Of all the churches that Jesus addressed in the Book of
Revelation, what we are about to read and study together at this
time is the longest letter. Simply put, Jesus Christ has
more to say to this assembly than any other, and that should
prompt us to carefully consider what was taking place in
Thyatira that demanded such an extended message.
If there was one word to summarize what was taking place
that caused the Lord Jesus to offer this detailed
confrontation, it is this toleration.
Toleration, and I say that because that is the very word we
will see, at least in the ESV, that serves as a turning point
in the scathing report. And I want us to consider what
toleration means, having a proper definition before we
explore this letter. To tolerate involves any idea or
activity or person that is allowed or accepted when in fact
it is disapproved of. It is something that is
disagreed upon, and in this case you had an entire, well at least
a majority of the church that was tolerating something, More
specifically tolerating someone that Christ himself did not
approve of. And the reality of the matter
is, there are many behaviors that are taking place in the
church at large that Christ expects His people to lovingly
confront, but that is not always true.
If there is a main take away from this letter, it is that
tolerance is a recurring temptation for the church in
every age, and it is something that the individual Christian
and the church as a whole must be ready to resist for the sake
of Christ honor. There is that and many other
things that we are going to learn as we now begin to read in
Revelation chapter 2, starting in verse 18.
Again, this is the longest letter, but we're going to read
it in one sitting even now before we dissect it.
Revelation 2, verse 18. And to the Angel, the church in
Thyatira, right, 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 sick bed, and those who commit
adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless
they repent of her works. And I will strike her children
dead. And all 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 and thy Tyra, who do not hold this
teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things
of Satan, to you I say, 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 earthen 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. Father, we ask that you give us
ears to hear. We pray that you would destroy
all distraction, any obstacle in our hearts and our minds that
would interfere with what You want to say.
We believe that you have a word for this church and we want to
hear it with clarity and precision and power.
In Jesus name we ask these things.
Amen. It's clear from the introduction
alone that this letter is not going to be an encouraging 1.
What we see here just from the beginning that this is a serious
warning. And how do we know that?
Because the characteristics that Christ chooses to apply to
himself, the ones that He highlights, are associated with
judgement. You can almost translate the
first verse in the following way.
Before I say anything else to you, O people of Thyatira, my
people, I want to remind you of my authority.
That's why he says I am the Son of God.
And why that's important to say from the outset is because he
wants to inform this people that it doesn't matter who is saying
what in your church. It doesn't matter how many of
you approve of what is being taught in my church.
I am the one in charge of my church.
I'm the one that determines who does what and what is said.
I am the Son of God. Here's my authority.
And from his authority now he reacquaints them with his
abilities. What does he say?
He describes himself as the one who has eyes like a flame of
fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Just in case you would reject my authority, let me tell you the
consequences of such a thing. My perception is perfect.
My discernment and my assessment is something that will warrant
judgment, because I am never wrong.
I see everything, I know everything, and I want to let
you know that if you deny my authority, you will have to face
my discipline. My eyes are like a flame of
fire, and my feet are ready to go to work and to trample on all
disobedience. Now, this is something for us to
consider because Jesus Christ is holy.
You're going to read some things and you're going to study some
things with me that may sound like it's Old Testament.
Now this is New Testament. This is the newest of the New
Testament. You can't get any more new than
this. We're the last book of the New
Testament. So you have some people who say,
you know, I'm more comfortable with the God of the New
Testament, the God of the Old Testament.
Let me shock you. He's the same God.
You can't make that distinction. And people who talk like that,
I'm afraid, have not read or studied the Book of Revelation.
But before Christ underscores any error in this church, He
wants to, He wants to point out some of the attributes that he
admires. And that's in one verse.
Here in verse 19. What does he say?
Well, there are 4 distinct characteristics that he
mentions. The first thing apart from the
general works is their love. I see your love.
More than that, I see your faith and even beyond that, I see your
service. I see your patient endurance.
I mean, if you heard about a church that was loving, that had
faith, that was serving, that was enduring patiently, you
would say give that church an A. Christ has a different grading
system. I don't think it's necessary for
us to look at these things separately.
