Chapter 7

Burning with Moral Purity

Revelation 2:18-29

In Kokomo, Indiana, where I live, quite often there is controversy in the city regarding the employing, or lack thereof, of union workers for construction work. If a new retailer moving into town builds a new store, a community business expands its existing facilities, or a government agency is working on a project, and the local union construction workers, electricians, or plumbers are not used for the work, then you can count on an uproar in the city. N egative advertising, picket lines and letters in the local paper are used to try to keep people from supporting the business or government official who made the decision to hire outside the union shop. In this town, if you slight the union workers you better be prepared to pay for it.

You may find it hard to believe, but there was something like that, albeit far more serious in nature, taking place in the city of Thyatira where Jesus had this fourth letter sent. Thyatira was not a beautiful or prestigious port city like Ephesus or Smyrna. It was not a powerful city of governance like Pergamum. No, Thyatira was a blue-collar town, much like Kokomo or other cities in our region. In Thyatira, however, your job not only meant an income, but social acceptability, livelihood, indeed your life. If you did not unite with your fellow workers, you would soon find yourself to be an outcast in a great deal of trouble.

In the midst of this difficult social context, Jesus comes with eyes of fiery flame (verse 18) and warns the church how completely sanctified from improper behavior she must be.

The Lord watches His church while she works

As the Lord comes with His flaming eyes to the church of Thyatira, He tells the believers there that He is watching and judging all their works. In verse 23 He says, “I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to His deeds.” As you continue to study this book of Revelation, recognize that the same Jesus who communicated to us in the gospels is using similar forms of communication now. The Lord would use the healing of a blind man to show He was the light of the world, or the image of a coin to answer questions about paying taxes. He used the events and situations the Asian churches were in to communicate His message to them. That is why He starts out each letter to the seven churches with the words "I know" (2:2,9,13,19; 3:1,8,15). The Lord knew what situations His people were in, and He speaks to His people in the midst of the difficulties they were facing. As He speaks to the church at Thyatira, the Lord is telling her that not only does He see her as she gathers for worship each Lord’s Day, but He sees her all through the week as her people lived and worked in the community.

Here in part is what the Lord would have seen as He looked upon His church in this city. Down the road about twenty miles southeast of Pergamum, Thyatira was not a natural city, where people gathered in an important geographical site, like on the bank of a river for trade or on a mountainside for protection. Thyatira had been planned a few centuries earlier by Seleucus, one of the four successors of Alexander the Great. He had planted some of Alexander's troops there as a barrier to protect the boundary of his kingdom, particularly Pergamum, Asia’s capital and the Greek’s new stronghold. With no natural defenses of which to speak, Thyatira’s principle importance through the years was to hold off advancing armies long enough to get the word back to Pergamum. It became a pawn city in the hands of the world's powerful, and the following generations who lived there developed into a rugged people. One of the main gods they worshiped was a local deity who was seen as a warrior on horseback swinging a battle-ax. The people there were tough! When Rome finally took it over in 133 B.C., the toughness of this city caused it to develop into a labor town, and it became commercially prosperous. Recall that Lydia, first among the converts in Philippi, was from Thyatira and a seller of the purple fabric that was produced with a dye from the root of a plant found near there (Acts 16:14-15).

Indeed, this city was filled with commerce in wood, linen, leather, pottery, baking, etc. One leading product of this city was brass. Thyatira was world renown for its fine works of brass, and the coins of the city depict a smith hammering a bronze helmet over an anvil. So Christ comes to them with eyes of a fiery furnace and having feet like fine brass. Visions of the exalted Christ in the Scriptures describe Him as having limbs like brass (Ezekiel 1:27; Daniel 10:6; Revelation 1:15), to indicate the purity of His walk and conduct as well as the purifying nature of His fiery dealings with His people (Malachi 3:3). As Jesus speaks, He uses the imagery of this city as a working class of people to praise the church twice in verse 19 for their abundance of works that honored Him ("I know your deeds…your works are more than at first"). Yet His message to His church is that she must maintain a moral purity despite the difficulties and pressures these believers were going through.

