Revelation 3A (2011)

The fourth letter to Thyatira, following the same pattern

SLIDES 3-1, 3-2

Rev. 2:18 And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has
eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this:
Rev. 2:19 I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and
that your deeds of late are greater than at first.
Rev. 2:20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls
herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they
commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
Rev. 2:21 I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.
Rev. 2:22 Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery
with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.
Rev. 2:23 And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I
am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according
to your deeds.
Rev. 2:24 But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching,
who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them I place no other
burden on you.
Rev. 2:25 Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.
Rev. 2:26 He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL
GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS;
Rev. 2:27 AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE
POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father;
Rev. 2:28 and I will give him the morning star.
Rev. 2:29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Thyatira is another city in Asia Minor (Turkey)

SLIDE 3-3

o Its name means unending (or perpetual) sacrifice

Another city full of pagan worship

The principle deity was Apollo Trimnaeus

He was said to be the son of Zeus

He was worshipped alongside the emperor god Apollo

Both these gods were considered sons of gods

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Revelation 3A

o Thyatira had more trade and craft guides (or unions) than any other
Asian city

Each guild was dedicated to a patron god

Membership in a guild was crucial to practicing a trade and

surviving economically

During the regular guild meetings, meat sacrificed to the

guild god was served

Often orgies were part of the meal

Refusing to participate in these meals could result in banishment

from the guild and the inability to earn a living

Looking at the letter, the description of Christ taken from chapter 1 focuses on
the eyes of fire and the feat of glowing bronze
o Both His eyes and the feet are glowing like a hot flame or furnace

These symbols reflect the same meaning but in dierent ways

Eyes of flame or fire represent all-seeing, a piercing vision

capable of discerning all things
o The ability to render perfect judgment

Feet or glowing bronze suggest the fires of judgment

o The strength of feet and the glowing heat of a hot
fire represent the fierce judgment of God
o The trampling of the ungodly

So taken together, the images testify to Christs perfect

judgment and capacity to carry it out to the destruction of the
ungodly

o So to Thyatira, Christ reminds His Church that He is a Judge of His

Church

In v.19 the Church gets its only positive statement

o The Church in Thyatira is a church known for its good works

They have love for one another and others

They exhibit faith in that they are committed and pious

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Revelation 3A

They are a Church of service, remaining active

And they have perseverance, not tiring easily in their works

o But beginning in v.20, the rest of the letter turns negative, and its one of
the lengthier letters

Jesus begins by saying He has against them that they tolerate

the woman Jezebel

Much speculation concerning the identity of Jezebel

The original Jezebel was a Phoenician wife of the evil king Ahab

She persuaded her weak and godless husband to commit

many immoralities in the Northern Kingdom of Israel

Her name has become synonymous with an evil, immoral

manipulating woman
o Theres a reason few girls are called Jezebel today
o And neither were many women using that name
in the day the letter was written
o So this Jezebel was probably not called by that
name but was some other female influence in the
Thyatira church

So just as the earlier letter to Pergamum included a reference to

Balaam, this letter has a reference to a Jezebel

The names are used as stand-ins for a real name

Their substitute names tell us much about what they

were doing

The behavior of this woman in Thyatira is identical to the things credited to the
original Jezebel in Israel
o The Jezebel said it was appropriate for believers in that city to eat the
meat sacrificed to idols in the temples or guild suppers

And to engage in the immoralities that accompanied those

meals

o Clearly this was wrong, as Paul himself had written against the practice
in his earlier letters to Corinth
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Revelation 3A

But this negative influence brought the church in Thyatira into

sin

o Christ says he gave time for the woman to repent, but she didnt want to
cease her immoralities

Which kind of repent is Jesus suggesting here?

