By The Rev. Dr. Paul A. Leggett
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sermon Series: Jesus’ Message to the Churches
Sermon Text: Revelation 2:18-29
Sermon Theme
Thyatira was not a major city. It was not a political, cultural or religious center. Yet the risen Lord Jesus Christ makes his strongest (and longest) statement to this church. It is a church that had done well. Jesus commends their “love, faith, service and patient endurance” (Revelation 2:19). Yet hope is notably absent (I Corinthians 13:13). The church was tolerating a self-defined prophetess whom Jesus compares to the Old Testament Jezebel. Here the danger to the Christian community was from inside not outside. This woman (whose actual name we do not know) had become a Satanic influence in the church. These same influences can penetrate churches and individual Christians today. When we lose hope we stop holding fast to our faith.
Sermon Outline
- Adapt. The church in Thyatira was living a contradiction. On one side they were obviously growing in faith. Their last works were greater than their first. Jesus commends their love, faith, service and patient endurance. What is missing is hope. The church was tolerating a “prophetess” in their midst who was corrupting members of the congregation. Jesus calls her “Jezebel” after the notorious Old Testament queen of Israel who introduced the official worship of false gods into Israel (I Kings 16:31-33). She entertained eight hundred and fifty prophets of these gods at her royal table. Worse than this she led the elders and nobles of Israel into corrupt and deadly schemes for illicit gains when her husband’s business plans fell through (I Kings 21). She taught Israel to adapt to idolatrous practices. Something similar was obviously happening in Thyatira.
- Attract. The economy of Thyatira was based on guilds whose members made a living through everything from dyeing cloth to bronze work. Women as well as men were active in these industries (Acts 16:14). These guilds were all related to the worship of some god. Without participating in these guilds one really had no chance of achieving a livelihood. Paul dismisses this idol worship up to a point (Romans 14:1-23; I Corinthians 8:4-13, 10:14-31). However, the commerce of Thyatira, like other parts of the Roman Empire, also had a sexual element. Sex was a commodity like cloth, bronze or leather goods. Slaves could be sold for sexual purposes. The Jezebel in the church was attracting church members to an idolatry that was multi-faceted. Its central focus was the banquets where gods were worshipped through food, drink and sex. Her “teaching” may well have been that since Christians were saved by grace it did not matter what they did (Romans 6:1-6; I Corinthians 6:12-20). This Jezebel was leading believers into a capitulation to the standards of the world (Romans 12:1-2). These same challenges exist for us today.
- Attack. Jezebel’s actions constituted nothing less than a full scale attack on the church. She was leading believers into the “deep things of Satan.” The crisis in Thyatira is an extreme one which we may have difficulty even imagining. Nonetheless, the picture of the seductive Jezebel in the church has remained a danger throughout history and still exists in the present. It is the appeal of merging Christian faith with the ways of the world that goes beyond compromise and becomes in fact capitulation. Jesus’ response is notable. He does not abandon the church. He calls on Jezebel and her followers to repent (Revelation 2:21-22). He urges the rest of the church to hold fast to what they have. The danger here is to follow the model of capitulation. Jesus affirms his authority in the strongest possibleterms. He is the bright morning star, the symbol of new life and hope (Revelation 22:16).
Questions for Us
- Are there subtle ways that we adapt to the world around us? Do we increasingly tolerate, even in our own lives, things that are contrary to God’s Word?
- What are some of the ways that we may be pressured into thinking that we have to conform to our society around us in order to be successful?
- How do we apply the Lordship of Christ to our lives practically when we are surrounded by a rampant commercialism which often includes sex as a commodity?
