love and truth.
We need love and holiness.
True love cares deeply about both.
In fact, it's almost as if Jesus is telling them here
that, look, if you have this love
without the sort of the skeleton
of the truth of the gospel,
it's all going to just turn into a puddle.
Imagine a body without a skeleton.
It's not going to be a body much longer.
And the second lesson,
I think that we see here,
is that Jesus' stern warning here,
his stern warning,
doesn't mean
that there's no place for sinners in the church.
No, no, no.
If you want to be a part of the church of Jesus,
then you have to admit
just that,
that you're a complete moral failure.
You know,
that's the only way in.
The only way in
to the church of God
is through admitting
that you're a sinner
and you're broken
and you can't do it on your own.
In other words,
the gospel of grace
is just that.
A gospel,
a good message of news,
of grace,
of undeserved favor
for people like you and me
who don't get it
and don't deserve it.
So Jesus isn't saying here
that there's no room
for sinners.
But he is saying
that unrepentant sin,
sin that we
don't acknowledge
and don't turn away from,
is deadly
and is dangerous.
Look at verse 21.
Jesus,
in his mercy
and in his kindness,
gave this particular teacher
time to repent.
He had been
beckoning
to them
to turn around,
to realize
that you're headed
in the wrong direction
and to come home.
Come back.
But it seems
in this particular instance,
this particular teacher refused.
So friend,
maybe you're here tonight
and maybe you're feeling
like you've completely
and utterly
blown it.
That you've stumbled
into sin
that maybe it's big
sort of obvious sin
and maybe stumble
is kind of a euphemism
because you just
dove right in
with both feet.
Friends,
the message
of this text
for you
is that Jesus
is saying,
come home.
There's a place
for you
at my table
and in my kingdom
and my love
for you
hasn't changed
so come.
There's time
to turn
tonight
and come back.
It's not too late.
The third lesson
I think we see here
is that there's a warning.
There is a warning
for those
who willfully
teach
and support
false teaching.
In verse 22
through 23,
Jesus issues
a massively
stern warning.
Sickness,
suffering,
even death,
he says,
is the outcome
of knowingly
and willingly
teaching and leading
God's people astray.
This is very serious.
And just as Jesus
welcomes absolutely
everyone who turns
from sin,
no matter what
that sin is,
and comes to him
for grace,
he also warns
that those who persist
in leading others astray
are going to face ruin.
Particularly those
who are in positions
of authority
and leadership
who lead people away
and who don't
turn and repent.
Jesus is the one,
he says,
who searches
minds
and hearts
and will give
to each
according to their works.
Now what does that mean?
It doesn't mean
that Jesus
is going to take
all our good deeds
and all our bad deeds
and weigh them
on a scale,
see which way it tips
and say,
okay, that's what you get.
That is nowhere
in the Bible.
He's not talking
about the amount
of deeds.
He's talking about
the disposition
of the heart.
That's what it means
that he's going to give
according to their works.
You see,
for those who
humbly listen to Jesus
and turn to him
in repentance and faith,
he's going to grant
abundant grace.
Even if you have
a modicum
of turning to him,
he will meet you
with an overflow
of grace.
But,
to the one
who refuses
to listen,
the one who
proudly thinks
that they can
do it their own way
and find the loophole
or the spiritual secret
to justify their actions,
to that one
who remains unrepentant,
Jesus says,
okay,
I'll give you
what you ask for.
If you want to live life
your own way,
if you want to keep
going in that direction,
fine,
it's yours.
And that path
is the path
of ruin
and disintegration
and ultimately
death.
But,
you know,
this stern warning
isn't the last word
of Jesus
to this church
and to us
tonight.
Jesus issues
this call
to repentance
with a fresh glimpse
of his person
and of his promises.
You know,
he opens in verse 18
by describing himself
as he who has eyes
like a flame of fire
and whose feet
are like burnished bronze.
Now,
on the surface,
Jesus is talking
about his glory
and his holiness here.
He's the one
who sees our hearts.
He's the one
who shines
with the glory
of the Father.
But,
you know,
to the citizens
of this particular city
of Thyatira
in western Turkey,
this sort of image
of Jesus
probably would have
resonated a lot
more deeply
with them.