To know the answer, look at the consequence

The consequence for the woman is she will be

incapacitated through a sickness

And those who participate in her immoralities will also

suer great tribulation, unless they repent of what she
promoted

The womans children or followers will also die by a

pestilence

These are not eternal judgment but bodily judgment, suggesting

repent with a small r

The eect of these judgments will be to make clear to the rest of the churches
that Christ is at work in His role of judge over the church
o And they He awards outcomes to His children according to their deeds

In the day of the letter we can imagine that those who were
following this Jezebels teaching suddenly succumbed to a
disease

Probably one related to their immoral practices

Possibly something unique and visible, like leprosy or

smallpox

Those who were committing immorality were dying while those

who had abstained werent

It would have been obvious to the rest of the church that

Christ had brought judgment against the sinners

Finally, to the obedient believers, Christ gives no other burden

o The sense is that they are already burden enough by a church that
practiced many works and brought many pressures upon the body to
conform to the Jezebel teachings

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Revelation 3A

Jesus says I place no more burdens on them

In Greek, there is a word play at work

Jesus will cast Jezebel and her children into suering

and tribulation

But Jesus will not cast any more burden on the believers

o To those who believe (overcome), they will have the authority over
nations to rule with Christ

Thyatira is a church ruled by a Jezebel placing burdens on the

believers

But in the kingdom, the role will reverse and the true believers
will have the power to rule with Christ

And they will have the morning star, a symbol for Christ Himself
in Rev 22:16

Turning to the prophetic view of this church, lets start by remembering this
church begins at the end of the previous church period
o That period of Pergamum ended with with Roman Empire in about 600
AD

When the Roman Empire fell, it disintegrated in stages over

many centuries

Initially, it split East-West

The West was ruled from Constantinople

The East was ruled from Rome in Italy

Slowly the two halves dissolved into the nations of Europe and
the Middle East

o But as the Roman Empire crumbled, a new power rose in its place that
continued to wield power across the new borders

Remember that during the period of Pergamum, the church and

the Empire were thoroughly married, hence the name
Pergamum

This married church was set loose from her attachment to the
Roman Empire

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Revelation 3A

And the church now stood alone and continued to rule

the people from Rome

It became known as the Roman Catholic (or worldwide)

church

o Look back through the letter to Thyatira with this church period in mind

The name means continual sacrifice, which refers to one of the

worst Catholic heresies, that the communion bread is the literal
body of Christ

And as His physical body, it is re-sacrificed every time it is

broken at the altar

Altars are only for sacrifice, so the Catholic Mass is

understood to be a re-enactment of the sacrifice of Christ,
hence continual sacrifice

The Catholic church period also introduced many more heresies

and spiritual immoralities including:

Justification through works rather than faith alone

Worship of idols and images

Celibacy of priests (Nicolatian teaching)

Confessing sins to an intercessor other than Christ

Purgatory

Indulgences

Penance

Worship of Mary

These practices were spiritual immorality similar to the way the

real Jezebel corrupted Israel

In fact, anytime a woman is used to stand for something in

Scripture, it stands for a religious system or group

Israel is represented as a woman, and harlot

The Church is represented as the Bride of Christ

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Revelation 3A

The one world religion of Tribulation will be represented

as the Harlot later in Revelation

So just as the original Jezebel gained her power through a

marriage to a world leader

Likewise the Jezebel of the Thyatira period is the Catholic

church

Which gained its authority through a marriage to the

Empire, and later other state governments

Consider the judgment Jesus promised to this period of Church history

o Jesus said that if Jezebel didnt repent, she would be made sick

Together with her children, they would suer at the hands of a

great pestilence

It would be a great tribulation

o When we look at history, we see this exact judgment fulfilled during this
period of church history

Jesus says in v.21 that He gave Jezebel (the Catholic Church) the
opportunity to repent

As Jesus promised, the Thyatira church began at around 600 AD,

and continued for at least a thousand years

By the thirteen century, the eects of this Jezebel had

influenced the entire Christian world
o It was centered in the Eastern Orthodox church in
Constantinople and in the Roman Church in Rome

SLIDE 3-4
Then in the later 13th century, Jesus judgment of a
terrible pestilence came to the Jezebel and her children

o The Black Plague first appeared at the dawn of the fourteenth century

It started in Constantinople, resulting in nearly 40% of that city

dying as a result

The disease spread next by cargo ships to the Sicily and it

quickly moved north into the rest of Italy becoming
centered in Rome

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Revelation 3A

By the mid fourteenth century all Europe was infected

It killed as much as 60% of Europes population

And it severely and permanently weakened the Catholic

Church

Since priests and monks were often pressed into service

in caring for the sick, they were among the worst hit
leaving the church leadership devastated