What I do want to mention is the last part of this comment.
Notice what he says and that your latter works exceed the
first. So it's not so much that this
church was possessing these wonderful attitudes and these
actions. What Christ says is that they
were growing and excelling in them.
That over time I see that you're maturing in these areas, that is
becoming more fruitful and fragrant in your assembly.
I love this. I, I, I praise this, I commend
this. And here's what moved me about
this. It shows you an eye, the type of
growth that Jesus Christ celebrates in his church.
You know, you talk to ministers today and they love to speak
about numerical growth. We have more people attending
our services. Well, that could be good.
It could also be bad. And then you have others who
take pride in the increased giving.
Every member's meeting, you know, the ones that you have,
maybe once or twice a year, we'll look at our report.
We're having more people give, and that also can be a good
thing. But do you know what Christ
primarily praises the incremental transformation of
his people. That's the kind of growth that
Jesus Christ celebrates. It's not so much the size of the
congregation, it's the quality of its members.
And so he looks at, he doesn't mention how many are there.
He doesn't mention anything. The thing that he highlights is
you individually are growing in your love, your faith, your
service, and your patient endurance.
Here's that applies to US. Number one, does our
understanding of success in ministry align with the Lord's?
Do we celebrate what he celebrates?
Do we focus our investments on what Christ wants us to focus
on? Again, for many people, it's
let's fill as many seats as possible.
Our concern should be who's sitting in those seats and what
are they becoming and what do their lives look like once they
finish warming those seats for an hour and a half on a Sunday?
This is what the Lord is inviting us to, which invites
us, I think. Let's say, for example, every
church anniversary we celebrate in November, do we not?
I was reflecting a thought. We should be able to look back
and say that people at Maranatha Bible Church are more loving
than they were last year. We have more people serving than
ever before. Look what's happening to the
members at MVC. They are able, with greater
wisdom and greater patience, handle internal and external
conflicts, patient endurance. And I pray that that would be
the trajectory of this church. We will not decrease in our
affection, that we will not weaken in our acts of service,
but increase as time goes on. Unfortunately, that's all the
good Jesus had to say for this church for the rest of this
letter. Now he is going to bring up a
serious concern. There is going to be an issue
that he is going to target without reservation.
His main issues with a woman, her name is Jezebel.
Or is it? It's very unlikely that this
woman's name in this church was actually Jezebel because of the
history of that name, because of the scandal associated with that
name. It would be like anybody naming
their son Judas. Very unlikely.
So what we have here is a symbolic label that Christ
places on this individual because like Jezebel in the Old
Testament, this prophetess was an agent of Satan and Satan was
using her in this assembly to lure the people of God away from
the truth. And so she has Jezebel like
qualities. You can imagine the shock on her
face when this letter was read and she heard Jezebel and the
rest of the church for that matter.
There are three problems that the Lord highlights about this
woman. Let's look at them again.
The 1st is here in verse 20. Who calls herself a prophetess?
You have to read carefully. The issue here is not the
practice of prophecy itself. We see examples of even woman
prophets in the New Testament. Rather this individual is a self
appointed prophet. It's as though Christ is saying
I I did not Commission this woman.
She does not have my endorsement.
She's a self-proclaimed messenger, and this woman had
the boldness to walk into this church, build trust and fellow
members and telling them, did you know that I'm a prophetess?
I hear from God all the time, regularly actually.
In fact, I have such a close and unique relationship with the
Lord that I have been given access to unique insight and
revelation. And Jesus says she calls herself
that. She's not one of mine.
Church. Be careful of people who call
themselves prophets, especially online.
Can I tell you something? A person whom the Lord truly
uses doesn't need to advertise themselves.
They don't. God is really using somebody
speaking through somebody. One, it's going to align with
His Word, and two, you will, if you have even a hint of
discernment, recognize this individual is a real thing.
This person is a faithful messenger of God's Word.
So be careful. More and more are we seeing
people freely calling themselves different things, including
prophets and prophetesses, when in fact they hire themselves.
They're not of Christ, even though they speak in His name.
The second thing that is a troubling feature is how this
woman was teaching. Look again at verse 20.
