Good morning.
Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Revelation as we continue our study through the book.
We're going to begin around verse 17 with the letter to the church at Thyatira and hopefully get through a number of the other letters throughout our study this morning.
Let's begin with a word of prayer.
Our Lord God and Father of all mankind, we come to you in prayer, mindful of your authority.
of your grandeur, your worthiness, of praise.
We're mindful of the revelation that you have placed in your Word that we might know how to live and how to move and how to have our being.
Lord, we pray that we might seek daily to be obedient to you, to do what is right in your sight.
We know that we sin and we fall short of your glory and we ask that you will forgive us of those things as you have granted us grace through your Son who died on the cross for our
sins that we might have an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
We pray that we might always strive to correct our lives and to become more like your son, that we might be more like you.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.
John writes, verse 18, to the angel of the church in Thyatira, write, these things says the son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass.
As we mentioned already, when the text tells you what something means, you know what it means.
And when the text doesn't tell you what it means, you might have some ideas on what it means.
But if your ideas on what something means contradicts what the text tells you it means, you're wrong.
So how do we know who the individual is who began to speak to John in chapter one and when John heard the voice, he turned and he saw one
who was like the Son of Man, that's a simile, clothed in garment down to his feet, girded about the chest with a golden band, his head and hair were white like wool, as white as
snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire.
How do we know who that is?
Well the answer is chapter 2 verse 18 tells us who it is.
These things says the Son of God.
who is or who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass.
We don't have to make the assumption because of the simile, because of the analogy that he looked like a son of man, he looked like one who was of human descent.
We don't have to assume because of the analogy that it's Christ.
The text tells us in verse 18 that it's Christ.
So when the text tells us what something is, we know what it is.
He says here, these things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass.
Now we didn't discuss this when we were back here, but let's just spend a moment considering what is the picture conveying when you have eyes
like a flame of fire.
Now this is where we're trying to understand the picture.
Text doesn't tell us exactly what eyes like a flame of fire means, it gives us a picture and we're supposed to ask, what does it mean?
So what does fire do?
It burns.
If the fire is burning something that is say metal, what does the fire do?
It melts it, upon melting it, what else will it do?
Will purify it.
Okay, so for the thing that is metal, the thing that is uh a substance that can endure fire, it purifies it.
What does fire do to something that cannot endure the fire?
Consumes it and destroys it.
Now what if the eyes of the one who is the Son of God are like a flame of fire and he's looking at the church?
That is correct.
Then Christ in His inspection, because that's what we do with our eyes, right?
We inspect something.
We're evaluating something.
That's what He's doing with all of these churches.
I see your works.
I see what you're doing that's right, and I am acknowledging those things.
I'm seeing the things you're doing that are wrong, and I'm telling you to repent.
So He is inspecting the church.
And if the church is made up of that which can endure the fire, the church will be purified by his inspection.
If the church is made up of that which cannot endure the fire because they are no longer faithful to the Lord and they're unwilling to repent and change, they will not endure the
fire.
They will not endure the inspection of their Lord.
So the Son of God is starting His inspection with the church.
but all throughout the book there's going to be a process of inspecting.
There's going to be a process of observing what is and is not going to endure the inspection and the work of Christ.
Okay, we'll get into that more as we see the book occur.
But also his feet are like fine brass.
What are your thoughts there?
What if we were to compare the picture here, feet like fine brass, to the picture of the image that Daniel saw in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, or that Daniel uh told Nebuchadnezzar
about, that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his day, what were the feet of that fourth kingdom made of in that vision?
They were of iron mixed with clay.
Now.
If you put the fire to the iron, what's going to happen?
going melt or it's going to become stronger if you work it through a refiners process.
What about the clay?
You can make it hard to a degree, but eventually the fire's going to consume it.
It's going to make it brittle to the point where it just falls apart.
What about the fine brass?
Again, you have a substance that endures the fire, is purified by it, and is a sure foundation.
But this is set in contrast to this fourth kingdom, which doesn't have a sure foundation.
It has one that is going to crumble from the inside out.
Okay?
So in the book, you're going to see the picture.
and the pictures are almost always a comparison.