Fearing spread of the disease, people refused to attend

mass

SLIDE 3-5
o Since there was no understanding of its cause, the common view in that
day was it was a judgment from God

It was a great tribulation for those who ensured it

They died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in ... ditches and
covered with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug. And I,
Agnolo di Tura ... buried my five children with my own hands ... And so many died that all
believed it was the end of the world.
How many valiant men, how many fair ladies, breakfast with their kinfolk and the same
night supped with their ancestors in the next world! The condition of the people was
pitiable to behold. They sickened by the thousands daily, and died unattended and without
help. Many died in the open street, others dying in their houses, made it known by the
stench of their rotting bodies. Consecrated churchyards did not suffice for the burial of
the vast multitude of bodies, which were heaped by the hundreds in vast trenches, like
goods in a ships hold and covered with a little earth.
Two Italian Writers
SLIDE 3-6
o This period began in 600AD and ended in 1587AD, because of an event
that triggered the next church period

So fill out our charts

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SLIDE 3-7

Revelation 3A

The next church is Sardis

Rev. 3:1 To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God
and the seven stars, says this: I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are
alive, but you are dead.
Rev. 3:2 Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I
have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.
Rev. 3:3 So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent.
Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what
hour I will come to you.
Rev. 3:4 But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and
they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.
Rev. 3:5 He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase
his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before
His angels.
Rev. 3:6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Sardis means remnant or those escaping

SLIDE 3-8

o Today the city is in ruins in Turkey

The ancient city was built on a mountain and was protected by a

virtually impregnable watch tower and fortress

Though many attackers tried to take the city, none succeeded

o On one day a local slave in the city noticed one of the guard soldiers on
the city wall lose his helmet over the wall and down the side of the
mountain

Thinking the helmet lost, the slave was surprised to see the same
soldier appearing a short time later from out of the side of the
mountain and then climb down the hillside to retrieve his
helmet

The the soldier climbed back up the mountain,

disappeared into the rocks and then reappeared a short
time later back at his post on the citadel walls, helmet in
hand

The slave realized that there must be a secret entrance into the
city through the mountainside

In 214 BC, Antiochus the Great lay siege to the city, and during
the siege this slave was captured

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Revelation 3A

10

The slave oered to tell the invading forces of a secret

entrance into the city in exchange for his safety

When the help of the slave, Antiochus conquered the city

through the secret entrance, like a their in the night

The patron god of the city was Cybele, an Asian mother-goddess

o She was said to raise the dead

She was worshipped as the mother of all life and of all gods

Worship included the usual immoral practices

o The people of Sardis were particularly focused on pleasure seeking and

luxury

It was known as a decadent city

Turning to the letter, the description of Christ to this city was that Christ had
the Seven Spirits of God and the seven stars (or angels)
o The emphasis on the whole (i.e., 7) Spirit and the angels of the churches
communicates the authenticity of the church

It is a Spirit-led church with the full protection of Christ through

His angels

o Sardis was a true church but a weak one in several ways

First Jesus says they have a name they are alive but they are dead

The church was known to be a spirit-led church, but in

lifestyle and deeds they were dead

They were like those described by James when he wrote

that faith without works is dead or useless

Thats why Jesus says He has not found their deeds complete in
His sight

Sardis was commanded to wake up and strengthen what

remained so that they might regain a better testimony
and judgment

o Consider Jesus warning to the church

If they do not wake up, then Jesus will return when they do not
expect

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Revelation 3A

11

This is a concerning thing if you are not ready for your

masters return

The New Testament is full of warnings to believer to be

ready for that coming day of judgment

Be ready with a life of deeds done in faith so that your

faith will have been useful to Christ, rather than useless as
James warns

Notice that the deeds must be considered complete in the sight

of My God referring to the Father

Ultimately, our judgment will depend on whether our

deeds meet the Fathers expectations
o Deeds that were prepared beforehand for us to
complete, according to Paul

Eph. 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
o Then Jesus says that there are a few people in Sardis who have not
soiled their garments

They will walk with Jesus in white, for they are worthy

What does this picture mean?