Before we look at these struggles the Thatiran believers were facing, remember this, friend. Your Lord is watching you all through the week. Recognize how crucial it is to honor Him in all that you do, for the temptations we face can be so varied and subtle. Christian, know you have been created to work to the glory of God, to provide for your family, and to offer a witness to the world. Yet all around your workplace, be it in the home, on the assembly line, in the office or classroom, exist temptations. Temptations to let love for money rather than love for God rule your hearts; temptations to deny key elements of our Christianity in order to fit in with your co-workers; temptations to overwork and overcharge rather than honoring God with your time and money. The Lord is watching you while you work. Your work is being examined by Him.

The Lord refuses to let His church be worldly

Jesus now speaks of a lady in the church He names Jezebel (verse 20). She called herself a prophetess, and we know there were lady prophets in the apostolic church (Acts 2:17; 21:9). But this woman is a false prophet. She was teaching and seducing the church to practice sexual immorality and eat things offered to idols. We read this and wonder, "What's going on? How could anyone in the church truly be tempted by these types of ungodly behavior?”

We need to understand that, in all the different areas of commerce mentioned earlier, trade guilds existed that were somewhat like a union. The social life of the city was such a powerful force that the buildings where these guilds gathered ("union halls") were actually temples to the god of the guild. The members of the guild had to offer sacrifices to their guild’s god. For instance, we know that the god of smiths and fire was known as Hesphaestus. (Heshaestus was the god who was thought to have made the thrones and chariots for Zeus with his forges inside a volcano. When the people saw the volcano smoke or erupt, they believed that was Hesphaestus working and sending up sparks.) If a brass worker refused to come to the guild’s meetings and offer sacrifices to Hesphaestus, then he would eventually be cast out of th guild and have no possibility of making a living in Thyatira. Yet this was not the only pressure being exerted on the Christians.

Often huge feasts were celebrated over the prosperity the guild was enjoying. Guild members were not only expected to offer sacrifices. They were pressured in another way as well. Common in this day was the practice that at these feasts lewd acts of unchastely behavior were performed. They were nothing short of wild parties or orgies. To show your loyalty to the guild, that you were indeed “one of them,” you were expected to participate. Failing to join in or going so far as to condemn these practices was seen as a betrayal to your guild. Notice these two practices – idolatrous sacrifices and immoral acts - were explicitly against the word of God and the decision of the church pronounced at the Council of Jerusalem. "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled (often components of idol worship) and from sexual immorality" (Acts 15:28-29).

This person referred to as Jezebel was trying to keep the peace in the church by telling the Christians in Thyatira it was permissible to participate in these things so that they could keep their jobs. She was seditiously going against the authority of the church by telling the Christians at Thyatira that nothing was wrong with engaging in the “cultural” practices of the day. She was like Jezebel of the Old Testament, the Sidonian wife of Israel’s king Ahab, who probably married her to promote trade between the nation of Israel and Sidon. The desire for commerce with other nations had allowed Jezebel to influence Israel to the point that Israel sought to honor the god of the land, Baal, even as she gave pretence to worshipping Jehovah. Yet just as the Lord would not tolerate this in Israel, sending His fiery prophet Elijah to expose the deception of the prophets of Baal and separate Israel from this ungodly behavior (see I Kings18 for instance), so the Fire of the Church comes to the congregation at Thyatira and condemns their tolerance of this woman and her teachings (verse 20).