There's going to be something you're going to see which endures.
You're going to see something else which is judged.
And in the church, you're seeing the same thing.
He says, I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience.
And as for your works, the last are more than the first.
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you.
because you allow that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
Now, one of the things you'll find in the book is Old Testament characters, Old Testament cities, Old Testament objects standing in the place for a current individual, city,
nation, or object.
There was not likely a woman in the church at Thyatira whose name was Jezebel.
But the moment that a New Testament writer uses the name Jezebel, what comes out of that from everyone who knows Old Testament history?
Pure evil.
And yet, unlike the previous church where Jesus says, know you're dwelling where Satan's throne is, I know you're confronted day in and day out by the things that are outside of
the church and are bombarding you with all of these difficulties.
He doesn't say that about Jezebel.
He says,
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants.
Whoever this person is that is described with the picture of Jezebel, this person is inside the church.
This person is a person of influence within the church at Thyatira and they are using that influence to propagate a doctrine of sexual immorality and of allegiance and at least
condoning of the idolatrous worship in Thyatira.
There is a woman who is active within the body of Christ who because of what she taught and what she practices ought to have been put out of the church and instead she's still
there.
If this individual is a prophetess, does that mean that she was getting up in the midst of the congregation and prophesying in a public way before the entire congregation in
worship?
The answer is I would hope not.
Now, if she was, were they already doing something that was wrong?
Yes.
Would we be surprised that she's usurping the authority in the congregation in addition to the things that she's teaching?
Not given the things that she's teaching.
But it's important to notice that there are numerous women in the first century church who are described as prophets or prophetesses who did not take a public role in their
prophecy.
They simply had the miraculous gift of prophecy given by as one of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit by laying on the Apostles hands.
We have Philip
who was a faithful member in the church who had four daughters who were prophets.
Which, by the way, was fulfillment of Joel's prophecy in Joel chapter 2 that through the work that Christ would do with the Holy Spirit and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit,
their young men would see visions and their young women would what?
Prophecy.
That was spoken of in the Old Testament.
It didn't mean that because they had the gift of prophecy,
They had the permission to usurp the authority over God-given roles.
Just because a woman could be a prophet didn't mean she could be an elder.
Just because a woman could speak on behalf of God didn't mean that her role was to do so publicly in the worship assembly.
Okay?
Now, that doesn't mean it didn't happen as clearly could possibly be the case here with this woman.
because she's not only flagrantly abusing her role as a prophetess, she's also teaching that which God would never teach.
Yes.
I think there's certainly a good likelihood in this scenario that that is the case, though you might consider that if that was the case, there might be more that is also needing to
be addressed within the congregation in that regard than just her taking this, her teaching.
So what I would say here is,
no matter the method she's using for teaching, what she is teaching is what is being addressed.
ah And what she is accomplishing by doing this in that she is seducing them.
Now, I think there is some indicator in her method of teaching found in the term seducing.
All right, notice again what the text says.
because you allow that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
The idea is when someone is performing that act of seducing someone, she's not seducing them to commit sexual immorality with her, she's seducing them in her teaching.
And what better way to do that than privately in the background, to do it where others are unaware of what she's doing or at least were at first.
Her influence is what is doing the instructing here, and she is specifically doing so for the purpose of encouraging these people to practice these things and to participate in the
sacrificing to the idols.
By the way, one other point that should be made here is that she calls herself a prophetess.
The text does not say that she is a prophetess, but rather that she calls herself a prophetess.
So you have a number of issues going on within the church at Thyatira that God is saying, you've got to deal with this woman.
And you've got to deal with her because all the works that you're doing, he says, I know your love, your service, your faith.
your patience and your works, he says, twice.
And they're all being nullified by this woman and what you're allowing her to continue doing.
It is important to realize that the book of Revelation makes it incredibly clear.
The same thing that James points out over in James chapter two, and that is when you have kept the law
and yet you're guilty in part?
You're guilty of all.
And Christ is making it clear to the church that if they're unwilling to resolve these problems, He's going to hold them accountable for everything.
Okay?
Now, He says, verse 21, and I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent.