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman
Jezebel, who one, calls herself a prophetess, and two, is
teaching. Again, read carefully.
The problem highlighted here is not what she is teaching.
That's going to be brought up next.
The point of contention is who is teaching?
You see, the church in Thyatira was violating the clear biblical
instruction and mandate that women are not to serve as
preachers or teachers in the General Assembly of the church.
It cannot be any more plain than the words of the Apostle Paul in
First Timothy 212 when he says, I do not permit a woman to teach
or to exercise authority over a man.
Rather she is to remain quiet. That doesn't mean that when she
comes to church she's supposed to be mute.
It means that in the context of preaching and teaching the
worship time of the church, she is not to do what men alone are
called to do, and that is to instruct the people of God with
the Word of God. It's very possible that this is
the first time that some of you heard me quote this verse or
heard this was quoted at all in such a plain manner.
And so I'm aware that there can be thoughts and questions
emerging even now as I'm talking in your heart.
Well, let me direct you to a one hour message that we have on our
YouTube channel that speaks about in great detail what God
says about woman assuming the role of elder, pastor and
teaching the General Assembly in the church.
And I'm sure it will be helpful. And perhaps in the near future
we may have to even revisit that.
But see, this is what we can understand at this point.
It is completely appropriate for both men and women in informal
Bible studies and settings to be able to share insights and to be
able to express questions. The Bible even encourages women
to teach younger women how to be good and how to be faithful and
to disciple children. But when it comes to the church
gathering for corporate worship, Scripture clearly and undeniably
reserves the role of teaching for men.
And this is yet another example for us of how this series and
revelation is so applicable. Can I ask you something?
Are there fewer churches today promoting women to teach
congregations and pursue the role of pastor or more?
The reality is more and more are embracing this trend.
Mark my words. You listen carefully then,
unless the Lord comes and baptizes the wider church in the
fear of God again, to position the church, especially leaders,
to obey God in everything that he says, not what you like, what
He says, whether your flesh is comfortable with it or not.
Unless the Lord does that in this age, we are going to see a
greater attack on this mandate. And if you're a part of a church
like this one that honors and bows its knee to the authority
of God's Word, even in what he says for men and women in their
distinct roles in the church, prepare to be criticized.
Prepare to be slandered by who? The world.
I'm not concerned by the world. No, no even churches and
ministries that willfully dismiss this command.
But here's what we're learning. Why are we going through these
series, this series in the the seven churches in the Book of
Revelation? Because we want to know what
kind of church Christ wants and the church that Christ praises.
I'm not motivated one iota to be a ministry that popular
evangelicalism approves of. I'm not concerned about that.
I will stand before Jesus Christ, not before the popular
pastor Christ. And I want to stand before.
I'm faithful. And I hope you do as well.
Unfortunately, this church tolerated a woman who was
teaching with authority in the assembly.
But that's not the only thing. If teaching as a woman wasn't
disobedient enough, she aggravates her offense by what
she was teaching. Look here at the last part of
verse 20. Not just teaching, but seducing
My servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food
sacrificed to idols. This Jezebel, through her
teaching, was comforting and persuading other members, my
servants, Jesus says, to sin comfortably.
You know, some wonder, how was a woman able to climb and have
such influence in this congregation?
And there are some, though it's not explicitly clear, that that
believe that this woman was in fact one of the wives of the
elders, because the Greek word for a woman there is
interchangeable between woman as a gender and wife.
But that's not plain. Either way, what we want to
focus on is the essence of her doctrine.
What she was spewing out was that certain sins were
permissible, that you can engage and you can indulge in certain
ideas, this promotion, this illusion of freedom under the
guise of grace. And there's something about her
teaching, I believe, that I think makes it so compelling.
Scroll down to verse 24. Notice what the Lord says to
this remnant in the same church and we'll look at that in in a
moment here. But verse 24 says, But to the
rest of you and 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.
Now the ESP has an interesting rendering of this verse in other
word for word translations like you know, the King James and the
new King James, the Lord is the one who identifies this teaching
as the deep things of Satan. So here in the ESP says what
others might call the deep things of Satan and those other
ones. Maybe you have it in your hand.
