Revelation 2:18-29 - Jesus’ letter to the Church at Thyatira. Sunday 17th June 2007 10.30 Bill Humphries
In line with the theme for our service, this mornings message is entitled ‘Avoid Pollution’. The two main points that I am hoping focus on are:
With regard to why we should avoid pollution, I want us to begin by reminding ourselves of the holiness and the absolute authority of the one who is speaking here.
Obviously grasping with the confines of language, this is how the apostle John describe the appearance of the risen and exalted Christ in the first chapter of Revelation.
John said, “When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. And standing in the middle of the lampstands was the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash
across his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were bright like flaming fire. His feet were as bright as bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two edged sword came from his mouth”.
John also said, “And his face was as bright as the sun in all its brilliance.”
Paul, in the Book of Acts, also speaks of brilliant light as he met with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus…
In that part of the Middle East, the noon-day sun is exceptionally bright.
Yet Paul describes the brilliance of the light of the risen Jesus as being even brighter than the noon-day sun.
As we scroll through the Bible, in many passages of Scripture we come across the term, “The Day of the Lord.”
The term ‘The Day of the Lord,’ is a sort of Bible shorthand for the last day of this world’s existence as we know it….
…It is the day that the risen Christ will return and bring in God’s Kingdom upon earth in all of its fullness of glory.
On that ‘Day of the Lord,’…… that day that Jesus returns in glory, different passages in the Bible describe the sun and the moon growing dark…..
.. They speak of no light coming from them and of the stars no longer shining.
And one particular passage of Scripture, namely Isaiah 24:23, gives us a clear understanding why so many passages speak of the sun no longer giving out any light.
A reading of Isaiah 23:24 leads us to understand why Paul was blinded by the brilliance of the presence of Jesus on the Damascus Road….. and to understand John’s description of Jesus’ face being as bright as the sun in all its brilliance.”
And I think that Jesus may have turned down the brilliance a few degrees so as not to overwhelm his beloved disciple because (speaking of the day that Jesus returns)….
.. Isaiah states, “There will be such glory that the brightness of the sun and moon will seem to fade away.”
We have a light in our back garden. It is very useful because when we put it on at night it lights up the whole garden for us…….
…. However, if I was to inadvertently turn it on in the middle of the day, I would not even notice because the light that it gave out would be totally overshadowed by the greater light given out by the sun.
On the day that God splits apart the veil between heaven and earth and all eyes see the risen Christ in all the glory of the Holy Trinity, the light of the glory that will shine upon this earth will reduce the sun to the equivalent of my back garden light.
The sun will still be shining in the sky, but so brilliant will be the light of the glory of Jesus, that it will be overshadowed and dull by comparison.
Isaiah 60:19 No longer will you need the sun or moon to give you light, for the Lord your God will be your everlasting light, and he will be your glory.
I can think of no one in living history enjoyed a more personal relationship with Jesus than the apostle John.
For the three plus years of Jesus’ earthly ministry, John had always been at his side. He knew a deep personal relationship with Jesus…..
….. He had eaten with him, drank with him, laughed with him and cried with him. He was the one disciple who did not desert Jesus when all the others had fled……. Even though it was dangerous to be associated with anyone crucified, standing along side the women who had refused to abandon Jesus was John.
In fact, such was John’s relationship with Jesus, that from the cross, Jesus had entrusted his mother Mary to John’s care, ahead of even Mary’s other sons, his own brothers
So what was John’s reaction when, as he states he turned to see who was speaking to him? ……Did he run to embrace his risen Saviour? ……Did he perhaps kneel in adoration and worship before him?
What he actual did, he describes in his own words, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.”.
When Duncan preached on this a few weeks ago, he made a point that for Jesus to lay his right hand upon the prostrate John…. which he immediately did … he would have had to stoop down to do so.
Although glorious in his holiness our Lord Jesus is still our gentle saviour.
The reason why John, this elderly beloved apostle, who had lived a lifetime of communion with his friend and Saviour was now unable to stand in his presence is because during the time he was with Jesus during his earthly ministry, Jesus’ glory had been veiled…. Now it is unveiled.