There is a
period of long suffering with the Lord.
There is a time in which God will give us time to repent and then there is a point at which God says, all right, it's time to judge.
It is time to resolve this situation.
He says, indeed, I will cast her into a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds, I will kill her children with
death.
And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts." There's your inspection from the eyes of fire.
I am the one who searches the minds and hearts and I will give to each one of you according to your works.
Christ is making it clear the church has to separate themselves from this woman and from those who follow her.
But he's also making clear he's gonna take care of the woman.
He's going to take care of her children, he's going to, and I believe the idea here of children is her followers.
He's going to take care of those who hold allegiance to her and not to Christ.
He says, verse 24, now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine.
who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden, but hold fast what you have till I come.
And he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations.
He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessel, as I also have received 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." Now in the midst of this condemnation of this woman and this address to
the church,
Christ turns to those who seem to be enduring what's going on around them without in any way, shape, form giving credence to or holding to that which is going on around them.
There are some within the church of Thyatira that they are walking in an upright way and they have no control over what's going on around them.
And Christ says to them, I don't put any other burden on you.
I know what you're going through.
And it is this reminder that Christ as the one who sees and judges the hearts and sees and judges the works also knows the circumstances.
He also recognizes what people are already enduring.
And that gets factored into their judgment.
As he writes to these Christians, he says, I know what you've resisted.
I know what you have decided and determined in your life you absolutely will not participate in, and I'm not laying a greater burden on you.
I think part of this is there are those within the church who know that they are powerless to deal with whatever the influences this woman has and yet they're holding fast
themselves and those around them.
and they're keeping those people that they have influence on faithful.
They just can't fix the problem.
Christ is saying, I'll take care of the problem.
You take care of remaining faithful.
I believe that's part of the idea here.
He says, but hold fast what you have till I come.
This is one of those reminders in the book of Revelation.
You're going to read time.
and time and time again about Christ coming.
And almost exclusively in all the references to the coming of Christ, we are not dealing with the judgment day.
We are not dealing with the final return of Christ.
We are dealing with judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment.
judgment on an immediate person, an immediate scenario, an immediate city, an immediate nation, the judgment of Christ in real time.
So he says to the church that is faithful, he says to the individuals that are faithful, you hold fast until I deal with this woman.
I'm going to judge her.
I'm going to put her into tribulation.
I'm going to deal with her children and her followers.
You stay faithful until I do." That is the coming that is found more often than not.
For instance, when we get to chapter 22, we so often struggle with uh the terminology ah because there's a praying that Christ come quickly.
And sometimes we wonder, should I be praying that Christ comes soon, that His final return be imminent, and yet I have all these people who I know that I'm still trying to work on.
I'm still trying to get them to hear the Gospel and be obedient to it.
I want them to repent.
I want them to be saved.
Why do I want to pray that Christ come quickly while I'm trying to get these people to be obedient to the Gospel?
And so quite often we have this conundrum.
And we have the conundrum because we don't appreciate the context of the term when the text says, come quickly.
The terminology in the context is bring immediate, quick judgment on the persecutors of your church.
That's what coming quickly in the text of Revelation is talking about.
It is the coming of Christ in judgment dealing with the immediate scenario.
So John writes to the church at Thyatira through the inspiration of Christ and says, you hold fast till I come.
You don't move till I deal with this woman.
and her sin that is surrounding you.
He who overcomes and keeps my works until the end." Now, there's the end of their lies.
There's their being faithful.
He says, who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations.
He shall rule them as a rod of iron.
They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessel.
Is there any promise
anywhere in scripture anywhere in the New Testament that individuals who are Christians will rule the world before eternity.
No.
every promise of a position of rule as a Christian, as a faithful servant of Christ comes in an eternal time frame, eternal context.
And so he tells them, you hold fast till I come, I'm going to deal with the temporary scenario.
When you overcome, when you hold fast till the end, I promise that I will deliver you your
powerless now, but you won't be in eternity.
He's promising them the ability to deal with the situation appropriately if they will overcome, if they will hold fast and keep his works.
Then notice as well, he says that he will give them the morning star.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
And to the angel of the church in Sardis, right?
