Message

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In the last lesson the Risen Jesus had the sharp, double-edged sword. He fought against those who held to humanistic teachings with the sword of his mouth. It was to fight for the church to keep the truth of God. Through the church in Pergamum we see that overcoming persecution from outside is one thing, and keeping the truth in the church is another. We believe that Christian life includes joining in the battle for the truth. May God help us to raise up truthful Bible teachers for this generation. In today’s passage Jesus speak to the church in Thyatira. “The longest letter is addressed to the least important of the Seven Cities” (R.H. Charles). But its problem is far beyond from being the least important. It can be a universal problem for all the churches. The Lord Jesus reveals himself as one who searches hearts and minds. It is calling for holiness. May we listen to what the Lord speaks to the church. Look at verse 18. “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.” Here the description of eyes and feet is the same with the vision of the Risen Christ John saw and wrote in Revelation 1 (1:14,15). Blazing fire-like eyes can penetrate in the hearts and minds of men and see all in and out. While on earth, Jesus showed this divine faculty. Both his enemies and his disciples were amazed at his penetrating insight into the hidden places of their minds. In the gospel story we read that he “knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts”, when some teachers of the law said, “He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mk 2:8). And John wrote in his gospel, “He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man” (Jn 2:5). If this clear-sighted scrutiny of the hearts and minds of people was a characteristic of the earthly Jesus, how much more must the risen Christ know all human secrets? Burnished bronze underwent refinement in a glowing furnace. Burnished bronze-like feet are strong enough to trample all the enemies underneath. The risen Christ whose feet are like burnished bronze judges all the evils and can trample people to powder. It is specifically written that the eyes and feet are those of the Son of God. The risen Christ is the Son of God. The people of the world should know that he is rightly to be honoured and feared. Look at verse 19. “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.” It is really great that as for the church in Thyatira their deeds, love and faith, and service and perseverance were recognized and commended. As for us, how we wish even one of the virtues will be recognized by our Lord Jesus. But they were recognized by all the virtues mentioned here. Their deeds must have been the deeds of obedience to the Lord, and the deeds of love and the deeds of faith. They were serving and ready to serve. They persevered in any hardship. Perseverance is the fruit of hope; 1 Thessalonians 1:3 says, “…your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words they had faith, love and hope and their deeds were the fruit of these three, Paul’s trinity of Christian essentials. They lived a life of love and a life of faith in hope. Furthermore they were moving forward, doing more than they did at first, while the Christians of the church in Ephesus were backsliding. What a precious church! The church seemed to lack nothing. But according to the risen Christ whose eyes are like blazing fire the church had a serious problem. It is moral compromise. In the fair field of the beautiful church a poisonous weed was being allowed to luxuriate (thrive). In that healthy body a malignant cancer had begun to form. An enemy was being harbored in the midst of the fellowship. Look at verse 20. “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” The church of Thyatira displayed love and faith, service and endurance, but holiness is not included among its qualities. It permitted one of its female members to teach outrageous license, and it apparently made no attempt to restrain her. In this, too, the church of Thyatira was the opposite of the church of Ephesus. Ephesus could not bear evil, self-styled apostles, but had no love (Rev 2:2,4). Thyatira had love, but tolerated an evil, self-styled prophetess. In Pergamum, the problem was to tolerate people who held to the teachings of Balaam and Nicolaitans. The emphasis was on the teaching and doctrine. However, in Thyatira the matter was to tolerate one woman until she actually influenced the lives and deeds of the church members so badly. The emphasis was on ethics beyond doctrine. Let’s examine this. Look at verse 20 again. “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual morality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” Here a woman Jezebel is specified. We don’t know her real name was Jezebel, but since the name was noted for, her character must be discovered in the original Jezebel. She was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon, and the wife of Ahab king of Israel (1 Kings 16:31). When she came from Sidon, she brought her own gods and caused Ahab and his people to worship Baal. She slew the prophets of the Lord and at her own table supported four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:13, 19). In this way she contaminated Israel. Then here we should think of what kind of influence the woman Jezebel had on the church in Thyatira. It is written that she called herself a prophet. She must have been an influential woman as a Bible teacher. Now we should know about the city Thyatira and its church. Thyatira was a great commercial town and was evidently at that time