Jesus means business here, friend. In this age of tolerance, where churches make friendly alliances with false religions, where Christians divorce at the same rate as the world, where churchgoers show by their actions that they rank their religious interests and commitments far below their marketplace ones, Jesus tells us there are some things He will not tolerate. He had been patient with this congregation (verse 21), waiting for Jezebel to repent, but now her end and those of her followers is quickly approaching. Just as the Old Testament Jezebel had lived in the king’s luxury until that fateful day she was cast down from her castle tower, trampled by the horses of Jehu and eaten by dogs (II Kings 9:30-37), so the Lord will soon bring judgment on her and her followers by “casting” her into sickness and death (verses 22-23). Be warned! If your work environment is pressuring you to compromise God's word, encouraging you to be unethical if you hope to advance, intimidating you to give money to anti-Christian causes, telling you cannot name Jesus' name, then you must not tolerate this nor those who would lead you in this way. The Lord will send sickness to ruin your health, the thief to steal your earthly treasure, or any number of problems your way if you are compromised. The Christian is to stand against this world regardless of the cost. Your membership in the church, significant of your citizenship in the kingdom of God, is to be of more value to you than your union membership, your boss’ s promotion, or being regarded as a great citizen of our fair city. Is this cost too great? No, the price we would pay and the rewards we would lose for worldliness are too great.

The Lord gives power to His church as she worships

As you read these letters written to the churches of Asia, understand that they were sermons to a gathered church. Jesus spoke them to John, who in turn wrote them down, sent them to the churches leaders, and then expected the church gathered for worship to hear these words of the Lord. We can then view these instructions as what they and we would need for our workweek. Those who are listening to Christ and avoiding these satanic things of Jezebel are now encouraged as we see in verse 24. Christ lays no other burden upon them than what has already been explained. This is the issue that you must deal with as the church. Show you are truly listening and worshiping Christ by going back into the world and living this instruction out faithfully as He has commanded. For if you do, the Lord makes a promise that, to be honest, seems too incredible for me to explain.

For consider verses 26-28: “ And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations— ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’ — as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.” The midsection of this passage is a quote from the second psalm, which speaks of Christ's rule over the heathen peoples. Upon His resurrection and ascension, Christ was given all authority in heaven and earth by His Father. Now here we have God’s Son telling the church that He is sharing that with her. Christ declares to this church, and to all believers, that He will live His kingly rule out through the church as she follows Him faithfully. Christians who are despised, treated as social outcasts, considered to be traitors in their community, and faced with the possibility of being ostracized, may wonder, “Is it worth it?” Jesus declares that it is, for you will be given power over nations. How can Jesus promise that to this little congregation of people, that they will exert power over nations?

It does not seem possible, does it? But then again, it does not look to most people these days that Jesus is Lord over the nations either, does it, even though God’s Word declares it unwaveringly (see Psalm 2; also Matthew 28:18; Acts 2:36; I Corinthians 15:23-27; Ephesians 1:18-23; Revelation 19:16)? We must look not with eyes of flesh, but with eyes of faith, and know with full confidence that indeed Christ does reign, that He will bring those nations, and those cities within them, to naught who war against Him and His gospel. You see and perhaps work among multinational corporations making decisions that affect economies and the lives of millions. You watch as the governments exercise great powers. When you see big churches, more often than not you see places where their comfortable auditorium seats are filled with people who are listening to the spirit of Jezebel. Then you may look around your own church and consider it to not be a very impressive group of folks. You can feel so powerless.

But look at Christ, friend! See the One with eyes flaming like fire holding an iron rod in His hand. See the nations and the businesses and the false churches and the immoral, idolatrous people standing before Him like clay pots. Flinch in horror, perceiving that they are about to be struck with the rod of His power and they do not even know it. Hear Him say to you, "What you have, hold on to fast until I come" (verse 25). Then live faithfully. Bow humbly in prayer. Recognize you will be given great privileges of responsibility if you stay faithful to Him. He will entrust you with greater authority. He will use your life and your congregation to blaze as light in the midst of all the darkness, and your community and indeed the nations will be affected.

Conclusion

For those that live passionately for the glory of God in this manner, to them Jesus says they shall be given the morning star (verse 28). We know that star. At the end of this book Jesus says "I am the Bright and Morning Star" (Revelation 22:16). So what will it be? Holding on to the things of this world so we can maintain our social standing and civil comforts, or giving it all up so we can be possessors of that bright Morning Star? That we would be a people who burn with all the brilliancy of Christ!