Thyatira, A Pure Church
The Right Kind of Church
Thyatira: A Conservative Church
Revelation 2:18-29
 
We are looking at the seven churches in the book of the Revelation to help us identify the right kind of church.  By right kind, I’m not talking about a man-made label or denomination, but rather those characteristics the Lord highlights in these letters.  Where we go to church and what we are taught and how we worship are extremely important things.
 
To a large degree the decisions you make about where you will attend church and the kind of preaching and teaching you are exposed to will impact virtually every other decision in life.
 
I think that is why Jesus directs these very personal comments to these seven churches.  What they did impacted lives at a foundational level.  And the kind of ministry they had and the kind of church they were was vital to the lives of those who were members there.
 
Now as you look at these seven churches you discover there were some positive things and there were some negative things they Lord had to say about them.  Ideally we would take all the positive things that are said of these seven churches and roll them into one and come up with the kind of church we would all be proud to call ours.  And if we could eliminate the negatives, we would be that much better off.
 
So far we’ve seen some great characteristics surface in our study of these churches.  The church at Ephesus was a very active, ministry-minded church.  It is commended for its work and labor and patience.  It didn’t tolerate those who were evil. They were faithfully serving the Lord and making sure their leaders were doctrinally sound.
 
But they had lost some of the fervency of their love for the Lord.  Lots of good, positive things, but not everything was as it should have been.  The same is true with Smyrna and Pergamos. They were serving in very difficult environments that were filled with the power and presence of Satan himself and the Lord commends them for it.
 
But in Pergamos in particular they were beginning to loosen the standards and had begun to tolerate corruption and compromise.  There were lots of positives, but there were also some things that needed attention.
 
Now today we’re going to take a look at the church in Thyatira and the church of Thyatira is what I would call a liberal church.  And I will say to you without hesitation a liberal church is never the right kind of church to be a part of.  In fact, I’ve often said, “I’m so conservative I won’t even drive through Liberal, Kansas!”  I don’t think Christians should be liberal in anything except their giving!
 
And I want you to understand when I reference being liberal I am talking primarily about theological matters. But I will say this:  Get your doctrine figured out and your politics and social stands will automatically fall in place.
 
To be conservative politically is a logical deduction of conservative theology, but that's not what I'm talking about today.  I'm talking about deeper matters, foundational matters, to all of the decisions that you make in life and those foundational matters are theological and doctrinal in nature.
 
But one of Satan’s largest lies is that in order to be fair and equitable and charitable, we must be broad-minded and tolerant of others.  But I’m convinced that to be broad-minded you must be empty-headed.
 
To never take a position or stand up for what is right, to never stand on what the Bible teaches is to live an empty-headed life that does not know and understand the Bible.  That is the person who fails to comprehend that there is an authority vested in the Word of God and there is a relationship with that God that is spelled out in the Word of God that comes only through Jesus Christ.
 
That is not intolerant or narrow-minded; that is simply the truth.  In fact, to take broad-mindedness to its fullest expression is to be condemned to wander from one intellectual discovery to the next, forced to fluctuate from one feeling to another.
 
Therefore, if we are to be broadminded, there can be no final authority and anyone who believes the Bible will reject that theory completely.  Those who understand the Bible know that as the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, it is the full and final authority on life.
 
Further, we believe that Jesus, Who is the Living Word, is the authority behind the authority, and it is He who is speaking as we open these letters to the  churches.
 
So let’s take a look at the church in Thyatira and what it says to us about the right kind of church.  This letter is the longest of the seven and ironically, it was written to the church we know the least about.  We know nothing about the church of Thyatira.  There is no mention of it made in the historical documents of the New Testament.
 
The city itself was located about 40 miles southeast from Pergamos.  It was a military city that provided a buffer from invading armies seeking to attack Pergamos.  For that reason, Thyatira was often destroyed and then rebuilt.
 
It was also an industrial city.  We know from secular documents that the city of Thyatira had a number of trade guilds.  They organized themselves around various skills.  There were metal workers' guilds and clothing guilds.  There was a dying guild.
 
Attached to these various guilds there were different kinds of activities and different kinds of professions.  For instance, the dye guild was very important in Thyatira.  Thyatira was known for its beautiful dye.  There was a purple dye, which is known today as turkey red.  In fact, today there is a city of about 100,000 near the ancient site of Thyatira known as the Akhisar that produces beautiful oriental rugs.  Many of these rugs are a purple dye or what's called turkey red.
 