It's it's the Lord who's saying this is the deep things of
Satan. Either way, what Christ is
describing here can mean one of two things, or even really both.
First, whatever this woman was was conveying and communicating
was deeply disturbing and perverse.
But I can also mean this, that she was captivating an audience
because she claimed that she had deeper insights into spiritual
things. And this is something for us to
understand as well, because it's not about deeper things in the
Word of God. We should all long for that.
What I'm referring to is the unraveling of extra biblical
ideas on the basis of supposed prophetic authority.
So it could have been something like, let me tell you some of
the secrets to the spiritual realm.
Let me unpack for you basic baseless ideas of spiritual
dimensions and practices in the Scriptures that are, in fact not
in the Scriptures. Twisting truths, twisting
illustrations, twisting stories. In fact, maybe not even in the
Scriptures at all. Completely silent in the Bible.
Let me tell you some things that you don't know.
Let me exegete my personal visions and my dreams and my
encounters. They can't be validated.
Just take my word for it. I'm, I'm persuasive in my
speech, am I not? Don't, don't I look godly.
So let me tell you some things that I've experienced that are
applicable to you. Deep things, not deep things in
the Bible, deep things from your own experience, from your own
mind. You know, over the years as a
Christian, I've, I've been approached by people who have
invited me to listen to so and so because they're deep, OK.
And when I listen, I find out, yeah, they're deep.
They're in deep trouble because they're not saying anything
that's biblical. I'll never forget the time after
a few months, maybe close to a year of walking with the Lord, I
had somebody, we went to this conference and somebody
approached me. We got to know them a little
bit. He handed me a USB stick with
the series of teachings from this guy.
I don't even remember who the man was, but it was a series on
miracles, but unique miracles, miracles that you didn't think
you had access to. And there was more than one
sermon on how Christians have the ability on demand to
teleport, teleportation. And this man plucked a couple of
examples of how the Lord has done this.
But no, no, it wasn't how the Lord can do it.
It's how you can do it. And here's the most shocking
part, listening to this in the car with a friend.
And the worst part is you had people in the live audience
recorded, wow, literally saying wow, wow, wow.
What do you think this man got the confidence to speak in this
way? Think it was from the Bible?
No, no, no, no. It was 45 minutes of let me tell
you how it happened to me, how I went from here to here, how I
went from this country to this country, how I elevate into
heavenly realms and dimensions. You know you can do that too if
you have enough faith, deep things.
And this church was tolerating it.
I want you to be careful because ideas like this are gaining more
and more popularity. Thousands and hundreds of
thousands of views. I even just yesterday, last
night, I thought, let me just look this stuff up and I looked
it up and there hundreds of thousands of views.
I could barely stomach what was being said.
And they would pan into the audience and people, wow, they
don't know their Bibles. There's no way.
And you had a church here who loved this teaching.
Christ did not. And we see here his
righteousness, his zeal. You know, listen.
As much as love is important, faithfulness is important,
service is important, patient endurance is important.
You know what we learn from this?
Teaching is important to Jesus. It may not be important to you,
but it's important to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he wants the church to partner with his heart.
And so he demonstrates his zeal for pure truth.
But listen, His passion for holiness is beautifully followed
by His incredible grace in the following verse.
So we look at verse 20. Now look at verse 21.
I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her
sexual immorality. You know what this means?
This is not the first time that this woman was confronted for
her error. I gave her time to repent,
implying she was confronted before, perhaps by faithful
Christians in the congregation, maybe directly by the conviction
of the Holy Spirit. We aren't sure what is certain,
though this is not the first time the Lord is dealing with
her. Relish in the brilliance and the
beauty, the astounding patience of Jesus Christ.
He doesn't just give us opportunities to repent.
He gives you time to repent when it's not your initial response
to His invitation. Look how steadfast He is and
calm He is. I gave her time and you and I
have to understand that. When we look out and see false
teachers today receiving millions, even billions of
donations packing stadiums, I've thought this, Lord, why aren't
you stopping them? Why are they growing in their
reach and in their influence? And I learned something from
this letter. He's giving them time to repent.
