02.11. LECTURE No. 11 -- Rev_2:18-29
LECTURE No. 11 -- Revelation 2:18-29
Christ Speaks in These Messages to the Churches As One Having Authority - The Message to the Church at Thyatira - The Threefold Application of These Messages to the Seven Churches - The Meaning of Thyatira - The Triumph of Evil in the Church - An Unholy Union - A Promise of Power to Overcomers
OUR Study, thus far has proved to be very interesting and very helpful, and we are finding the book to be exactly what the introduction says it is, i. e., “THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.” If there had been no need for this book, it surely would never have been given to John on the Isle of Patmos. Let us remember that the entire twenty-two chapters of this Book are a message from the risen and glorified Christ, “which God gave unto Him to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass.”
It is therefore of divine origin and is primarily a Book of Prophecy, which gives us a prophetic vision of the exalted Christ in his present and future relationship to things in heaven and upon earth, and this foreview of things yet future is exactly what we need!
Somehow we must be made to understand that the death, burial and resurrection of Christ were in no wise the end of God’s plans and purposes in redemption. The covenants and promises which God made in the Old Testament are many of them as yet unfulfilled, and therefore God’s plan for the ages must continue and be worked out, or else His plans and purposes in redemption would be incomplete.
What we have, therefore in this book is a revelation of God’s plans and purposes for the future and as we study the Book of Revelation we can see that God is moving on toward a glorious consummation of all things!
Without the Book of Revelation the Bible itself would be incomplete, and we would be compelled to stop short of having attained the things which God has promised in His word through the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we should rejoice and be thankful that God has given to us this wonderful book which serves as a telescope in our hands to enlarge and to clarify our vision until we can see to the very end of God’s purposes, both in grace and in judgment.
From this book on the far horizon of the future, we can even see the New Jerusalem and the new Paradise where those who are fully redeemed shall worship God and rejoice for ever more! But before we reach yonder distant city, and the wonderful new Paradise of God, there are many wonderful things in this book which require and demand our prayerful attention. The Seven Churches
We are now engaged in a study of the seven messages, which the glorified Christ sent to the Seven Churches which were in Asia. The Divine Spokesman In each of these seven messages the Lord Jesus Christ spoke as one authority, and rightfully so, for in the first chapter He was revealed as the Lord and Judge among the Churches. He had the right, therefore, to commend each Church for the things He could approve, and to rebuke them for those things wherein they had fallen short, had in any way sinned against His will and He also had the power also to promise reward to the faithful believer remnant in every Church!
We have already studied the message of our Lord to the Church at Ephesus and we discovered that they had left their first love; and that they were troubled by a group within the Church whom Christ spoke of as Nicolaitanes. In other words, those who sought divide the Body of Christ.
In our study of the message to the Church at Smyrna we discovered that the Christians there suffered terrible persecution, and that many of them died as martyrs because of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to this the Church there suffered from the presence of those who said they were Jews and were not, but were the synagogue of Satan.
Our study of the message to the Church at Pergamos revealed the Church under imperial favor, and that this particular church was troubled both the Nicolaitanes and the Balaamites. We explained the meaning of these two terms in our previous studies; so it will not be necessary to enlarge upon this point again today. The Message to Thyatira
Now let us advance in our study by considering the message of Christ to the Church at Thyatira, which is recorded in Revelation 2:18-29, where it says,
“And unto the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass;
“I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.
“Notwithstanding;, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols,
“And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not,
“Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds,
“And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
“But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.
“But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
“And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations;
“And He shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they he broken to shivers; even as I received of my Father,
“And I will give Him the morning star,
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.”
Threefold Application
Now, before we undertake an exposition of this passage, let us remind you again that each of these seven messages have a threefold application,
(1) First, to the Local Church addressed,
(2) Then to the entire Church of the whole Church Age. The message to each Church we have discovered was representative of a certain period in Church history.
(3) The truth contained in these messages can also be applied to the individual Christian.
“Bruised” The word “Thyatira” means “bruised.” The message of our Lord to this particular Church is of great importance, because it represents at least a thousand years of Church history, i. e., A. D. 500 to 1500 A. D. A comparison with secular history will reveal that this covers that period of time spoken of as “The Dark Ages.”
Even in the Church at Ephesus we found the leaven of the Nicolaitanes was at work in the church. The same thing was found in the Church at Pergamos, where it had become an established doctrine, held by a certain group within the Church. By this time the Balaamites had also crept into the Church. The Triumph of Evil In this message to the Church at Thyatira we discover the triumph of Nicolaitanism and Balaamism in the Church. Nevertheless there was a believing remnant who still believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who held to the doctrine of the Christian faith, as taught by the early Apostles.
Understanding these things, therefore, we do not wonder that Jesus introduced Himself to this Church as the Son of God, who hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet like unto fine brass.
In this one statement Jesus declared His deity, and His divine intelligence, and that He was the one who had the right to judge them in all things! By His flaming eyes He searches out all evil, and with His feet, which are like unto fine brass, He will judge and tread under foot those who are guilty of breaking His law.
In Revelation 2:19, to the believing remnant at Thyatira Jesus said, “I know thy works and charity, and service, and faith and thy patience, and thy works: and the last to be more than the first.”
From this statement it is evidence that Jesus wanted very much to commend them, but He found conditions there to be much the same as in many of our Churches today, that is, their works were greater than their faith. No one objects to good works, so long as they are kept in proportion to everything else, but we should not forget that faith is even more important than works, and the two must go hand in hand; for as James said “Faith without works is dead.”