 
The way they got that dye was rather interesting.  Sometimes they would extract the dye from a root or a plant.  On other occasions they would get that dye from the throat of a shellfish. It was very expensive.  If you got a pound of that dye from the throat of a shellfish, it would cost about $200 a pound.  It was used in the dying of purple garments.  These garments were worn by royalty.  There was a purple dye guild there.
 
Attached to these guilds would be certain temples and certain pagan feasts that would be conducted.  A great deal of immorality was attached to these feasts.  To be a part of the guild you had to be attached to the pagan feast and you had to participate in the activities and in some of the more immoral activities of those guilds.  That was one of the attachments.
 
Also, it was an occult city.  They had a temple to fortune tellers.  It was ruled over by a powerful female oracle named Sambathe.  All of this was a part of the mix where, evidently, a church for the Lord Jesus Christ had been established.
 
The Bible doesn't tell us this, but it is altogether possible that this church was founded by a woman.  There's a woman mentioned in the book of Acts from the city of Thyatira.  In Acts chapter 16 we are told about the Apostle Paul's ministry in Philippi.  In verse 14 is some rather interesting truth given to us.  It says, "And a certain woman, named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira."  Here you have a career woman, a business woman.
 
Lydia was a business woman and she traveled.  The Bible says that she was from Thyatira and that she was a seller of this purple, these beautifully dyed garments.  Notice what happened.  It says that she worshipped God, that is, she was a God seeker.
 
She heard Paul preach.  It says, "Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul."  This means that Paul opened up the Word of God.  She opened up her heart, and the Lord opened up the way of salvation to her.  Lydia came to know Jesus as her personal Savior.  Paul and his party stayed for a period of days in her home.
 
There are some who believe that this Lydia, who was converted, returned to her home city of Thyatira and introduced the Christian faith there and won people to Christ and founded a church.  We don't know whether that is true or not, that that church was founded by Lydia or not, but we do know that this was a church that was being corrupted by a woman who is referred to as Jezebel.  We're going to talk about her in a little while.
 
So here was a church that had a problem of growing tolerant and open-minded in order to be seen as more accepting.  But I want to remind you if you don’t learn to stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.  The message to the church at Thyatira was a message against compromise and false teachings.  And if I had to sum it up, I’d say from the letter to this church we learn the right kind of a church is a conservative church.
 
.The Lord always gives a description of Himself.  In verse 18 the Lord Jesus says, "I'm the Son of God.  I have eyes like a flame of fire.  My feet are like fine brass."  His eyes like fire mean His discernment.  What that means is that Jesus knows everything.  Jesus sees everything.
 
Did you know that's true?  Jesus knows everything about you and me.  He sees everything that's going on in our life.  The Bible says in the book of Hebrews that all things are opened and naked before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.  You can't hide from Jesus.  You can't keep anything a secret from Jesus.  He has discernment.
 
He also has feet of fine brass.  That means judgment.  Jesus will not let sin go unpunished.  Jesus Christ deals in judgment with all sin.
As we read this letter of our Lord we will discover first of all that the Lord is
 
1.  Delighted
 
verse 19
 
He says, "I know your works."  What He sees is a church that is indeed a working church.  This church is going, growing, and glowing for the Lord.  He begins to name the motives for their work.
 
He says in these verses that He knows their love.   The first motive for the church's work was love.  All genuine service for the Lord Jesus Christ is based on love.  What we do we do because we love Jesus.  I preach because I love Jesus.  He leads music because he loves Jesus.
 
You live for the Lord on your job on a daily basis because you love Jesus Christ.  Love is the proper motivation for all we do for Him.
 
It’s interesting that the Lord commends Thyatira for their love.  Their love was growing.  Ephesus was corrected because their love was diminishing. IN Ephesus, they wouldn’t tolerate false doctrines, but they had lost their love.
 
In Thyatira, they were growing in love, but they were tolerating false teachers.  Sometimes, in an attempt to do right and be like the Lord, we get things confused.
 
We must keep that in balance.  God’s love covers all only because it is purified by judgment.  Man’ love that overlooks sin and says it doesn’t matter is not God’s love.  There is a fine line that must be maintained between being indulgent with people in their sin and loving them in spite of their sin and loving them out of their sin.   This church was active and loving, but they were tolerating things that did not honor God.
 
He also says, "I know your service."  The word service here is where we get our word for deacon.  "I know your ministry."  Here is a ministry that is based on love.  This church has a ministry.  God gives every church a ministry.  God gives every believer a ministry, a way to serve Him, and a place to serve Him.
 