Because one of the things
that we know
sort of from archaeology
and from history
is that the city
of Thyatira
on the one hand
was politically
and culturally
basically unimportant.
It was on the margins
and it didn't have
much status.
But,
the one thing
that Thyatira
was known for,
the one little
claim to fame
it had,
was its metalworking.
In particular,
in Thyatira
there was a guild,
which is sort of
a group of workmen.
there was a guild
of bronze workers
who were just
completely famous
throughout the region.
The city prided
themselves
on being able
to make
and fashion
a certain kind
of bronze
that you could get
nowhere else.
In fact,
some scholars
think that the
unique language
that Jesus uses
for burnished bronze
in verse 18
was a technical term
for that same sort
of bronze
that they made
in Thyatira.
This bronze
that you couldn't
get anywhere.
And this bronze
was made
by a specialized
process
that this particular
tradesman guild
in Thyatira
kept utterly secret
and they guarded
this secret
because it was
like their trade
secret, right?
It's like they
weren't just going
to sort of
broadcast it
all over the place.
Here's how you
make the one thing
that we actually
have worth out of.
And no one else
could get it
and no one else
could make it
and no one else
had a claim to it.
No one else
that is
except Jesus.
This prized
thing
that this city
celebrated,
this secret
protected thing
that made them
feel
the one thing
that made them
feel like they
were some
thing
or some
body.
Jesus says
what you're
actually looking
for
is me.
I'm the one
in whom all
the treasures
of wisdom
and knowledge
and worth
are found.
You're looking
for worth,
for importance,
for identity.
You're being led
astray by teachers
who are telling you
that they have
this special insight
but don't you see
that I'm the treasure
you're looking for?
How liberating
is the end
of verse 24.
Jesus says
to those
who aren't being
led astray
by this teaching,
look,
I'm not laying
on you.
I'm not laying
on you
any other burden.
Only hold fast
what you have
until I come.
In other words,
look friends,
there's not a second tier,
there's not a deeper
plane,
there's not a special
secret you have to learn,
there's no inner guild
that you have to join.
Jesus is saying,
if you have me,
then you've got it all.
I'm not going to lay
on you some burden
to prove yourself
or to initiate yourself.
Take my yoke upon you,
Jesus once said
in his earthly ministry.
My burden is easy
and my yoke is light
and you'll find rest
for your souls.
You see,
what Jesus is showing us
about his person
as he issues this call
for us to be both loving
and discerning,
what he's saying is,
is that,
look,
my eyes are like fire,
I see the very depths
of your soul,
but my feet are like
burnished bronze
on the treasure
that you're longing for.
And you know,
if we start to realize
that in Christ
we have all
that we really need,
then we actually can
love well
and make hard calls
when something isn't right.
Why did the church
in Thyatira
tolerate this false teaching?
Well, maybe it was,
you know,
maybe it was taught
in such a way
that made them feel important,
that they were getting
secret insight,
that they were
sort of advancing
beyond maybe
some of the other churches.
They were feeling special.
Or maybe they didn't
like just
not having people
like them.
They were a really
loving church.
They probably loved people.
And the thought of
sort of saying no
to something,
well,
they didn't want
that disapproval.
They didn't want
that sort of reaction.
But either way,
Jesus is saying,
look,
in me,
you've got all of that.
You've got the one
whose approval matters
more than anything else.
You've got the one
whose worth
and glory
will last forever.
But Jesus points
not just to his person,
but to his promises.
For those who
stay close to him,
for those who
overcome,
as he says,
he promises
that they will
rule with him
in authority
over the nations.
This image
there at the end
of our section
of breaking pots
and ruling
with a rod of iron
actually comes
from Psalm chapter 2,
Psalm number 2.
And it's a picture,
it's a very graphic
picture,
isn't it,
in the Psalm
of God's king
ruling the world
and putting down
and putting to an end
rebellion
and evil
and injustice
and all the things
that deep in our hearts
we cry out against
in the world.
It's a graphic picture
of God
bringing all of that
to an end
and establishing
once again
peace
and wholeness.
And Jesus is saying
to us and to this church,
look,
I know you don't feel
important now.
I know you're tempted
to let these important
sounding teachers
in the door
and I know it's so much
easier to just go along
with it.