He's giving the time to repent. And it could very well be before
there is a public scandal with somebody who is not truly a
messenger of God. They were private convictions,
confrontations, the Lord dealing with them in their hearts,
allowing people to come into their lives and speak into their
lives. And unfortunately, do many do
what this woman did with every opportunity received, she
refused to repent. Have you ever wondered, just in
a general sense, why do people refuse to repent?
I mean, if the gospel is preached faithfully, if it's
really given as good news, why do people swat it away?
Why do they deny it? I believe in many cases for the
same reason this woman did. They love their sin.
Notice again verse 21, I gave her time to repent, but she
refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
The reason why she didn't want to turn to the Lord is because
she didn't want to give up her lusts.
And here's something to consider.
It's very possible that her influence in this church
provided personal opportunities to indulge in her lusts.
Did you know that what are the marks of a false teacher is that
they are ravishedly driven by sexual impulses, and they'll use
the persuasiveness, their personality, they'll use their
leadership abilities to satiate those sexual desires.
Here's a mark of a false teacher according to Peter and second
Peter 2:14, They have eyes full of the adultery.
This is in the context of false teachers.
And what does he say? They have eyes full.
They're leaking in their desire, in their pursuit of other people
to gratify their flesh, their predators.
And not just that, he says they have eyes full of adultery,
insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls.
They have hearts trained and greed accursed children.
Who do false teachers attract? Unsteady souls.
You know what is 1 sure way of being an unsteady soul?
Not being filled with the word of God, being tossed this way
and that way. The newest thing the the the
more handsome preacher, the more beautiful, the more deep.
That's how people are are taken captive.
How do these false teachers thrive?
How is it that they're so successful because they have so
many customers. If you didn't have the
customers, you wouldn't have the platform.
I was listening to an interview the other day of somebody who
went out into Mexico and spoke with one of the cartels, and the
cartel admittedly said most of our consumers are in the United
States. If we didn't have consumers, we
would be out of business. How true it is.
Even with false teachers, it's people wanting this and those
who are naive, those who are unsteady are frequently taken
captive. And this woman could very well
have been partnering sexually with people that she was
teaching. And as patient as the Lord is,
there is a limitation to it. And for this Jezebel, there were
no more chances left. So the only thing she can expect
from now on his judgement. And this is what we read next in
verse 22. Behold, I will throw her onto a
sick bed. And those who commit adultery
with her I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent
of her works, and I will strike her children dead.
A lot of these statements may not be surprising to us, but
there is something in this passage that I think would make
many professing Christians uncomfortable.
I alluded to it earlier. Jesus Christ, even the New
Testament, makes His glory and His reality known.
Yes in His goodness, Yes in His grace.
Yes in His forgiveness. Yes in his healing power.
But can Ioffer you another dimension by real time
manifestations of judgement? Are we in Exodus or are we in
the New Testament? We're in the Book of Revelation
and Jesus Christ says that He will make Himself known to the
wider church. What does he say?
How is He going to make all the churches know that He is the one
who searches mind and heart? Pause.
He searches mind and heart. That is an attribute that solely
and exclusively belongs to Yahweh in the Old Testament.
Many, many Old Testament passages say the Lord who
searches mind and heart. What is Christ claiming here?
I'm God, but what is one of the ways that He shows Himself to be
the living God to His people? Well, in this case, by striking
a false prophet with a sickness, by altering the lives of those
who work with her, and by ending the lives of her children.
Some debate. Is this her actual children or
spiritual children? Either way, it's not good.
So this is something for us to understand.
Yes, the God of the New Testament, from time to time, He
affirms His Holiness, He affirms His power, He affirms his
presence. By doing what?
Shaking a church that tolerates sin in such an undeniable way
that other churches would realize and be reminded of the
holiness of Jesus Christ, is that it?
No, Christ has a message not just for Jezebel and her
disciples. Look here at verse 24.
But to the rest of you and thy Tyra, 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.
Isn't it shocking you had real Christians in this church?
You know what I thought? Why are you still at that
church? I'll tell you why.
