Tuesday: Thyatira and Sardis
Read Revelation 2:18-3:6. What are some of the issues going on in these churches, and in what ways are we, as a church and as individuals, struggling with the same things? How is the great controversy revealed in these struggles?
The introduction of Jesus to the church at Thyatira (Rev. 2:18) reveals an increasingly trying and perplexing time for the people of God. The metaphors of fiery eyes and feet of polished brass or bronze not only appear in Revelation 1:14-15 but are also found originally in Daniel 10:1-21, where Daniel sees One whose eyes are like “torches of fire” and His feet “like burnished bronze” (Dan. 10:6, NKJV).
Image © Review & Herald Publishing from GoodSalt.com
Later at the end of time, Christ will arise and rescue His people. When the situation is darkest for God’s people, God Himself will directly step in to deliver those whose names are found written in the book of life (Dan. 12:1).
Jesus is introduced similarly to the church in Sardis, as the One who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars (Rev. 3:1, Rev. 5:6). Here again is a Savior who is both actively involved behind the scenes and enlisting the powers of heaven to ensure the safety of His church.
The description of these two churches is of deep concern. In Thyatira, although things are improving (Rev. 2:19), they have been like Israel at the time of Queen Jezebel. Similarly, in Sardis, the people are spiritually dead (Rev. 3:1).
Despite all these issues, Jesus encourages the churches. He acknowledges many in Thyatira “‘who have not known the depths of Satan'” and encourages them to “‘hold fast… till I come'” (Rev. 2:24-25, NKJV). There are also “a few” in Sardis “who have not defiled their garments” (Rev. 3:4, NKJV).
It is to these faithful ones that Jesus promises special blessing. He promises to give Thyatira the “morning star” (Rev. 2:28), which He later identifies as Himself (Rev. 22:16), and to Sardis He promises an assured place in heaven and that He will confess their names “before My Father and before His angels” (Rev. 3:5, NKJV).
| “Hold fast and repent.” What do you have to hold fast to, and what do you need to repent of? How are these two ideas powerfully related to each other? |
(26)
This is the time now that we cling to God more, cling to His promises and believe what is the truth. Share the truth of the gospel to our family, to our friends and to our community. We should repent our sins dally to God to help us in our challenges and temptation. Submit to God and resist the devil.
I love these two chapters of the Revelation and I love this week's lessons. I have always had a soft spot for the church at Sardis, mostly because it is in the same class as Laodicea: The True Witness doesn't have a lot of positive material to work with in these two churches.
There is always room for disagreement, but I think that, out of all seven churches, these two are initially in the worst shape. But the good news for both of them is awesome!
I love imagining prophet John taking in all of this and frantically trying to get it all written out. I am sure the Holy Spirit had a lot to do with the finished product, in more ways than one. 🙂
Over the decades as a member, I have heard the SDA church called Laodicea so many times that it makes me angry. It has become a brow beating label. Why is there a call, by leadership, for revival? Because the church is dead like Sardis. The main issue about Laodicea is that they are deceived. ("thou sayest"). Most in Christianity are Laodicean because they are blind from not having spiritual perception to see error from Satan who is transformed into an angel of light. The spiritual perception comes from the Holy Spirit using the bible to detect error. Spiritual perception also comes from singleness of purpose. There are statistics that reveal that 90% of churchgoers have never read their bible once in their life.
2 Cor 11:14-15 Satan's ministers preach righteousness. Those who have the eyesalve detect the warped righteousness in Christianity that emphasizes, vicarious, substitutionary, imputed righteousness and neglects the imparted righteousness that makes one fit for eternal life. Unless one truly understands what salvation means they are blind. And those who are blind are also naked and are not wearing the robe of Christ' righteousness.
The issues are falsehood vs the Truth. Since “thou shalt not surely die!” was spoken, this has been the constant struggle on earth between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. While we wrestle not against flesh and blood, yet it is through other people that these issues are brought in this controversy. It will end only when Jesus appears for the salvation of His faithful servants.
"Hold fast and repent." What do you have to hold fast to, and what do you need to repent of? How are these two ideas powerfully related to each other?
We are sinners, and God has given Truth to “reprove, correct, and instruct in righteousness”.
Again we are met with the phrase "I know thy works" as with the other churches. The church at Thyatira was commended for their works and charity.
