February 11,2024
The Church in Thyatira
Revelation 2:18-29
There have been some incredible inventions throughout history that have really helped to improve our quality of life ― household electricity, the internet and automobiles. The list goes on and on, but there is one thing that is true about all of these great inventions: they are only helpful when they work as intended. I have recently experienced this in my own life with a great new innovation that I have been testing out. This innovation is in the form of an app that is supposed to help your family with their weekly meal planning. Reading all about it, it sounded like it would help our family tremendously. To use the app you go online and pick your meals for the week. Then they email all the recipes and add all the ingredients that you need for those meals to your Walmart app shopping cart and then once you check out, all you have to do is drive to Walmart and they bring all the ingredients for a week's worth of meals right to your car. It is great… when it works. There is a little thing that tends to get in the way of this being the perfect process. It is a little word that you might be familiar with if you've ever used any grocery pick up and that's the word “substitutions”. Sometimes there isn't a problem with substituting, you need a certain ingredient and they don't have it in stock at the store so they substitute another brand of the same item and that is no big deal. There are certain things that the meal recipes require that you just cannot substitute because it will ruin the meal and sometimes the grocery store will substitute things that will do just that. Now it's not the employee's fault who’s filling your order. They are just following what the computer tells them, so it's really whoever programmed the computer system’s fault for these substitutions that will ruin your recipe. I've heard of people having their order of cheese be substituted with cereal or another wanted frozen stir fry vegetables and got a toilet seat instead. Now I'm not sure how you cook in your home, but I can't imagine a toilet seat ever working in any culinary setting I would find myself in.
I bring this up because just like with recipes and online grocery shopping, there are some things in our Christian life that you cannot substitute for and expect it to work. The church in Thyatira is a great example of that truth. There were things that they refused to substitute and Jesus saw and commended them on those things, but there were some things that they did substitute for and they suffered greatly for it. This morning I'd like to look at this, the longest letter to the smallest church in the book of Revelation, and try to understand those things in which there are no substitutes for in our Christian lives.
There is no Substitute for Faith & Love. - Revelation 2:18-19
Write this letter to the angel of the church in Thyatira. This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze: I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. I can see your constant improvement in all these things.
I know what you are thinking, wait there is more than just faith and love that Jesus mentions here. Yes, but without these two as your base none of the others can exist, let me explain. The first thing a Christian can never substitute for is faith in Jesus. It is through faith in Jesus that we are saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8). Without faith it’s impossible for us to experience salvation and be a Christian to begin with, and without faith it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is the foundational building block of our Christian life. It's trusting God first as Lord, but our faith in Jesus doesn’t stop there. As we mature as Christians, we trust God with more and more in our lives. As we do that, we grow in our relationship with Him. The church in Thyatira was doing very well at this, they were growing in their faith constantly and that’s an important cornerstone in our Christian lives because if we are not growing in our faith in Christ we are dying in it. In our Christian walk we must continue to trust Christ and there is nothing that we can substitute for that true faith. We cannot just say we have faith, it must have actions that back it up (James 2:26). When we have faith in Jesus, it drives every other part of our lives, the most important thing in our lives that it drives is our love. Faith and love cannot exist apart from one another in a Christian’s life. Just because faith comes first, it does not mean that love is less important. Paul even said the greatest of faith, love, and hope is love because without it nothing else matters. Jesus said love is how others will know we are followers of Him. Charles Spurgeon once said that faith is the light and love is the warmth and every righteous beam that comes from Christ is reflected in the life of a Christian. You will find both equally. True love for Christ cannot exist without true faith in Him, and you cannot have true faith in Jesus without love for Him. Since these two have to coexist, you can have no substitute for either. If you try both will fail and since they are foundational everything else will topple if these fail.
It's this faith in Jesus that drives us to love God. Then to love His church (other believers) and love the lost who He died for. This is what drives us onto the next two things Jesus mentions about the church in Thyatira. They served in ministry with each other, ministered and shared the Gospel with the lost and they patiently endured the hardship that comes when we live out our faith and love in a fallen world. This is the natural outpouring of our faith and love in Jesus ― it’s being obedient to His Word. Just as Jesus said, if you love me you will keep my commandments. This church was doing just that ― using their gifts to serve and edify one another and when hard times and persecution came, they stuck with it regardless of the consequences. Faith, love, and obedience to God’s commands are irreplaceable in the life of a believer. However there are some times that we find ourselves trying to substitute many things for these. Remember the church of Ephesus? They tried to substitute love for an intellectual pursuit of God and God told them to fix it or their church would be removed. What else might we find ourselves substituting for these crucial elements? We can go to 1 Corinthians 13 and see that Paul has a pretty good list. We can try to substitute these things with knowledge, with giving to the needy or we try to substitute for faith, love, and obedience by being busy in the church. If all these are not rooted in faith and love, then they are worthless. We need to make sure that all our actions in life are driven by those two things and we need to make sure that we haven’t tried to substitute anything else. Jesus knows our intentions and our motives when it comes to everything that we do. We are reminded of this a little later in this letter. We have to be honest with God and honest with ourselves and return to total faith in Jesus, love for Jesus, His church and the lost.
There is no Substitute for Accountability. - Revelation 2:20-23
But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn away from her immorality. Therefore, I will throw her on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you whatever you deserve.