Because they didn't have many options in that time.
And that day they didn't have the luxury of picking up and
saying we're going to the church down the street.
There are many obstacles to that and again, very limited options.
So they had no other choice. This was their church in
Thyatira. This is where they went.
This is where they could, to the best of their ability, obey what
Jesus said and what the word of God says and not to forsake the
assembling of the Saints. And so the Lord now turns his
attention to these Christians who are enduring this.
You can imagine the debates over fellowship.
You can imagine the confrontation.
You can imagine the atmosphere in that place.
And he tells this remnant in this church, I want to encourage
you. I do not lay on you any other
burden. Only hold fast what you have
until I come. I got to tell you, it was like a
splash of cold water on my face when I meditated on this
passage. It should move you to the core
because this is something about the leadership of Jesus Christ
towards the faithful. I'm sure you're aware of
Christians who really want to please God, like they really
want to honor God, but they have no rest in that pursuit.
In fact, they're always burdened.
They they always scrutinize their sanctification.
They're running on fumes. They're always thinking, what
else can I do, what more can I do in order to make God proud?
That's how they live. They're miserable.
And though Jesus is very much concerned about our growth, we
just heard about it. I see that your works are
excelling. Your latter works are excelling
more than your former. Yes, He wants us to grow in
these things. It is possible to walk in such a
manner. Listen to this.
It is possible to so Orient your life that Christ will look at
you and all He has to say is just keep going.
Just keep going. Yes.
Are the times where you'll be convicted because of your
limited fellowship of the Lord? Yes, yes.
Will you hear a message from time to time that will ask of
you more faithfulness and service to ministry?
Sure. But you know what?
The Lord is not interested in piling on you unrealistic duties
and demands. His commandments are not
burdensome and so it's possible to so again, align yourself to
the truth of God's word and your life, your convictions, your
priorities where all Christ can say keep going.
You're right in the center of my will and all I asked you to do
is remain there. Isn't that refreshing that
refreshed me and understanding the mercy and the beauty of
Jesus shepherding should empower you should give you life.
He's not there looking. Oh, you're doing all that I'm
asking. You know what, let me try.
You know there are people like let me let me find something
else for you to do because I just don't want you to be there.
No, no, no, he's not like that. Keep going.
Keep doing what you're doing as much as his grace is something
that should energize as there's something else.
Look at the end of verse 25. Only hold fast what you have
until I come, until I come. What is the Lord doing here?
He is placing before these faithful believers the reality
of His second coming in order for them to be more faithful, to
remain faithful, to remain steadfast.
In other words, Jesus Christ uses the truth of His return to
keep His people ready, robust, remaining, abiding,
withstanding. How much do you think about
Jesus coming back? If we want to be a healthy
church, from what I learned here, I think we should talk
about it a lot. I think it should be in our
conversation. I think we should say it
frequently. You know the Lord is coming
back. It puts everything into
perspective. It lightens the load.
It helps you to endure even when there is problems in your
church. Oh, this isn't the end of it.
Thank God this is in heaven. As heavenly as these meetings
can be, this is not heaven. Christ is coming back.
And listen, we've been studying
churches, have we not? And we as a church want to be
the church Christ wants us to be.
But let's be realistic because the Bible is realistic.
What does Jesus say earlier? He says that I will give to you.
Look at the end of verse 23. I will give to each of you
according to your works. So as much as he's evaluating
the church at large, every single one of us will have a
personal report card. Listen.
Which is relieving for many of us, I hope, especially for
leaders. Because leaders can only say so
much. They can only counsel so much.
They they can only put on events to formulate fellowship.
There's only so much that a leader can do.
In the end, we all have to take personal responsibility.
Oh, you went to Maranatha Bible Church?
Yeah. OK.
Well, I'm going to judge the pastors, But what did you do
with all the sermons you heard? And what did you do with the
opportunities ever given to you? So none of us can hide behind
Daniel Ben or Mark Griffin or whatever church you might be
representing here as you're visiting.
And we can't hide behind anybody else either.
We can't point to the congregation.
Now, I as much as I'm evaluating the church, I'm going to give to
each of you according to your works.