a prosperous trading centre. It boasted numerous trade guilds. There was, for example, associations for bakers and bronze-workers, for clothiers and cobblers, for weavers, tanners, dyers, and potters. It was from Thyatira that Lydia, “a dealer in purple cloth”, came (Acts 16:14). To refuse to join one of these guilds would be much the same as to refuse to join a trade union today. It would mean to give up all prospect of commercial existence. In that atmosphere the woman Jezebel pled for compromise with the world’s standards in the interests of business and commercial prosperity. That meant she was encouraging the Christians of Thyatira to attend the ceremonies and feasts of the local trade-guilds which were “dedicated no doubt to some pagan deity” and “too often ended in unbridled licentiousness.” In this way she contaminated the church, misleading the servants of the Lord Jesus into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. Look at verse 21. “I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.” God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (1 Pe 3:9). So he gave even the terrible woman Jezebel time to repent, but she was unrepentant. Then what does God do next? Look at verse 22. “So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.” The bed of sin became the bed of suffering. Unrepentance would bring only suffering and intense suffering to all those who sinned with her. And verse 23a says, “I will strike her children dead.” Her spiritual offspring, deeply dyed with her evil, would be killed. In the Old Testament the sons of Abab and Jezebel (70 royal princes) were killed thoroughly. It was to purge the community of God’s people in the land. Likewise, the spiritual offspring of Jezebel were doomed. It was to cleanse the church (Ananias and Sapphira fell dead). The judgment of the one whose feet are like burnished bronze is sure and swift in the end. Look at verse 23b. “Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.” Jeremiah 17:10 says, “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” To the LORD God Jeremiah prayed, “…O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause” (Jer 11:20). In Jeremiah the prerogative (an exclusive right of privilege) of searching the inmost thoughts of men belongs to God; but in the Revelation as so often, the prerogatives of God have become the prerogatives of the Risen Christ, the Son of God: “I am he who searches hearts and minds…” He has blazing fire-like eyes and sees all. What would happen if there was no one who searches hearts and minds? What if there is no supervisor for tests and exams? Soon there will be cheating and deceiving. Without heart-searcher church cannot be maintained pure and holy. Those who ignore the heart-searcher seem to be free. However, they cannot escape from his presence. Wherever they are, he is already there in the Spirit (Ps 139: 7). When they ignore him to the end, they will bring his righteous judgment upon themselves; the heart-searcher is a righteous judge. He judges man’s secrets (Ro 2:16). But those who are aware of the eyes of the heart and mind-searcher and live before him are truly blessed. They can live in the fear of the Lord. They can repent any evil thoughts and deeds and keep their hearts and lives pure and holy. They can have inner power and strength and courage to confront evil and any evil power. When Daniel was brought to Babylon, he was one of the exiles. But humanly speaking he was very much privileged to study in the university of Babylonia with full scholarship for three years. On finishing the education his high-paying government job would be secured to serve the Babylonian king and his Empire. While studying under the king’s care he could enjoy all kinds of delicious food. All the opportunities of success were there set before him. He could have lived in the eyes of Nebuchardnezzar, the king of Babylon. Yet, he saw beyond what was visible and was conscious of the one who searches hearts and minds and sees all. In that opportune time, he made a resolution not to defile himself with the royal food and wine the king offered. The decision could have brought the king’s anger upon himself and all the privileges taken. Yet, it did not matter to Daniel. When he set his eyes on the heart-searcher, he could have inner strength and courage to keep his decision unshaken. The decision could be a small thing, but it was his expression to keep his heart pure and holy before the invisible heart-searcher. He wanted to keep his pure and holy identity as God’s chosen people before him, not being assimilated into Babylonian culture. The seemingly small decision became a seed of faith planted in the heart of young Daniel, a teenage boy, which would later grow to be a giant tree of faith. God knew how precious his decision was and blessed him very much. God not only protected him from any harm but made him healthier and wiser; he was found to be ten times wiser than any wise man in the whole kingdom of Babylon. There were several times of crisis in his life. But he was always aware of the one who searches hearts and minds and struggled before him. Then he could grow stronger in faith at each time. Once when he was in the highest power next to the king Darius in the kingdom of Mede and Persia, he had to confront a life-threatening situation. He was so distinguished in his work with his exceptional qualities. Then his political rivals were very jealous of him and devised a plan to put him to death. They persuaded the king Darius to issue a decree that anyone who would pray to any god or man during the next thirty days, except to the king should be