During his earthly ministry, although Jesus never ceased to be the second person of the Holy Trinity, in humbling himself by becoming human, the brilliance of his glory had been veiled……
….. If it had not been no one would have been able to stand in his presence and rather than opening blind eyes, the brilliance of his presence, just as it did with Paul on the Damascus Road, would have had the opposite effect.
In addition to that, no one would have come close to him and lived. Hebrews 12:29 states that our God is a consuming fire…
…... So turn around a corner in Jerusalem 2000 years ago and bump into Jesus without his glory being veiled and that would have been an experience that would have been……. Spontaneous human combustion would have been the talk on everyone’s lips.
When Jesus entered this world 2000 years ago, it was in human weakness and humility as a helpless baby… That is not how he is coming back……
…..The Bibles description of Jesus’ first coming as the Lord’s suffering servant who was wounded and crushed for our sins….. when compared to the vivid descriptions of ‘Day of the Lord’ make it abundantly clear that at his Second coming, Jesus will not be returning as a lamb set for sacrifice.
But as a mighty warrior to destroy all that is in opposition to God….. Scripture describes him as the one who will tread the winepress of the fierce wrath of Almighty God.
And this time his glory as the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords will not be veiled.
Jesus begins each of the letters to the seven churches with an introduction in which he exerts something of the authority in which he writes to them.
And he begins the letter to the church in Thyatira with the words, “This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are bright like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze.
Thyatira was famed for its bronze and brassware. Metals associated with military hardware and weapons. Christ is thus depicted as a conquering warrior.
Verse 27 of our reading is a direct quote from Psalm 2:9 which are the words of God the Father to God the Son:
“I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the ends of the earth as your possession. You will break them with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots.”
For those in rebellion against God, the Bible speaks of the great and terrible Day of the Lord (Joel 3:31)
But for those in Christ the day of the Lord will be a glorious day. Going back to Isaiah 24:23, we read -
Then the Lord Almighty will mount his throne on Mount Zion. He will rule gloriously in Jerusalem in sight of all the leaders of his people.
This is the risen and exalted Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of the living God, who single handed defeated all the powers of darkness, returning in glory for his people.
Returning to remove all of their sorrows, and wipe away all their tears……..To be their shepherd and lead them to the springs of life giving water……. He will live among them, shelter and protect them.
Against this mightiest of all warriors, no power in heaven or earth will stand…. He has come to claim his bride and woe betide anyone or anything that stands in his way.
Revelation 19:12 makes it clear that in addition to what is revealed to us in the Bible, there are also facets to the glory of Christ that are totally unknown to us.
The glory and holiness of Jesus Christ is un-graspable to our human mind or understanding. It is beyond anything that our emotions or logic can attain to.
Such is the holiness and authority of our risen Saviour.
The bright morning star that Jesus states in verse 28 of our reading, that he will give to all who are victorious and obey him until the end, is himself.
The bride that Jesus is coming back for is the Christian Church.
Such is the reason why we should avoid pollution.
Jesus expects the church to be a holy church, faithfully witnessing to his kingdom authority.
As a living body the church must continually grow and move forward, if it does not it will stagnate and regress backward.
In verse 19 of our reading Jesus commends the church at Thyatira for its constant improvement in their works, their love, their faith, their service to others and also their patient endurance.
And his words also address us today of our need to press on in constant improvement in our works, our love, our faith, our service to others and also our patient endurance.
However, not all at Thyatira were patiently enduring. Nor were they faithfully witnessing to his kingdom authority, because Jesus said, “I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman – that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet – to lead my servants astray. She is encouraging them to worship idols, eat food offered to idols and commit sexual sin.”
In an obvious analogy to the wife of Ahab who perverted true worship in Israel, Jesus’ describes her as a Jezebel of a woman because her relaxation of the teaching of Christ and the apostles in order to avoid persecution compromises the witness of the church…… and encourages others within the church to do the same.
It is quite probable that she held a position of financial power and was someone looked up to in the community in order to be in a position within the church at Thyatira from which she could lead others astray.
Basically what we have in Thyatira is the first century equivalent of the trade union closed shop.
To carry on in trade you had to belong to the guild for that particular trade. Membership was absolutely compulsory.
Members of the trade guild were expected to participate in its religious feasts…..And honour the guilds deity.
…..This would include eating food offered to the god of the guild and also becoming involved in the immoral sexual indulgences associated with the feasts.