What is a soiled garment and how do you become worthy

to wear a white one?

The fact that Jesus is talking about being worthy of an award

takes us out of a discussion of salvation, since it is never said to
be earned

Nor are we ever declared to be worthy of salvation

o Following our rules of interpretation, we look elsewhere in the book for

a definition of the symbol, in this case a white garment

Rev. 19:7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the
Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.
Rev. 19:8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine
linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

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Revelation 3A

12

So in keeping with Jesus warning, there are some who have

incomplete works and have soiled garments

But other have done the deeds of faith and have earned a
reward for their righteous acts

o Putting both the description of Christ together with His exhortation and
the warning, its clear that Jesus knows this is a true church that has the
Spirit

But it is also a lazy or inactive church without works consistent

with its faith and confession

And its at risk of a bad judgment when the Lord returns to judge
each believer in Sardis

o Finally, Jesus tells the overcomer (the believer) will thus be clothed in
white garments

The word thus means in this manner

Jesus is reminding the believer that this is the way to earn the
white garments

But as well, the believer will not be erased from the book
of Life

And Jesus will surely confess their name before God, just
as Jesus promised

Matt. 10:32 Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him
before My Father who is in heaven.

And they will not be erased from the Book of Life

The Book of Life records all those who are saved (we will
see it later in Revelation)

The word erased causes some students to be concerned that

Jesus is implying that loss of salvation is possible

The wording in Greek is simply an artful way of saying

that believers are assured of being found in the book

Remember, the word not is in front of the word erase for

all overcomers (believers)

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Revelation 3A

13

So what period of history does this church represent?

o The name is the first clue

The name means a remnant, those escaping

The Roman Catholic church was so weakened in authority after

the Black Plague, it helped give rise to the Reformation

The Wikipedia article on Reformation opens this way:

The efforts of the self-described "reformers" who objected to ("protested") the

doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Catholic Church, led to the creation
of new national Protestant churches. This was encouraged by the series of events such as
the black death...that led to the loss of people's faith in the church.
o The formation of the protestant church was a direct consequence of the
heresy and apostasy of the Catholic Church

This church became the true church reflected in the way Jesus
says this period will have the seven Spirits of God

After 1517 AD, the true Church was now distinct from the
Catholic Church

o The Reformation brought about a recommitment to Biblical truth in the

doctrines of the Church

Most of the heresies of the Catholic Church were eliminated

The true Gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone in

Christ alone was restored

Yet some false practices remained like clergy-laity distinctions

and infant baptism

But with the return to orthodox teaching came an over emphasis on doctrines,
and creeds and orthodoxy and a dearth of works of charity and of seeking the
lost with the Gospel
o The Reformation church evolved into very much a club or a society

It had a name it was alive, in the sense that it maintained a good

testimony in its creeds and in its defense of Gods word against
the attacks of Catholicism

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Revelation 3A

14

But in many ways it was a dead church, in the sense of James

letter

The church lacked works of faith and was useless in

ministering to the needs of Christs children

o Reformation church were still married to their respective state

governments

Money flowed from congregants to the governments and church

authorities

Most of the money was spent on impressive church buildings

rather than on the needs of the believers or on preaching to the
unreached

So Jesus warned that he would visit the church when it does not expect Him
and pass judgment
o When the Reformation Church began, one protestant faith dominated

Lutherans

o But in 1648, the Thirty Years war between Protestants and Catholics
ended with the Peace of Westfalia

This treaty established the basis for modern Europe

Among its many tenets, Christians were permitted to worship

when and where they please

It protected Christian expression in greater forms

And the Reformation Church lost control of its own creeds

o New Protestant faiths emerged

And the Reformation church eventually gave way to a worldwide

awakening of faith

And a new evangelism to the New World

Finally the works of faith were re-ignited in a new

generation

o So the dates of the Sardis church are 1517-1648

Fill out the chart

SLIDE 3-9
SLIDE 3-10

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