He also says, "I know your faith."  Here is a working church which is motivated by faith.  The Bible talks about works of faith, works built on our conviction.  This church had great convictions.  I would encourage you to be a part of a church which has great convictions.  I want to encourage you as a believer to have great convictions.
 
So first of all, He comments on their motives.  But He also comments on their maturity.
 
Notice the last part of verse 19
 
The word patience means to endure.  It means not to give up.  It means to keep on keeping on.  He says about their maturity, "Your last works are greater than your first works."  That tells us they were getting better.  They were maturing.  They were doing more than they had ever done for the Lord.
 
I want to encourage you to be a part of a church where you can grow in the Lord.  When you are saved you become a born again child of God.  And as such, you are a baby. But God’s plan is not for you to stay a baby. God wants you to grow.  God wants you to mature and serve Him even more effectively as you move along.  And the right kind of church is the one that provides you an environment where you can grow in the Lord.  By the way, did you know it is a command for you to grow?
 
2 Peter 3, verse 18, says, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."
 
That is not a suggestion or possibility.  It is a command.  If you will be right with God, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of what it means to be in Christ.
 
This church was a source of delight for the Lord as He looks at their motives and maturity.  But as we continue on, we discover when the Lord looks at this church, secondly, He is also
 
2. Disturbed
 
verse 20
 
Underneath the surface of all of the activity and all that is going on, our Lord, with discernment, spots that all is not right in the heart and life of this church.  And here is where we discover what, in particular, they were tolerating.
 
That is one of the key words we hear today.  We are told we must be tolerant.  If there is anything that people want to do today, they want to be tolerant.  It’s rather ironic that those who want everyone to be tolerant of them are the most intolerant when it comes to people who aren’t like them.
 
The reason they talk about tolerance so much is they really don’t believe anyone disagrees with them.  They want everyone else to tolerate things; they just don’t want to do it with Christians.
 
Obviously, there is good tolerance.  But here we have another example of a tolerance which is not good.  They were tolerating something going on in this church that was not good.  It was not good for the members.  It was not helpful for the testimony of this church.  And I appreciate so much the way the Lord gets right to the point.  He identifies this woman named Jezebel and He calls the old heifer by name.
 
He didn’t realize that was intolerant.  I’m sure the Lord didn’t realize you aren’t supposed to do that.  I am always tickled by those who get upset when I talk about the false prophets of our day and call them by name.  Well how else are you going to know who they are and who to avoid if I don’t identify them?
 
I am in good company.  Jesus says, “You’re tolerating that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and I don’t approve.”  Paul said, “Alexander the coppersmith did me a lot of harm.  The Lord will repay him for what he did.”
 
John said, “Diotrephes loves to be in the spotlight and he’s causing all kinds of problems in the church and when I come to town I’m going to tell him to his face.  Don’t be like him because he’s evil.”
 
Listen:  I love you too much to not warn you about the errant teaching that is so prevalent today.  You deserve to know why they are in error and where they have strayed from the truth.  Jesus specifically points out this woman so that in a specific way she could be identified and I’ll guarantee you everyone in the church knew who He was talking about.
 
You say, “How did a woman get that powerful?”  I’ve discovered some women do about what they want to do!  And if this church was started through the godly influence of a woman named Lydia, how much delight would Satan take in tearing it up through a woman named Jezebel?   
 
Now I don't know if Jezebel was really her name or not.  I kind of believe it was.
 
Maybe the Lord uses that term because of all of the background and Old Testament significance of the name of Jezebel.  If you’ve been in church for any length of time, you have probably heard of Jezebel.
She was a tool pusher of the highest caliber!
 
You can read her story in 1 and 2 Kings.  She was the wife of evil King Ahab.  She was a pagan to the core.  Vance Havner said she spent her nights putting on war paint and her days being on the war path.  She was a worshipper of Baal which had attached to it all kinds of sexual perversions.  She was a militant missionary for Baal. She pushed Baalism on the people of God, the children of Israel.
 
She conceived a plot to taka man named Naboth’s life and steal his vineyard for her husband Ahab and she did it.  She threatened to kill God’s prophet Elijah and scared him so bad that he ran until he was totally exhausted and begged to die. This, after he had just called down fire from heaven and embarrassed the prophets of Baal in a contest to prove whose God was really God.
 
Later on she had an encounter with Elisha. When Jehu took off after her, she heard he was coming, and the Bible says that she painted up her face.  She put on all that lipstick and rouge and whatever else you put on.  However it was just new paint on an old barn.  The Bible says that she fixed up her hair.  I can almost see it now.
 