But many churches, like the Church at Thyatira, have many works and little faith. In Ephesians 2:8-9, it says, “For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Jezebel
After commending them as best He could, Jesus said in Revelation 2:20,
“Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou suffereth that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”
In this one striking statement the Lord revealed the awful corruption which had crept into this Church at Thyatira, and which continued throughout the entire Thyatiran period of the Church Age. In this passage Jesus used the woman Jezebel to symbolize the terrible corruption and the low spiritual state into which the Church had fallen.
You will remember that Jezebel was the wife of Ahab, and that she herself was a heathen, who married a Jewish King.
A very interesting comment is given in 1 Kings 16:30-31, where it says,
“And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him, and it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam this son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, Kind of the Zidonians, and went and served, Baal and worshipped him.”
This, my friends, tells a sad story ii the history of Israel which was climaxed in the contest between Elijah and the four hundred prophets of Baal upon Mt. Carmel. It is not difficult to see that by reason of this marriage between Ahab and Jezebel, a spiritual crisis was brought about in Israel, because Jezebel insisted upon introducing pagan worship in Israel.
This unholy union between Ahab, the King of God’s chosen people, and Jezebel, was very displeasing to God because by her subtle and pernicious ways, Jezebel caused Israel to commit spiritual fornication by worshipping Baal instead of the true God, and by eating things which had been sacrificed unto idols. Thus she assumed the position of a prophetess, and in doing so caused the Children of Israel to sin. An Unholy Union!
Therefore, Jezebel, the wicked prophetess shall always stand for that unholy union between the Church and state, which was accomplished in the Pergamos period of the Church under Constantine, and which led to the terrible corruption of the dark ages, represented by the Church of Thyatira.
Now, it is interesting to note in verse Revelation 2:21, that Jesus said, “I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not.”
This was true of Jezebel the wife of Ahab, and we know the fearful end to which she came, when her blood was licked up by the dogs outside the palace before her body could be recovered.
Historical Application
Now the prophetic and historical application of the truth which was spoken by our Lord here occurred during the dark ages of the Church.
As we know, the Church was married to the world and settled down under imperial favor, and this union between Church and State, which was nothing more than a compromise of all which the Apostolic Church stood for, led the Church of the dark ages to commit spiritual fornication with the world and with the Kings of the earth. Christianity was no longer a pure religion!
When men rebelled at the Tower of Babel, under the leadership of Nimrod, as described in Genesis, Genesis 10:1-32 and Genesis 11:1-32, they went off into heathen idolatry. Nimrod’s wife became a patron saint of their idolatrous system. In due time she claimed to have a son without a human father, and she herself became known as the Queen of the Heavens, and was worshipped.
Thus was begun the system of idolatrous worship of Satanic origin, which was intended by Satan to be an exact counterfeit of the Christian doctrine of the Virgin birth of Christ. In this case, however, Nimrod’s wife, instead of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, became the patron saint.
It was the triumph of Nicolaitanism and of Baalism in the Church, and the union of Church and state, which allowed the subtle teachings of this pagan system of religion to creep into, and to become a part of, the practice of the Church.
Understanding these things, from a historical point of view, we are not surprised to find in some branches of the professing Christian Church today erroneous doctrines and ceremonies, which can be traced back to their pagan origin.
They Refused to Repent
After the unholy union of the Church and state had been accomplished, and pagan practices had crept into the Church, God gave them a long space in which to repent, and to return to their former state of purity. But history is a sad comment upon the fact that they repented not. The fact is, that they have not repented until this day.
In verses Revelation 2:22-23, Christ said, “Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.”
Jezebel Persecuted the Prophets
Just here it is well to remember that Jezebel not only introduced pagan worship into Israel, and thereby caused Israel to commit spiritual fornication, but being wicked at heart, she actually persecuted the true prophets of God. This we know is true, because she sought the life of Elijah the Prophet.
Even so, during the dark ages, and ever since then, those in the Church which have clung to the doctrines of Jezebel, have persecuted the true servants of God in every successive period of Church history. We are not surprised, therefore, to hear Jesus say, “I will kill her children with death, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation.”
When God’s time arrives this will be a just judgment upon those who have so wrongfully treated the true followers of Christ. Yes, indeed, my friends, tribulation is coming, and those who have followed the doctrines of Jezebel will suffer a plenty when it arrives. A Prophetic Foreview
What Jesus has said here, is therefore a prophetic foreview of things which will yet come to pass, and should serve as a warning to those who are guilty of the things which Christ has mentioned in this message to the Church at Thyatira. A Believing Remnant But in the Church at Thyatira, as we have mentioned, there was a believing remnant, and in order to comfort them in their distress, Jesus said, “But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden: But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.”
In this statement Jesus declared unto them that He would come again, and so here in this unexpected place we find the doctrine of the second coming of Christ clearly and definitely set forth by the Lord Himself. If it were not for the fact that Jesus is coming again the believing remnant in the Church of Thyatira would have had very little to look forward to, and it is even so today.
We who are true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who cannot agree with the teachings of the Nicolaitanes and the Balaamites, and who cannot follow the teachings of Jezebel, have been for the most part ecclesiastically ostracized by those in the churches of today who still hold to these pernicious doctrines and if it were not for the promise of our Lord to come again, with power and great glory, and with a spirit of judgment, to put an end to ecclesiastical Babylon, we too would have very little to look forward to, but we know that Jesus is coming according to His promise, and therefore we are admonished the labor on and to hold fast till He comes!
He That Overcometh And to the Church of Thyatira He said,
“He that overcometh and keepeth my works until the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I received of my Father, and I will give Him the morning Star. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith until the churches.”
~ end of lecture 11 ~