These things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know your works that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
One of the few churches in the list where there's nothing complimentary said at all.
No positive statement for this church.
No address from Christ about the good that they're doing and now they need to repent of the evil that they're doing.
No, Christ begins with, know what your name means.
I know the name that you have means you're alive, but I know the truth, you're dead.
He says, be watchful.
and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die.
For I have not found your works perfect before God.
Remember therefore how you have received and heard, hold fast and repent.
Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief and you will not know what hour I will come upon you."
You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments.
And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." As he writes to the church in Sardis,
He writes to this congregation and he says, know your works and you are dead.
Now does that mean they're not doing anything?
Does that mean that they have no act, you know, they don't show up for worship, they don't assemble?
Does it mean that?
Or does it mean that spiritually, because of their willingness to participate in sin, that all that they do
is evil in the eyes of God.
I don't know because the text doesn't tell us.
But what we do know, what we do understand about this church is there is no redeeming factor except for
some small group within the church that Christ says, there's those within you who are in a right relationship with me, and if they're faithful, I'll reward them, but you're done if
you don't repent.
Now, even with this church that Jesus describes as dead, He describes the ability for them to do what?
to repent, what do they have to go back to?
Verse 3 begins with the word remember.
All right.
What did they receive?
What did they hear back there in their past?
the truth, the Gospel.
And John is telling them, Christ is telling them, if you will go back to what you received, if you will go back to what you heard in the beginning and you will do those
things, you will once again be made alive.
it is worth pointing out that it is not just the preachers of the restoration movement that would preach to churches that they needed to go back and do what was originally
taught in the Scriptures.
That what they needed to go back and do what was originally taught by the apostles and prophets of the New Testament.
And that when they would do that, when a church would go back and do what
The text actually says they would once again be in a right relationship with God.
It wasn't just the restoration preachers that taught that.
John was writing that before you got out of the first century.
There's no question that the idea of restoring the New Testament church to that which was given by God is a proper and right mindset because John was having to do it before he got
out of the first century.
and the solution wasn't to become more like the world.
It wasn't to become more like churches that had gone off from the truth.
It wasn't to add more things into the text.
It wasn't to depart further into the doctrines of men.
It was to shove all those things aside and go back to what they had heard and received at the beginning.
Fact of the matter is that if we as a congregation, if those who call themselves the churches of Christ, if we as the body of Christ decide that we would prefer to have man's
doctrine than God's, we will still exist on the physical planet, but we will be dead to God.
the difference between many denominations, who those within that group have spent their entire lives in false doctrine, who have never actually entered into the body of Christ
because they've never accepted the doctrine of Christ.
The difference between them and the Church of Sardis is the Church of Sardis at least had been taught the truth in the beginning.
What they had received in the beginning.
was the truth, then they departed from it.
They left the truth.
Those in denominations today have never actually obeyed the truth.
It's not that they left what they knew to be true and departed into the doctrines of men.
For generations they've never taught what was true.
There's the difference.
But consider this.
You turn over to Galatians chapter one.
in the same region around these churches that John is writing to.
You have Paul who worked in these regions, who taught and started some of these congregations.
writing to the churches of Galatia, which is a region, it's multiple cities, multiple churches.
And he writes in chapter 1 verse 6, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel.
which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." Paul, as he is writing back to these churches that
he has already been at, that he has already taught, that they have already received the gospel, he says, I am astounded.
how quickly you have given up what you were taught at the beginning to chase after all this other stuff.
It is sad and it is unfortunate that many congregations that are planted, many mission works that are participated in, are birthed and come about and just almost right from day
one start departing from the truth.
the people who helped them get started, the people who taught them initially taught them the truth and somebody else's influence came in and just swept them aside.
And by the way, that's what Paul says is going on in the Church's Galatia.
says, this isn't what you learned from me.
This isn't what I taught you.
He said, I don't care if an angel shows up and teaches you something other than what I taught you.
Let them be accursed.
You hold fast to the truth.
And the church in Sardis is one who apparently had been swept up in just such things.
So much so that Christ says, you're dead.
Consider as well that to adhere to false doctrine because clearly what is going on in the church of Sardis was a doctrine problem.