Non-participation would incur ridicule, persecution and exclusion from the guild…. and with exclusion would come the loss of livelihood.
Jezebel’s answer to the problem was to carry on as they did before they became Christians, to say that there is no harm in it all really. You can be a Christian and still indulge in all these things.
The reference to deeper truths of Satan is probably part of the gnostic deception that the flesh is evil anyway, so therefore as long as your heart is right, there is no harm in complying with the guild practices.
We can liken that today with the excusing of what we know is wrong by saying “The Lord knows my heart… Regardless of what I do, he knows that in my heart I truly love him.”
In verse 23 of our reading, Jesus describes himself as the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person…..
However, nowhere in these letters does he say, “I can see that your heart for me is in the right place.”…..
……. In not one of the seven letters to the churches does Jesus say, “I know your heart.”
What he does say is …“I know your works…. I know all the things you do.”
Please hear me as I say that we are saved by faith in Christ, not by good works……
If we could be saved by good works it would have been totally unnecessary for Christ to have died on the cross…….We cannot earn our salvation, it is by grace alone. Let me make that point very clear.
However, I cannot help but feel that in many ways the fact that we are saved by grace alone has been so greatly expounded in order to counter the idea of salvation by works…….
…That it has been somewhat overlooked that deeds or works are in reality the credentials of true believers.
Jesus does not overlook the fact that works are the credentials of true believers.
James 2:26 states, “Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.”
All of our good works and all of the good fruit produced through those works, is our response to God’s love and faithfulness to us.
Coming back to our reading, it is indeed a severe warning that Jesus gives to this woman whom he refers to as Jezebel and also those who follow her perverted teaching……
…..He had given her warning and been patient in giving plenty of time to repent but she had refused to turn from her immorality….
…... So now he will throw her on a sick bed and she will suffer greatly, as indeed will those who follow her ways. They will become an example for the other churches.
2nd Peter 3:9 states that the Lord does not want anyone to perish so he gives time for them to repent….. But he will not be mocked and there will come a day when his patience will come to an end.
Although commended by Jesus for a good many good Christian graces, the church at Thyatira was lacking in holiness…
….. Take holiness away from any church and the vacuum will immediately filled by its opposite, pollution.
In a nutshell the message of Jesus to the church at Thyatira is….‘Be Holy as I am Holy’.
Jesus’ warning to the church at Ephesus that he would remove its lampstand from its place among the churches, was not a warning for Ephesus alone.
Today the church at Thyatira has gone and the population of the modern city of Akhisar, which stands on its site are oblivious to the church that once thrived there.
The message of Jesus to the church here at St John’s…..
and every other church that confesses Christ as Lord is still the same… ‘Be Holy as I am Holy’.
To avoid pollution is the pre-requisite of Holiness.
One way to do that is to be like the three wise monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil and therefore, speak no evil…
…. But that is not what Jesus has called us to do.
He has called us not only to take the Gospel into all the world, but to also live the Gospel in the world, and we cannot do that in seclusion.
Paul in Ephesians 5:15 tells us, “So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise.”
So where do we find the wisdom to be in the world, but not of the world…… The wisdom to take the light of Christ into the darkness of this world… Without being polluted by the darkness of this world.
Proverbs 9:10 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom………
Psalm 111:10 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.
And just in case we think that fear of the Lord is simply an Old Testament concept that does not apply to New Testament believers….
..Hear these words of Jesus from Luke 12:4-5:
“Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill the body; they cannot do any more to you. But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill people and then throw them into hell.”
When Isaiah prophecies about the coming Messiah he says that: ‘The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him…. and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.’ (Isa 11:2-3)
Can we fully comprehend that? Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God delighted in the fear of the Lord.
Acts 9:31 – Speaks of the believers walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
And this verse came to mind when I read the following article by John Coles, the director of New Wine, writing in the May edition of the New Wine magazine. This is what John says:
“Sometimes Christians lack depth in their relationship with God. When trouble or sickness comes their way they are quick to complain against or question God.
The secret of a faith that perseveres lifelong, and that sustains us in every circumstance of life is based on a continuous ‘fear of the Lord’, daily seeking his face and daily seeking to obey him.
