WORD From The Woods
Revelation 2:18-29
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.“
This message to the church in Thyatira is similar to the message to the church in Pergamum that we looked at last week. They are both similar because of the warning against false teaching. The church in Thyatira is warned about tolerating a prophetess that Christ refers to here as “Jezebel.” Jezebel was a wicked woman who married Israel’s King Ahab nearly 1,000 years before this was written. Jezebel violently imposed idol worship on the northern kingdom of Israel and led the nation astray. The mention of Jezebel here is a clear warning to the church that the prophetess they were following was leading them astray in the same way. I don’t know if they were actually involved in some kind of pagan worship involving sexual immorality or if that is a metaphor that points to a kind of spiritual adultery where the church was being unfaithful to God by following false teaching. It very well could have been both, and it really doesn’t matter. The point is that they we’re not being faithful to the teaching found in the word of God. The last part of this passage mentions the “morning star,” who is Christ Himself. They were told to hold fast to gospel of Christ and the truth of His word in order to conquer the false teaching that they were being bombarded with. As I mentioned last week, we’re facing the same kind of false teaching and immorality all around us every day. As loggers we will face it this morning on the CB on the way to the job. Sexual immorality and all sorts of things that go against the clear teaching found in God’s word are all around us everywhere we go. It is rampant in our world today. As followers of Christ, we are called to live in a way that points people back to Him and we can do that because of the Holy Spirit living in us. We don’t strive to live that way to be better than the guys we work with, but to show them in love and humility, who Christ is and what He has done for us. When we live according to the ways of the world but call ourselves Christians, we drag the name of Christ through the mud and the people watching us won’t want anything to do with Him. As you go about your week, seek to live for Christ and turn away from the ways of the world, rest in the power of the Holy Spirit working in you and through you, and ask Him to point you to truth in all that you do!
God bless, and have a great week! -Terry-
Revelation 2:18-29
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.“
This message to the church in Thyatira is similar to the message to the church in Pergamum that we looked at last week. They are both similar because of the warning against false teaching. The church in Thyatira is warned about tolerating a prophetess that Christ refers to here as “Jezebel.” Jezebel was a wicked woman who married Israel’s King Ahab nearly 1,000 years before this was written. Jezebel violently imposed idol worship on the northern kingdom of Israel and led the nation astray. The mention of Jezebel here is a clear warning to the church that the prophetess they were following was leading them astray in the same way. I don’t know if they were actually involved in some kind of pagan worship involving sexual immorality or if that is a metaphor that points to a kind of spiritual adultery where the church was being unfaithful to God by following false teaching. It very well could have been both, and it really doesn’t matter. The point is that they we’re not being faithful to the teaching found in the word of God. The last part of this passage mentions the “morning star,” who is Christ Himself. They were told to hold fast to gospel of Christ and the truth of His word in order to conquer the false teaching that they were being bombarded with. As I mentioned last week, we’re facing the same kind of false teaching and immorality all around us every day. As loggers we will face it this morning on the CB on the way to the job. Sexual immorality and all sorts of things that go against the clear teaching found in God’s word are all around us everywhere we go. It is rampant in our world today. As followers of Christ, we are called to live in a way that points people back to Him and we can do that because of the Holy Spirit living in us. We don’t strive to live that way to be better than the guys we work with, but to show them in love and humility, who Christ is and what He has done for us. When we live according to the ways of the world but call ourselves Christians, we drag the name of Christ through the mud and the people watching us won’t want anything to do with Him. As you go about your week, seek to live for Christ and turn away from the ways of the world, rest in the power of the Holy Spirit working in you and through you, and ask Him to point you to truth in all that you do!
God bless, and have a great week! -Terry-