But at the end of the encounter, old Jezebel lay dead in the streets.  Elijah had said the day would come when the dogs would lick her blood from the streets.  It took 20 years, but the day finally came.
 
When they went out to bury her body, the only things left were her skull and the hands and the feet of Jezebel.  When those who were supposed to bury told King Jehu what had happened, he reminded them of Elijah’s prophecy and said, “This is the word of the Lord.”
 
Old R.G. Lee in his famous sermon “Payday Someday” said, “God saw to it that the hungry dogs despised the brains that conceived the plot that took Naboth’s life. God Almighty saw to it that the mangy lean dogs of the back alleys despised the hands that wrote the plot that took Naboth’s life.  God Almighty saw to it that the lousy dogs what ate carrion despised the feet that walked in Baal’s courts and then in Naboth’s vineyard.”  
 
Jezebel is a picture of pagan immorality, someone who had taught the people of God to sin and that it was all right to sin and it was happening right there in the church at Thyatira.  And Jesus says, “You’re a good bunch of people!  You are loving and serving and ministering.  But you are too loving for your own good because you’ve allowed false doctrine to get in and continue in the church.”
 
He says that you put up with, you tolerate, that woman Jezebel.  "She calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants."  There was some woman in this church who was exercising the same influence and the same corrupting power on this church as this Sambathe, the female oracle, was in the temple of the fortune tellers.  She was teaching a false doctrine.  She was seducing the people to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
 
Evidently, there was some woman in this church who called herself a prophetess.  When they start calling themselves a prophetess, you had better really be careful.  She claims that she's got some new revelation.  She's got some special teaching that she wants to give the people.  Her teaching was that fornication was not that bad a deal and that idolatry was not that bad a deal.
 
I have the feeling that she was basically saying, "Listen, you Christians can go to these pagan feasts.  It really doesn't matter.  You're saved.  You're going to heaven when you die.  It really won't matter whether you sin or not.  God is a merciful God.  He will forgive you.  Everything will just be lovely.  Everything will just be fine."
 
It is the doctrine of Jezebel. It is the doctrine that somehow God has a different set of rules for saved people than He does for lost people.  It is the idea that somehow Christians can sin and get by with their sin.  And they had become a liberal church.  Liberalism always leads to immorality.  False doctrine always leads to wrong behavior.
 
In verse 24, she is describing as taking her followers to “the depths of Satan".  You better be careful who you listen to and who you follow and who’s teaching you adhere to.  Beware of teachers who come claiming some depths.  They claim that it is depths, but it may be indeed the depths of Satan, the deeper things of Satan.
 
What you need to do is check the Word of God and see if that teacher or preacher is teaching the truth of the Word of God.  Don't take it from me just because I say it.  Check me out by the Book.
Here was a church filled with a false doctrine somehow when it comes to believers, sin is not sin.  Somehow as a believer you can get by with your behavior.  If sins is different for a believer than it is for a lost person , it is only because the consequences are worse.
 
God does not have separate rules for lost people and saved people when it comes to sin.  The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death."  That applies to the lost and it applies to the saved, to the nonbeliever and to the believer, to the child of the devil and to the child of God.  "The wages of sin is death."  The Bible says, "Be sure your sins will find you out."  Sooner or later your sins are going to catch up with you, and if you're a child of God even more so because God loves you too much to allow sin to ruin your life.
 
God sent His Son and He shed His blood on the cross of Calvary.  He did that because He loves you too much to let sin wreck and ruin your life.  Some of you as God's children may be dabbling with sin today and the devil has somehow convinced you that it's all right.  It won't matter.  You'll get by with it.  God will forgive you.  You can go back and get forgiveness.  You can get forgiveness, but the scars of that sin will remain in your heart and in your life.
 
He says in verse 21, "And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent."
 
Isn’t that beautiful?  Everything the Lord does, He covers with grace.  Here is a woman out of the will of God, tearing up the church and the Lord Jesus says, “I gave her some space.  I gave here some time to repent.”
 
There are some of you right now who are on the
verge of a broken family, and God is giving you some space.  Some of you are involved in things that would embarrass you if they were announced in front of the church, and God is being gracious with you.
 
But if you don't repent of that sin that family is going to be broken.  Just because you're getting by with it now doesn't mean God's going to let you by with it permanently.  God gave her an opportunity to repent and that is only because God is gracious.  God may be giving some of you time to repent.  Take the opportunity while it's yours.
 
I want you to understand if you walk out of here today not right with God, whether you are lost in need of a Savior or saved and out of His will, it won’t be because God was too mean or wouldn’t let you.  You’ll do it because you didn’t6 want to!  He’s giving you some space; you better take advantage of it!
 