This is not an alternative to a ‘Spirit-filled life’; it is in fact the fullest sort of Spirit-filled life, both for individuals and churches.”
There was an American evangelist a few years back who had a very big television ministry….
….. Suddenly, at the height of his popularity all sorts of wrongdoing came to light, to the extent that after a very public trial that broke the hearts of many who had supported his ministry and brought the whole concept of television evangelism into disrepute, he was sent to prison.
He was shunned by most of his peers, but one who did go to visit him in prison asked him this question, “When did you stop loving the Lord?” ……..
Do you know what his reply was? “I never stopped loving him. What I did was to stop fearing him.”
He said he felt he had such a personal and close relationship with Jesus, that they were such good friends, that he would overlook the occasional little indiscretion….
…….After all Jesus would know that his heart was in the right place and surely that was all that mattered.
……. Familiarity without fear had bred contempt to the extent that the Jesus that he thought he knew so well was in reality a Jesus that he had created in the likeness of his own perceptions. A cuddly, user friendly Jesus, rather than a holy Jesus.
Let me ask a question; is Jesus your friend? ….
…The answer is yes! He is the most loyal and true friend you will ever have.
Now let me turn that question around; does Jesus consider you to be his friend?...
…Jesus’ answer to that question is found in John 15:14 -“You are my friend if you do what I command you.”
He says that if we obey him he will no longer consider us to be servants, but friends that he will confide in.
We have talked a lot about the ‘Fear of the Lord’, so let’s finish by asking, what is the ‘Fear of the Lord.’
The response from most Christians is that the fear of the Lord, is not really fear as such, but a reverence and awe for God.
And the words that our Bibles translate from both the Hebrew and Greek certainly imply both a deep reverence and awe…..
… But that does not negate that fact that they also translate fear.
In fact Psalm 2:11 does not tell us to, “Serve the Lord with reverence”....
…. It tells us to “Serve the Lord with reverent fear and rejoice with trembling.”
Bur for those in Christ this is not fear of the prospect of punishment. There is no condemnation for those in Christ.
For those in Christ, Fear of the Lord is not a fear that causes anxiety or doubt. It is not a fear that causes us to withdraw or hide from God, rather it a fear that causes us to draw ever closer to God, knowing our need for him and our dependence upon him.
It is also a fear not to grieve or disappoint him.
Think of someone that you truly love. Perhaps a husband or wife, son or daughter, or grandchild. How would you feel if you caused them hurt or pain? Would you not find even the concept of such an idea fearful to the extreme?
When we truly love Jesus, we are not afraid of what that Jesus may do to us, we are afraid of what we may do to that Jesus.
He will never hurt us, but we can hurt him
True Godly fear is not fear that we may be punished by God. True Godly fear is that we may wound the heart of God.
We se this exemplified in the words of David, when after he had sinned with Bathsheba he poured out his heart to God in Psalm 51.
He said, “Against you and you alone have I sinned; I have done evil in your sight. Purify me, cleanse me..
……….. Create in me a clean heart O God Renew a right spirit within me. ……Do not banish me from your presence and don’t take your Holy Spirit away from me”
David’s fear was not God’s punishment, his fear was that he had marred his relationship with God. That he had broken God’s heart by his actions.
In our reading Jesus’ eyes are described as bright as flames of fire, because of the passion and the love that he has for those he came to save.
My fear is hurting him. He has already been crucified for me and I cannot bear the thought of causing him any more pain.
The only way I can overcome the fear of causing him anymore pain, is to give my all to him just as he gave all for me.
And as one created in the image of God who is love, to reflect that love back to God, through Christ.
When Jesus stated that you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind and all of your strength, I don’t believe he was giving a commandment because love cannot be commanded. I believe he was prophesying of the love for God that the Holy Spirit would bring into the hearts of all those who would embrace him as Lord.
To actually love Jesus more than our own loved ones, and why not, because it is only in Jesus that they will have what we want most for them, eternal life in all of its fullness and abundance.
By delighting in the Fear of the Lord, just how Isaiah had prophesied that Jesus would, we can overcome the fear of causing him any more pain by avoiding all worldly pollution through living everyday in humble obedience with our Saviour, our friend, our Lord and our God.
I will close with the final verse from Jesus’ letter to the church at Thyatira, “Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the spirit is saying to the churches..