The Seven Cities : Thyatira

Pt. Dave Kenney

Rev 2:18-29 (NIV)

¹⁸"To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. ²⁰Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²²So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. ²⁴Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you) ²⁵Only hold on to what you have until I come. ²⁶To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
²⁷'He will rule them with an iron scepter;
he will dash them to pieces like pottery — just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸I will also give him the morning star. ²⁹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Review:
We have seen that knowing the culture and history of the city is a key to understanding the message that was written to them. Pascal - gambling theory to follow Christ. We have also seen that the early church was a minority faith in the late first century AD.



Background:
Thyatira was a small city but an important manufacturing center located approximately forty miles southeast of Pergamum.

Every artisan belonged to a guild, and every guild, which was an incorporated organization, possessed property in its own name, made contracts for great constructions, and wielded a wide influence.
If you are a Christian, and follow a guild, you need to follow worshiping the idol the guild worships. If you don't, you lose the ability to earn money. Dilemma.

Let's look at some of the Key Thoughts in the Passage:

The church is commended:

• for it good works - loves
• for growing in those works v.19

The problem is a false prophetess.

Jesus says He gave her time to repent, but she chose not to - v.21
He will judge the woman and her followers - v.22,23
Jesus says, He will not "put any other burden on you (the faithful believers) - v.24

Act 15:28-29 (NIV)
²⁸It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: ²⁹You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

The obedient believers are told to "hold on to what you have until I come."

Two points:
their works are good.

Jesus reassures them that He is coming back to earth.
Rev 1:7
Christians in this environment are powerless. He is remembering them.

The rewards : "I will give him authority over the nations"
Jesus also says, "I will also give him the morning star" v.28

Applications for IES today:

1. For those who are doing good, keep on doing good.
2. For those who are doing bad, STOP! Repentance is a change of habit.
3. Don't confuse "food offered to idols" with the body and blood of Jesus.

1 Cor 10 : 14-22 (NIV)
¹⁴Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵ I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

¹⁸Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? ¹⁹Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. ²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. ²²Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

1 Cor 11:23-26
²³For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." ²⁵In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." ²⁶For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.