Lesson Four

1. Background of Thyatira (2:18-29)

- Least of importance of seven cities to the Roman world

- Commercial town

- Lots of trade routes because the city was know for its trade guilds (what we call secret societies, lodge, fraternities etc today)

- Trades consist of shoemaker, clothes dyes, bronze smith, etc

- These guilds functioned for the military

- These guilds were the centre of social and religious life.

- Each guild had its own goddess or god and there were frequent feasts

- These guilds increased pressure on Christians to participate in idolatrous life of the city. To refuse to participate meant loss of goodwill and business

2. Strengths

- Jesus identifies 4 good deeds: love, faith, service, service, and endurance

- This describes that the church was a caring church, looking out for the needs of each other and the community

3. Weaknesses

- The church tolerated a false teacher = code name is "Jezebel" of a woman leader who called herself a prophet (who had a direct message from God).

- Read about Jezebel in 1 Kings 16:31-34; 21:25-26; 2 Kings 9:22

- Jezebel in Old Testament had 900 false prophets (1 Kings 18:19. She was the Phoenician wife of Ahab who led the northern kingdom of Israel into Baal worship and sorcery.

- When Christians refused to participate in guilds, they would lose their jobs. So this Jezebel leader(s) possibly would teach that there was nothing wrong with a Christian taking part in these guild feast and celebration.

- The church chooses not to address this issue so as not to ruffle feathers. These false teachings were allowing the people to keep their jobs. It helps the church attain more money in this way. This would also help the church grow in numbers, welcoming the majority who lived in the city with pagan practices.

4. Relevance for today

- We as a church must not tolerate false teaching

- We not seek to be so nice to people that we are not willing to confront the elephant in the room.

- But God was not pleased with the church. Read 1 Corinthians 10:14-22. It shows that it gets God angry when his people eat for the table of the Lord and from the table of demons.

- We are to beware of not to comprise the timeless principles of Scripture to accommodate the masses.

- Being good humanitarians is not all it is to be good Christians; we also need to be holy, set apart for God.

- Leadership plays a key role in protecting and warning the Christians from false teachings. They must take precaution of who they put in leadership. People must be thoroughly tested before being set forth to teach the church.

- There are Jezebels in every church. These are people who look to manipulate and rebel against leadership for their own gains. The scripture says that rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft. They always see to undermine the work of God in the church, teaching things that are contrary to the Word of God.

- Also at no time are we to turn a blind eye to Jezebels. Many do so as to not ruffle feathers. Many are intimidated by Jezebels because of the great influence they have and the great threats they bark. Jezebel in the OT was powerful enough to send the great Elisha into depression. But no matter the cost, when we see Jezebels in the church, we need to take action.

- Matthew 18:15-20 tells who to do that in a biblical way.

5. Jesus’ Response

a. Jesus holds the church responsible if false teachers in the church deceive people. The Church has the power to resist Jezebel satanic forces that try to make its way into the church.

b. A Jezebel spirit is a person or group has found a way to have great influence in a church, while at the same time undermining the divine leadership of the church. They use their claim to spiritual authority saying, “The Lord told me.” And at times will use this claim to speak against sound doctrine, blaming teachers for being too limited in their thinking. They Jezebel spirit appeals to the carnal appetites of people and care little for the spiritual minded of a believer. Read Romans 8:6-11.

c. Jesus response to the church was in the form of two judgments. The first judgment was toward two groups in the church: Jezebel false teachers and their children (their followers). These two unrepentant groups, Jesus said they would receive his punishment of pain, illness and death. The seconded judgment was in the form of a warning to the third group: spiritual adulterers. These were the people who didn’t believe in the Jezebel teachings but used these teachings as an opportunity to indulge in fleshly sinful pleasures. Christ calls them to repentance or face the same fate as the first two groups in the church.

d. Jesus uses the sword not against Satan who is causing this carnage, but against the church. Judgment must first come to the church before it comes to the world. Satan will get his judgment in the future Parousia.

6. An interesting mystery to further be discussed later

a. Rev. 2:26-28: “26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star.”

b. Jesus is saying here that those who make it to Parousia are the ones (the Church) who will share in the authority of Christ ruling and overthrowing nations.

c. What does this mean? Could it mean that God is elevating humanity above angels (Heb 4)? The angels were made higher than the angels, could it be in the Parousia humans will be made higher than angels (at least rule over the fallen ones)? Could it be a pay back to what the sons of God did in Genesis 6? Like what Jesus said before: The first shall be last but last shall be first.” We will discuss more about this as we continue reading the book of Revelation.

d. This brings up another understanding of overcoming. Being an overcomer is to be the one who reaches the finish line. And in Jesus description of an overcome is one who makes it to Parousia, which is the second coming of the Lord to rule with him. In other words, overcoming is not at the time of a believer’s death, but at the time of the believers’ entrance into Parousia. These are two different times in the book of Revelation. There seems to be a mystery in Revelation on the time between a believer’s death and creation's Parousia. We will discuss more on this as well.