Because if they could go back, if they could fix the problem by going back to the doctrine they had received in the beginning,
it tells you it's a doctrine problem.
Whatever the doctrinal problem was, he says there are some of you who have not defiled your garments.
It teaches us that when we adhere to false doctrine, we are defiling our holiness before God.
Some people have a mindset, well, real sin that can condemn a Christian is just when they participate in that which is evil, when they participate in immoral activity.
That's what condemns a person.
Christ says, no.
No, you can be condemned by participating in immoral doctrine, by participating in lies and defiling yourself with man-made doctrine instead of the Word of God.
we need to be careful that we understand that there are those who will ruin their relationship with God.
Not through gross immorality in the physical or fleshly sense, but with doctrine that is in opposition to God.
But he says, he who overcomes, you notice that overcoming?
Every time you're seeing that overcoming,
we're dealing with and we're about to get into language which God has in promissory language.
In other words, He's going to say there's something you're going to have to overcome and there's something on the other side.
Remember, John is writing to these Christians before they go into the tribulation, before they go into the hardship.
before they go into the persecution.
That's going to be important for us to really grasp and understand when the book is being written because it's being written not in the height of the persecution, not as the
persecution is getting its footing and taking off.
No, it's being written before the persecution.
It's one of the reasons why, by the way,
that it doesn't make sense for the book to be written, as some suggest, in the AD 60s in the midst of the Jewish persecution of the church.
Because if this were about the Jewish persecution of the church, because some suggest that Revelation was written around AD 68, right before the fall of Jerusalem, and that it's all
focused on Jerusalem and the fall of Jerusalem and the persecution of the Jews,
against the church.
The reason that doesn't make sense is because the Jews' persecution begins in the 8050s and it escalates, escalates, escalates, escalates, escalates all the way up to the fall of
Jerusalem.
Everywhere Paul went, who followed him?
Jews who were trying to get him thrown out of cities all over the region of Asia Minor.
Jews who were those who were imprisoning and did imprison Paul and tried to kill him multiple times after he was in prison in Jerusalem.
Jews.
Their persecution wasn't upcoming, it wasn't in the future, it was already active.
If the book was written in AD 68.
All the text, all the comments, excluding a few, where in the letters, John Reisman says, I know what you're going through right now, and I'm preparing you for what's to come.
All of its future, all of its looking ahead.
And yet, John says over and over and over, it's about to come to pass.
So he's telling them in the text, you are in the calm before the storm.
And when you are faithful through the storm, when you overcome what is going to come against you,
I'll be there on the other side ready to reward your faithfulness.
And yet, in the text, by the way, almost exclusively, not every time, but in the text, almost exclusively, when the picture is used of them overcoming...
it's their eternal reward that's being discussed on the other side, which means many of them, the cost of overcoming will be their life.
it will be their sacrifice of their own lives to overcome and be faithful because the reward is waiting in eternity.
We need to be reminded as we look at this book that the hardships that we face often pale in comparison to the hardships of the church in the first century that John is writing to
in Rome.
Sometimes I am reminded
what the Hebrew writer tells the church in Hebrews chapter 10.
did you do it's not extra stuff the passage i'm thinking of chapter twelve on the other side of chapter lehman he was chapter twelve verse three for consider him who endured such
hostility from center speaking of christ against himself let you become weary and discouraged in your souls you have not yet resisted the bloodshed striving against it
and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons, my son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him, for
whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?" The Hebrew writer is writing to the Christians in his day,
as they are in the midst of the Jewish persecution because they are facing Jewish persecution and they're going, know what, if we just went back to Moses all persecution
would stop.
If we just gave up on Christ and we went back and kept the law, all persecution would go away.
But the Hebrew writer says you haven't even endured to blood yet.
You...
might have striven against sin, but not to the point where it's cost you any blood, and yet you need to be looking at Christ who was crucified for you and ask, what did he
sacrifice to strive against sin?
He says, you're enduring some chastening right now from the Lord, but that's to be expected as a son of a father.
Now, thank you for your attention and we'll pick up.
here in the midst of chapter three next week.