He looks at this church and He is delighted at first but He takes a deeper look and He is disturbed.  In verses 22, 23 and 24, three times He says, "I will."  He says in verse 22, "I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds."
 
If you mess around on God, you’re headed for trouble and problems.
 
The second "I will" is in verse 23, "And I will kill her children with death."  In other words, the next generation will be affected by your behavior if you don’t repent.
 
 
Liberal teaching always hits those who follow it with deadly force and it grows steadily worse as time goes on.  Young people are taught somehow that there are no clear cut standards for right and wrong, that it doesn’t really matter if you're totally committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and that it's important to live a separated, holy life unto the Lord.  These are young people who miss out on what real Christianity is really all about.
 
The right kind of church is committed to helping people understand what real Biblical Christianity is all about.  We ought to do all we can to help young people avoid the errors of false teaching and the consequences of liberal theology.
 
Sell out to the Lord Jesus and be totally given to Him and whatever He wants them to be and do.  That's our commitment as a church.  The right kind of church will help you and those who come after you to know, as God’s people, we are called to a higher standard.
 
Then notice verse 23
 
Jesus Christ says, "I'm the great heart searcher.  I go down to the depths where nobody else can see.  I go down to the very heart of your emotions, to the very heart of your intellect.  I know all about you.  I know how you feel.  I know your thought life.  I know your emotions.  I know your total lifestyle. I  am searching your heart"  and I want you to know, one of these days you will reap what you sow.
 
The third thing Jesus says is that when He looks at this church He's not only delighted and disturbed but also He's
 
3. Determined
 
verse 24
 
Praise the Lord, there were also some faithful people in this church.
 
It’s always been interesting to me how the same church can have those members who are dear, sweet, precious children of God who love the Lord Jesus Christ and at the same time have some who are as cold and dead and mean as a snake.
 
In some churches they are the majority and in some they are the minority, but God always has some you can count on and what a blessing they are.  It’s a shame that the slackers and half-hearted are the ones that get the attention when the faithful are those that carry the weight in most churches.
 
And unfortunately we spend far too much time trying to admonish the lazy to come along rather than commending the faithful for what they do.
 
I think about our fellowship here.  God bless you wonderful people.  We have a great remnant of people in our fellowship who love the Lord.  We have a great remnant of people who are sold out for Jesus.  God always works through that remnant.
 
In this church He says, "The rest who do not have this doctrine, I put upon you no other burden."  What was the burden?  It was to be faithful to the Lord and to keep on telling the story of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Just keep on with your deeds and love and service and faith and ministry.  Keep standing for good and against evil.
 
Then He says in verse 25, "Hold fast what you have  fast till I come."  He's saying to hold on to the truth.  Hold on to the old time gospel.  Stay true to the Book, the blood, and the blessed hope of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Hold fast.  Just keep holding and remember, I’m coming again.
 
The desperate need of the day is churches that are conservative enough to keep holding fast the truth of the Lord and faithfully declaring the good news that Jesus Christ saves until Jesus comes again.  He's going to come again.
 
verses 26-27
 
 He says that He's going to come and He's going to give you a power, which is authority, over the nations.  One of these days we are going to rule and reign with Jesus.
 
Jesus says, “Just stand with Me!  I’ve stood eternally for good and against evil.  Just take your stand with Me because when you stand with Me, you stand on Solid Ground!  We are overcomers when we stand with Christ. Just be true to the message of Almighty God!
 
verse 28
 
What does that mean?
 
Some say the morning star is the first star to greet the morning and it is God’s way of saying to those who are faithful, “I’ll give you the eternal dawning of a brand new day!”
 
I believe it means Jesus.  Numbers chapter 24, verse 27 talks about the coming bright and morning star.  When Jesus Christ was born, He became that bright and morning star.
 
Jesus is saying, "You be faithful to Me and I'll give you Myself."  The more we overcome, the more we understand about Jesus.  The greatest gift we could ever have is the gift of Himself, the Lord Jesus.  When you get saved, you get Jesus, all of Jesus and only Jesus and Jesus is all you need!  And everyday you spend with Jesus, you get to know Him and understand Hi better. 
 
So I want to say to you to choose a conservative church.  Choose a church that is faithful to the Gospel.  Choose a church that sets forth the standard of a faithful, consistent, dedicated, and committed lifestyle, and Jesus will give you Himself.  You will have a walk with Jesus that will be personal and intimate.  And one day, you’ll see Him face to face.
 
Let’s pray.