Now what does the Lord do? We're wrapping things up.
He's not finished motivating the remnant.
He even wants to motivate those who are enjoying this false
teaching. Verse 26, He says the one who
conquers and who keeps my works until the end.
To him I will give authority over the nation's prize, number
one prize #2 verse 27. 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 the My Father prize #3
verse 28. And I will give him the morning
star. Let's break these down.
The first two I get. I think most of us would
understand. The only way these rewards make
sense is if you believe in a literal millennial reign of
Christ. Or else what does it mean that
He will give authority over nations to us?
What nations? What are we talking about now?
No, not now. What about ruling them with a
wrought iron? Now, is this symbolic?
Is this allegorical? If you're honest with your
interpretation of the Scriptures, this is literal.
And it can only fit in one segment of redemptive history,
when Jesus Christ returns to rule and reign from Jerusalem.
And what we learn here is based on our faithfulness, we'll
determine the extent of our reward, our governing rewards.
Christians are going to have some interesting things to do in
the millennial reign, and here's what we learned from this.
If you're faithful with my word, if you're faithful with your
judgments based on my word, if you're able to discern between
right and wrong and even confront wrong, then I'm willing
to promote you in my Kingdom to execute judgment, to make
decisions. And so you're going to have some
who are going to do what they are going to have authority over
certain regions, and some we're going to share in Christ
authority to execute judgment in the millennial reign.
It's the last one that perhaps is the most mysterious.
What does it mean by saying I will give him the morning star?
That's interesting. And all these ideas you can
imagine the speculations if you just honor the context.
I think you have your answer. Does this idea of bright morning
star appear in the Book of Revelation?
Yes. Turn to in Revelation 22.
There's where you get your answer.
Revelation 22, verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent my Angel to
testify to you about these things for the churches.
I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning
star. So what is Jesus saying back in
Revelation 2? I'm going to give you myself.
I'm going to give you access to a fellowship with me that will
be rich, that will be real, that will be unique because you pay
the price of staying true to my word.
You did not tolerate compromise in your life or in the church.
And here's how we can translate this to our context.
You might even be sitting here today, and I'm closing in a
moment here. You might be sitting here today
and you have been branded as legalistic, not because you're
legalistic and somebody saying, hey, you're putting more into
the Scriptures that needs to be there.
No, because you love the Bible from family, from friends, from
even other ministers who think you're too rigid with the Word
of God, when in fact it's clear the Bible says this about men
and this about women. You might be in doing even loss
of fellowship and partnership and ministry because of what you
believe in. Because you will not tolerate
compromise no matter how it looks.
Here's what Christ says to you. You will secure a friendship
with me. You will win a friendship with
me. And how appropriate is this
message for us, especially with our cultural climate?
As someone once said, today, compromising tolerance is seen
as a virtue. The more tolerant you are, the
more up to date you are with society and with philosophy and
with ideology. In fact, the same individual
followed it with this disagreement with evil and
ideologies and beliefs and behaviors that are sinful.
Disagreement now is generally understood as phobia.
You're homophobic, you're transphobic, you're
Islamophobic. If you disagree with it, then
you're labeled as crazy or you have an irrational fear.
So what does Jesus say? Label them how you want to label
them. I'm going to give them the
bright morning star. I'm going to give them myself.
You may not have that promotion. You may not get more invitations
to preach at certain places, but you'll have me.
Isn't that the greatest reward? Well, how are we going to answer
people? Say, what did you hear from
Mother's Day at church? I heard about Jezebel.
Let me end it in this way. I find it so heartwarming that
Thyatira is not only mentioned in this context.
There is only one other place in all of the Bible where we find
the name Thyatira. Who knows it?
It's in Acts 16. Let's turn there.
And this is where we'll end. Yes, we've been looking at
Jezebel, but I want to bring to your attention another, another
woman from Thyatira. And this is when Paul and his
missionary team were in Phillip High, and they met a woman named
Lydia. Acts 1613.
Let's read together as we wrap things up.
I may say that a couple more times.
And on the Sabbath day, we went outside.