At first glance this reprimand from Jesus looks like it comes from the same issue that the church at Pergamum was having with the false teachings of Balaam, but there is a difference with this reprimand that I think is very important. When we look at this account we see something else that we can never substitute for in our Christian walks and that’s accountability. The difference starts with the description of a certain woman in their church. We are told that she was calling herself a prophet and that she was teaching something very similar to the teachings of Balaam, the difference is that while there are followers mentioned here, the focus is not on all of those who were following the teachings, but rather the focus was on the one who brought in the false teachings ― the one Jesus called Jezebel. These atrocities that were being tolerated in the church did not happen overnight. Rather it happened slowly over time and they grew to the point they had to be addressed by Jesus because this woman was never held accountable for her actions in the beginning. Was it because they didn’t realize that true love does discipline and correct wrongs? Was it because it was easier to just let her do her own thing? Maybe they didn’t want to cause problems or maybe she brought a lot of money into the church. Whatever the reason, the church had never held her accountable for her actions within the church and that’s where they failed. Christians are called to hold each other accountable. Proverbs 27:17 tells us that just like iron sharpens iron so will a man sharpen his friend. Satan knows our weaknesses and that’s why accountability is so important. It keeps us from falling into those sins constantly and helps us to get out when we are stuck in them. He knew David's weaknesses, especially when it came to Bathsheba. No one was there to hold the king accountable and David fell into sin with Bathsheba that led him into a lot more than he ever bargained for (just like sin always does). Hebrews 10:24–25 tells us we are to stir up good works and love in one another. We are the body of Christ and we are connected and have to hold each other up to the standard that God has set for His children. James 5:16 tells us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another. This is how we battle our enemy, through encouragement, correction, rebuke, teaching, rejoicing, and weeping with each other. We fight our enemy with accountability to each other. The church leadership has a role in this as well and this type of accountability was what the church in Thyatira was missing and that type of accountability is what we call church discipline. In Matthew 18:15–17 Jesus gave the procedure and authority for the church to carry out church discipline. Discipline is never enjoyable, but it is necessary and good for the health of the church as a whole and as individuals. Church discipline's goal is never anything other than wanting to restore the church member to full fellowship with God and with other believers. Verse 15 of Matthew 18 says “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back”. That’s the first step when holding another person accountable for their sin, but if that doesn’t resolve the issue then we are to move on to verse 16. “But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses”. You go back with others and approach the person in love trying to restore them and their relationship to God and His children. If that doesn’t work, then there is a final step laid out in verse 17. “If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.” These are the steps that were laid out for the church in Thyatira and are laid out for the church today. Yes, there are harsh consequences for someone who is unrepentant of their sin when going through the process of church discipline. Jesus lays out harsh consequences for both the church and the false teacher by telling them they will suffer greatly if they do not repent. There are always consequences for our sinful actions. Jesus wants us to be Holy and hold each other accountable in our walk with God. That's one of the reasons we have each other as a church. Accountability is something we have lost in our society. We live in a culture where everyone is encouraged to do whatever they want, but that’s not what God has called His church. There is no substitute for accountability within its members.
There is no Substitute for God’s Truth. - Revelation 2:24-29
But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them—depths of Satan, actually). I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come. To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, To them I will give authority over all the nations. They will rule the nations with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots. They will have the same authority I received from my Father, and I will also give them the morning star! Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
Throughout this letter to Thyatira, Jesus shows that there is no substitute for His truth. When the town was worshiping the son of the god Zeus who was named Apollo, Jesus reminded this church of the truth that He and He alone is the Son of God. When the church might have had a tendency to trust in the strength of the military that had a small outpost in their town, Jesus shows Himself as the one who is supreme when He reveals Himself as the one with eyes like fire and feet like polished bronze. When the church thought that compromise with the false teacher “Jezebel” was acceptable, Jesus reminded them that there are harsh consequences for those who do not repent and He is the ultimate Judge of all. When some of them might have thought that there were sins that they could do in the dark that no one will know, Jesus reminds us that He is the one who searches out all our thoughts and knows all of our intentions. When they might have thought they could get away with their sins, Jesus reminds them that He is still the potter and He will do with the pots as He wishes even if it means crushing us. He will judge all of our actions and nothing will change that fact. These are some harsh truths that Jesus reminds the church of throughout the letter, but even though they are hard there is nothing that can substitute for the truths of God. Jezebel was promising something to replace God’s truth that Jesus refers to as “deeper truths”. The lies of false teachers will never replace the truth of God’s Word. When false teachers come along, they always advertise their truths as deeper than anything you know about God and they even try to say that the “smart ones” are the ones who follow their deeper teachings. The problem is the Bible is the Word of God, end of story. If you think it’s not deep enough for you, then you don’t understand the Bible at all. The message of the Bible is simple enough for young children to understand, but it’s also deep enough for the most devoted intellectual to be consumed with its truths for a lifetime, that’s why we can never substitute it for anything. God’s Word is enough. It’s always been enough. If we think we need more, then we need to revisit our first point to make sure we do have true faith in the Jesus of the Bible and have a love for Him that is genuine. Jesus then finishes the letter by encouraging those who have not fallen for the false teachings to hold on to what they have believed until He comes. This is another truth that Christians cannot substitute. Jesus is coming. He is coming back for His church. It doesn’t matter what anyone says, it doesn’t matter how we feel, Jesus is coming back and we have work to do until He does.
There is a lot more to dig into in this letter, but I think that if we focus on the overarching truths that Jesus is calling His church to hold onto, He wants us to never substitute anything in our lives for a deep abiding love for Him and a deep commitment to the Bible and its doctrines. When the church substitutes for any of the things we have looked at this morning, the church will fail. We must hold fast to these things, to faith in Jesus, to love for Jesus, His church, the lost, to accountability in all parts of our lives, and to the truths of God’s Word. When we do we will see the church grow and flourish even amongst a culture saturated with the thoughts and ways of our enemy.