Look,
it would have been
very, very,
a whole lot easier
in a pagan city
like Thyatira
to just give in
to idol worship.
Look,
everyone was doing it.
The whole sort of
culture revolved
around these temples
and these practices.
It would have been
so much easier
in their context
to just not worry
about holiness
and sexual purity
and all those things.
But Jesus is saying,
look,
don't you see?
I know you're feeling
trampled now.
I know you're feeling
marginalized.
But hold on to me.
It's not always
going to be that way.
You are the kings
and the queens
of the world to come.
You are the new humanity
in the midst of the old.
You're the ones
who are going
to share my reign
in the world to come.
So don't be afraid
to make distinctions now
between what's good
and what's evil,
between what's right
and what's wrong.
Don't be afraid
to let your love
express itself
in holiness.
Friends,
you're going to share
my authority
one day,
Jesus says.
And Jesus promises
in addition to all that
in verse 28
at the very end,
I will give
to the one
who overcomes,
to the one
who conquers,
the morning star.
Now,
what in the world
is the morning star?
Well,
in the ancient world,
the morning star
would have been
the planet Venus,
actually,
as it sort of rose.
And it would have
stood out as sort of
the brightest star-like
object in the sky.
It would have been
sort of prominent
and brighter
than all the rest.
But it's interesting,
at the end of Revelation
in chapter 22,
verse 16,
Jesus calls himself
the morning star.
At the very end
of the book,
he says,
I am the root
and descendant of David,
the bright
and morning star.
The most radiant
object
in the night sky,
the thing
that you can't miss,
the beauty
among beauties,
Jesus is saying,
it's me.
And Jesus is telling them
to hold fast.
Hold fast.
And what will you receive?
He's not just going
to give you a throne,
friends.
He's saying,
I'm going to give you
my very self.
You get the morning star.
You get all of me.
You get me,
Jesus says.
And you know,
at the end of the day,
what Jesus is asking of us,
what Jesus is calling us to
in the gospel,
is to give our whole selves
to him.
To heed his word,
to trust his ways,
to give him our whole selves.
And you know,
friends,
we know
that that
must be
for our good.
Because Jesus Christ
has done the same thing
for us.
He has given
himself to us.
One day,
we're going to embrace him
in all of his beauty
and glory,
the bright
morning star.
But you know,
before that self-giving,
long ago,
before that,
he had already
given himself
on the cross.
That the morning star
actually went
into darkness.
And the ruler
of the nations
was crushed to pieces
by the rulers
of this age.
He gave himself
for us.
So that when we
give ourselves
to him,
we find righteousness
and life
and peace
and joy.
he gave himself
for us
so that all
who put their
trust in him
could rule with him
and could shine
with him
forever.
So friends,
as we wrap up
with this
letter,
let's love
one another.
let's love
one another
with a trusting,
sacrificial,
stick it out
through thick
and thin
kind of love
and in our
loving,
let's hold fast
to truth
and holiness
even if it makes
us unimportant
in the world's eyes.
Even if that makes
us incredibly
unpopular,
even despised,
not that we go
sort of looking
for people to not
like us,
but even if that's
a result,
even if it makes
life hard,
let's give
ourselves to Christ
with no reserves
because,
friends,
he's the one
who has given
himself to us
and who will
give us
so much more.
let's pray.
Father,
we do ask
that you would
give us the
courage
to love well.
God,
so often
we're fearful
and afraid
to love
our brothers
and sisters
in the church
and to love
our neighbors
as ourselves,
so God,
would you grant
us courage
to do that?
And Lord,
in our loving,
would you help
us to love
also what is
true and what
is beautiful
and what is good
help us to
hold fast
to truth
and to holiness
and would that
be an expression
of our deep
love for you
and for others,
God?
Jesus,
we need your
spirit
not just to
hear this
message
but to live
it out,
so would you
come and would
you dwell among
us?
Oh,
bright morning
star,
oh,
ruler of the
nations,
would you call
us forth to
yourself by
your spirit
so that we
might live in
a way that
pleases you.
Amen.
Well,
friends,
as a way of
responding tonight,
we're going to
take the Lord's
Supper together.
Um,
um,