This is Acts 1613. We went outside the gate to the
Riverside, where we suppose there was a place of prayer, and
we sat down and spoke to the woman who had come together.
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of
Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshipper of
God. The Lord opened her heart to pay
attention to what was said by Paul.
Let's pause here. So Paul's in Philippi, and what
was Paul's strategy whenever he went to a city?
Where's the nearest synagogue where the Jews?
Apparently there weren't many Jews in Philippi because on the
Sabbath they had to meet by the Riverside.
There was no synagogue. And so Paul hears about this.
So he goes. There he goes.
I hope we can find some Jews. And when he arrives with his
team, they encounter a band of women.
And we learned one of their names, Lijia, and she is a
businesswoman. Fact.
This is a little hint that showcases the historical
accuracy of the Bible. She was a seller of purple
goods. Thy Tara manufactured dyes and
purple was the color of royalty. It was very expensive.
So she wasn't just in business. She she was in luxurious
business. She was up there.
And here's what moves me about Lydia.
And this is for all of us here, both men and women who are
ambitious, who are entrepreneurs, who want to make
a living and to be successful at it.
Notice that her business did not corrupt her worship.
Notice that her endeavors, notice that her plans, notice
that her job did not take her away from adoring God.
So she's here in Philippi and she goes, we got to worship God.
It's a Sabbath. So she believed in the God of
Israel. She didn't encounter the truth
of Christ yet, but she is she's a seeker and she wants to honor
the Lord. And so she she hears about a
prayer meeting and she says, you know what, we're going to go to
this prayer meeting. It's amazing how God blesses
obedience, even if your obedience is limited because of
limited revelation. So she comes in and she makes
her way there. And we learned that Paul meets
her. The Lord does a work on her
heart, opens it so that she can hear what Paul has to say.
And notice what happens here at verse 15.
And after she was baptized and her household as well, so we
don't know the exact chronology here, but she's with these band
of women. They meet Paul and his
missionary team. They hear the gospel.
And guess what? She couldn't keep it to herself.
She goes home and tells people about Jesus and they come to
Christ. Now they get baptized.
And it doesn't end there. She urged us, saying, if you
have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and
stay. And she prevailed upon us.
So she showed fruit of true salvation that she wanted to
serve and the way that she can serve with the opportunity
before was to host this missionary team.
She says please, please, please let me be hospitable to you.
What a contrast to Jezebel from Thyatira.
What humility, what grace, what priorities, what devotion to the
Lord. And though it may be true that
there are Jezebel's roaming in our churches and they're
multiplying, and with that there is the tolerance of Jezebel that
is multiplying, there are Lydias in churches as well.
And I stepping back this morning, going over some of
these things, prepared to preach today, was thanking God that
this church is filled with Lydias.
May the Lord protect you as you serve him and honor and with
your life. And May God reproduce Lydias for
his glory. Let's pray.
We've heard your voice today, Lord, and we want to be a church
that accepts the right things and rejects that which you
reject. Protect us from compromise.
We even ask, oh God, that this church would not be a mixed
breed, some who follow you and some who follow strange
teachings, some who pursue holiness and others who don't
care about it. Lord, may we be as a unit, as a
family, one in the same. So even now, Lord, wash over us
these truths with such force that we would all leave here
with a oneness of mind and affection and ambition to be an
uncompromising church in our lives personally and as an
assembly. Protect this pulpit in Jesus
name. Protect our ears.
Help us have discernment when people put things into our hands
or send us links. Help us more than anything else,
devour this word so that we can create that shield in our
hearts. We we know, Lord, we're reminded
how much truth matters to you, because it's your truth.
It's your voice, it's your word, it's your instruction.
We want to honor every part of it.
And even Lord, if there's one person here who might have been
disturbed by what was said, may they have enough integrity to at
least look at the Bible and see what the Bible has to say.
May all personal or human interpretation or opinions be
crushed under the weight of your authority and may we know true
freedom as we abide by your word.
We give you thanks for speaking to our hearts.
Again. In Jesus name we pray, Amen,
Amen, Amen. Church, let's stand, let's give
Jesus Christ all the glory for speaking to our hearts through
this book.