Jesus affirms the church in 4 ways:-
1. Love - Of the 7 churches, Thyatira is the only one singled out for their love.
2. Faith - (Hebrews 11:1)
3. Service
4. Perseverance
After giving out four straight A+ grades, Jesus includes a progress report that reads: “your deeds of late are greater than at first.” The church had been growing in her strengths. This is an excellent character; when others had left their first love, and lost their first zeal, these were growing wiser and better. It should be the ambition and earnest desire of all Christians that their last works may be their best works, that they may be better and better every day, and best at last. Most likely these deeds are greater both quantitatively and qualitatively. Unlike Ephesus who had left their first love, this church was doing more now than at the beginning of their walk. The first of the seven churches was seen as weakening its love yet it was faithful to judge false teachers, while the church at Thyatira was growing in love, and tolerant of false teachers. Both extremes must be avoided. There must be proper balance to our teaching. Unloving orthodoxy and loving compromise are both hateful to God. There is a tremendous lesson to be learnt here. We can be zealous and orthodox like Ephesus and at the same time lose our love for Christ. Or like Thyatira grieve the Lord because of our tolerance.
Ephesus was strong in doctrine but weak in love. Thyatira was strong in love but weak in doctrine. It’s common for churches to be polarized in one of these two extremes. Either they will have full heads and empty hearts, or full hearts and empty minds. Either polarization is deadly. Balance is the key in any church. God demands both love and sound doctrine (1 Timothy 1:5). Doctrine and love are like the two chemical ingredients of salt. Interestingly, salt is composed of two poisons: sodium and chloride. If we ingest one without the other we would die. But if we combine them together properly we have sodium chloride which is common table salt. It gives flavor to food and life and health to our bodies. So too, doctrine and love must be bound together. One without the other leads to a deadly imbalance. Separately they can be deadly. But combined they provide health to the body of Christ. The church at Thyatira had gotten out of balance. They had all love but no doctrine. The result was devastating.
Jesus rebukes Thyatira for "suffering" Jezebel. That word suffering actually means "putting up with". Jesus was angry that these believers tolerated false teaching and sinful behavior rather than confronting and condemning it. So Jesus is accusing Thyatira for putting up with Jezebel and her teachings .The name "Jezebel" immediately conjure up negative images in the reader's mind. Whether or not this is her actual name is debatable, but what is clear is that she is following in the footsteps of the historical figure Jezebel. Again the reader needs some knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures, in order to see the correlation and significance of Jesus' rebuke. Jezebel's husband (Ahab) never restrained her in all of her evil works, and he committed a great abomination when he married this worshiper of Baal (I Kings 16:31). These two (Jezebel/Ahab) left a real black eye on the history of Israel. It is not insignificant that the Old Testament Jezebel persecuted the true prophets of God in her day and promoted idol worship. We see that the Jezebel of Revelation is following this same pattern: Jesus says that this Jezebel “calls herself a prophetess and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (Rev 2:20). This Jezebel called herself a prophetess but she did not serve the Lord. Instead, she misled believers—not by seducing them herself but “by her teaching.” This could mean that she openly taught that free sex and idolatry was okay, but I doubt it. Even most nominal (so - called) Christians wouldn’t tolerate that. It is more likely that her teaching was imbalanced and distorted to the point that her listeners were subtly enticed to engage in such behavior. This Jezebelian woman must have been persuasive, charismatic, and maybe even attractive because she was able to lead Jesus’ own “bond-servants” into a religion that was essentially a combination of idol worship and orgies. Most of us can hardly imagine worship and open sexual perversion together. What God has called an abomination in His Word, many, even in the religious community, are now calling normal and holy. That was apparently happening in the church at Thyatira as well. This is why Christians should always be on guard and search the scriptures for themselves. Just because someone has a dynamic personality and a slick /polished presentation, does not guarantee that they are preaching truth.
It goes without saying that Jesus didn’t appreciate this. So He declared, “I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality” (Rev 2:21). We must note that Jesus “gave her time to repent.” It’s not clear how or when this opportunity for repentance came, but it indicates an important biblical principle: the Lord’s judgments are not hasty, He gives time for repentance. But that time is limited. Unfortunately in this case, this woman refused to repent. She hardened her heart. She became like a runaway truck going down a mountain hard to stop. If ever there was a picture of the grace of God...this is it! Here we have a woman who is openly doing things that God hates and has a place of prominence. She is obviously not only deceived herself, but she is causing others to stumble. And yet in all of this, we see the mercies of God and his long-suffering nature and patience. Only God knows how long the "space" of repentance is for any given person. We need to repent and respond immediately when we feel the conviction over our sins.
Tambu, is it not likely that Jezebel was a symbolic name? The original Jezebel was a priestess of Baal who introduced Baal worship into Israel.
Thus I tend to see Jezebel as being symbolic of the introduction of pagan teachings and practices into the Christian church.
Reacting to the question of Tuesday, what do we have to hold fast to, and what do we need to repent of? The call is hold fast to what you have till Jesus comes back. The gospel and the doctrine we have are what we need to hold fast to and remember you cannot repent without sinning, therefore we need to confess and repent from our sin God will stand with us till the end