Letters to the Churches

THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST
A WEDNESDAY NIGHT BIBLE STUDY
EDGEMONT BIBLE CHURCH
FALL 2009- SPRING 2010
NOVEMBER 18, 2009
LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES - Part 5

I. AUDIENCE IDENTITY - The Angel of the Church at THYATIRA

A. The City - Founded by one of the successors of Alexander the Great, it was to be an outpost town to protect Pergamum, a more important city. However, it had no acropolis or high ground and thus was difficult to defend. The most it could do was slow down the advance of an enemy and give Pergamum a little more time. Thus it was destroyed and rebuilt several times until the Romans took it in 190 B.C. Under Roman peace it became a commercial center on the road between Pergamum, Laodicea, Smyrna and all the interior regions. The most prominent aspect of this town was its guilds, roughly equivalent to labor unions. It's most prominent guild was wool products and dyed wool products; but they also had guilds for linen workers, makers of outer garments, dyers, leather workers, tanners, potters, bakers slave dealers and bronze smiths. Each guild had its own patron deity to whom guild members were to swear allegiance. The honor feasts were rife with foods sacrificed to idols and the corresponding sexual immorality. This made it very difficult for Christians to have gainful employment since the guilds controlled all commerce and employment opportunities.

B. The Church - Nothing is known about the founding of the church but speculation could be made that perhaps Lydia, who may have represented her guild, and her household may have had something to do with it. Acts 16:11-15


II. SPEAKER'S IDENTITY AND AUTHORITY TO SPEAK - The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass - discernment, judgment from the full authority of God's Son

III. MESSAGE
A. His commendation
1. He knows their works, love, service, faith and endurance.
2. Their present works were more than when they began.
B. His charge or criticism
1. They were allowing "Jezebel" to teach and beguile His servants. She was probably a woman in the church who had claimed spiritual authority and power for herself and was now teaching in the
church, which is a clear violation of the Scripture.

2. As a result, His servants were committing sexual immorality and eating things sacrificed to idols.
a. These were both conscious acts of the will and may have been related to the guild deity's honor feasts.
b. This teaching may have been part of the Grecian philosophy of the day that held the gods were only interested in the spirit since the material body is evil anyway and is destined to decay and rot. Consequently, if one keeps his spirit pure, he can do anything he wants with his body without consequence to his spirit.
c. This teaching may have been part of the antinomian teaching that said God's grace is greater than sin and no matter what a
believer does God will forgive him anyway.
3. He says He had given her time to repent of her immorality and she had not
a. As a result of her lack of repentance, she was going to be cast into a sickbed (original text may not have said sickbed, but
just a bed perhaps referring to "sleep" or death.)
b. Those who have committed adultery (joined in with her
teachings) with her were going to go through great trouble unless they repent of their deeds
c. He will kill "her children", the offspring of her blasphemous teachings who now were practicing her lewd and immoral
behavior without repentance.
d. The goal of this severe discipline is that the other churches would know that He is the One who searches the minds and
hearts. Great fear, as with Ananias and Sapphira, would fall
on the churches.
e. They needed to know that Christ was going to judge them on the basis of their deeds. Those who had done well would be rewarded; those who had done poorly would suffer loss; those who had done evil would suffer sickness and death
4. Some of them had been lured into learning the "depths of Satan"
a. No further information is given on this one but some speculation on the basis of current philosophy and the pre-Gnostic
teachings can be done. Whatever it was, Satan was only too willing to show them his deep things!
b. This may have come from the teachings of the self-appointed prophetess. They had become so "spiritual" that they could
even explore the darkness of the deep things of Satan and his lair and escape unscathed.
c. It may have been that they wanted to learn the tactics of the adversary under the guise of better witnessing.
d. It may come from the idea that the spirit is all that God cares about since the body is destined to die anyway, therefore believers are free to explore and even experience all manner of evil without cost since they are now, in their spirit, safe and secure. The body is already evil so it does not matter what it does.
e. It may have simply been the curiosity to know what Satan is like. Whatever the reason for it, it was sinful and wicked and
condemned by the Lord Jesus Christ as unfit and unacceptable behavior for those identifying with Him in His church.
C. Yet there were those in Thyatira who were not guilty of either of these perversions. To those He says He will put no other burden on them. The conditions under which they were living were severe enough.
1. "To you" and "to the rest in Thyafira" To whom is He referring?
a. The first "you" would be the angel of the church and "the rest" would be the other members of the church in Thyatira
b. The first "you" could be the church in Thyatira and "the rest" could be all the other residents of Thyatira. Not likely.
c. There is no "and" between them or the "and" should be
translated "even". This would mean the "you" is referring to "the rest" of those in the church. It would thus read, "But to you I say, to the rest in Thyatira..." Or "But to you I say, even to the rest in Thyatira..."
2. He tells them to "hold fast what you have till I come."
a. By using the word "hold fast" He knew what He was
commanding them would not be easy. It would take strength to stand in the presence of the blatant false teaching, sexual immorality, solicitation to wrong and ridicule within the church and a hostile world outside of it.
b. "...Till I come." Could mean till the rapture or until He comes in judgment of the church.
c. The believers in any situation are to hold fast until the coming of the Lord in whatever way He comes.

APPLICATIONS:
We see in Thyatira how easily compromise comes, then how easily it
changes to open sin and finally how difficult it is to remove once it is established.
1. They had compromised on whom to listen to in the assembly.
Women were not supposed to be teaching at all, yet this
"Jezebel" gained a hearing and a following.
2. Once the Word of God had been compromised, discernment was gone and they were left with no foundation upon which to reject her false teaching.
3. Once she had a respectable platform from which to speak it became easy for her to change liberty into license.
4. Once a practitioner has his conscience seared his life is open to any sin and transgression without hesitation.
5. There is a point of no return when it comes to sin. Jezebel and those who committed adultery with her as well as her offspring (those who had learned her practices) were unwilling and unable to repent, even though space had been given them by the gracious Lord. All that is left then is death and destruction especially of those who are guilty.
6. The whole church pays for the compromise and sin. Those
not guilty of this wicked compromising debauchery were left just trying to survive not thrive as a church.
7. We are better off to be considered backward than we are to
compromise the Word of God. The path of compromise is the path to death and loss.
8. Holding fast to the truth brings reward from the Lord Jesus Christ
9. The church today needs a good dose of "fearfulness" or the "fear of God" as much as it needs a better understanding of its position in Christ before God.

IV. PROMISE TO THOSE WHO OVERCOME - The one overcoming and
keeping Jesus' works to the end will be given authority by the Lord Jesus Christ over the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron like the authority Jesus was given and he will give him the morning star.
A. The authority given here is authority in the millennial reign of Christ which will be shared with the Lord Himself
B. Though now they were being beaten by their enemies, they would be the one's ruling then. Their steadfastness would hold them a spot in the ruling of the nations during the millennium.
C. Any rebellion during Christ's millennial reign will be crushed immediately
D. Believers now will rule with Christ in the millennium to protect His people, promote holiness and righteousness, encourage fruitfulness and obedience, and judge justly during that period. They will have new bodies that are impervious to pain, sickness and death; new hearts that are totally sin proof and fully obedient; minds that will instantly know God's will and they will have eternal life. They will have authority that is coming from Christ, which will make their authority final. This will make their rule as invincible as Christ's.
E. They will be given the Morning Star, Christ Himself. See Rev 22:16

V. CALL TO THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO LISTEN