thrown into the lion’s dens. What could Daniel do at this crisis of death? Daniel 6:10 says, “Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.” If Daniel had been only aware of the vigilant eyes of his enemies, he could have done something else. Maybe he could close all the windows and put dark and thick curtains over them and pray silently and quietly in secret, at night time only. To Daniel there was no such compromise before the heart-searcher. Daniel did as usual, praying three times a day with the widows open toward Jerusalem. He could do so, because he trusted in the one who searches hearts and minds and judges rightly and who has been his personal God, loving and righteous. Then Daniel was rescued from the lions’ den, while all his enemies became the prey of the lions in the place of Daniel. From time to time we wonder how we can live as God’s people in this godless and humanistic culture. It is easy to compromise and be assimilated and absorbed in the culture and live just as one of them. But we learn how we should live. Our God wants his people and his church to remain pure-hearted and holy people. To him keeping holiness and purity of heart matters. He searches hearts and minds of people of all generations. He rewards and punishes according to one’s deed. He is the sovereign God over any individual and any nation. Those who live in his sight will be purified and grow in his holiness. They will win the victory over any ungodly human culture through personal faith in him. They will become true and influential shepherds for the people living in that culture. This is in accordance of our prayer to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Look at verses 24,25. “Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you.): Only hold on to what you have until I come.” Not all members of the church in Thyatira had been infected with the virus of Jezebel. Some had resisted her contagion (harmful influence). In other words, there was a godly remnant in Thyatira who had not defiled themselves. Firstly, they have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets. Jezebel and her followers probably prided themselves on their mature experience of life. Like the later Gnostics, they were delving into secret mysteries and boasting of a private, esoteric (understood by only the select few who have special knowledge) revelation denied to the mass of Christians. They saw themselves as a spiritual aristocracy, a favoured elite. They bragged that they plumbed “the deep things.” Perhaps they even borrowed this phrase from Paul, who mentioned several times in his letters “the deep things of God” (Ro 11:33; Eph 3:18; 1 Cor 2:10). If the Gnostic borrowed the phrase from Paul, they then perverted it. With their diabolic theory that since matter is evil the sins of the flesh could be freely indulged without damage to the spirit, they plunged without restraint into Satan’s so-called deep secrets. Secondly, Jesus said, “(I will not impose any other burden on you): Only hold on to what you have until I come.” In the early Christian church some Jewish believers tried to burden the Gentile Christians by demanding them to be circumcised. Then the apostles and elders determined “not to burden” Gentile believers (Acts 15:28). In the same way, Christ did not wish to “impose any other burden” on the Thyatira church; they must “only hold on to” what they had, that is, to the teaching they had already received. An important lesson is this: A new immorality must not drive us into a new asceticism. We are simply to hold fast what we already have, that is to say, what he has already given us in his written word. What is this? It is the balanced, joyful exhilarating righteousness of the Bible, the glorious liberty of the royal law. It is the same morality which regards the right use of sex as beautiful and sacred, and its wrong use as ugly and sordid (morally ignoble, filthy). It is the teaching which says, “Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Heb 13:4). God’s commandments are not burdensome. Christ’s yoke is easy and his burden is light (1 John 5:3; Matthew 11:3). The Hoy Scriptures are themselves a “canon”, a yardstick by which to measure and a criterion by which to test. They are an adequate guide and a sufficient rule both of faith and life. The way for us to keep ourselves and God’s church holy is to hold to what we have until comes. Look at verses 26-28. “To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star.” Here are two wonderful promises to the overcomers and doers of Christ’s will. The first promise borrows its imagery from Psalm 2:8,9, where the Messiah’s future sovereignty over the nations is remarkably predicted: “Ask of me,” says God to his Christ, “and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” This authority Christ now shares with his faithful, overcoming people. The quotation from Psalm 2 is slightly modified and adapted. The Greek word for to “rule” in verse 27 is “poimaino” meaning literally to “tend” (Mt 2:6). The potter has become a shepherd, and the nations will not only be pottery to be smashed in pieces, but sheep to be ruled and disciplined in justice. The second promise is to give them the morning star. In Revelation 22:16 the Lord Jesus describes himself as the bright Morning Star. In this passage we learn that the Risen Christ wants his church to keep purity and holiness. He is the one who searches hearts and minds. We can remain pure and holy when we are aware of the heart and mind-searcher and live in his sight and hold to what he has given us until he comes.

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