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.

"Eyes" in Greek is "ophthalmous" from which we have "opthamology." And doctors who are "opthamalogists." They care for our eyes.

Thyatira today is the city of Akhisar in western Turkey. Originally a military colony established to protect the trade routes between Pergamum and Sardis, the city was a rough and tumble sort of out-post town, always ready for the possibility of warfare. It was often used as a garrison for soldiers. Coins found in Thyatira show a horseman with a battle axe over his shoulder going out to conquer and dash his enemies to pieces.

Thyatira was located 40 miles south-east of Pergamum. It had shrines to various gods located throughout the city. It was important center of trade and manufacture in various materials, including: weaving, leather, pottery, and bronze. A guild of wool workers is also mentioned in inscriptions found there. It was also known as a center for the trade in luxury purple dye. Lydia, a household owner and was in the purple-dye trade, was one of the first Christians from Thyatira. The Church of Thyatira began by meeting in her house, and she supplied room and board to Paul and his companions.

• 12 From there we travelled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
• 13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.
• 14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.
• 15 When she and the members of her household were baptised, she invited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us.

The guilds of Thyatira controlled trading in wool, leather, linen, bronze, garments, dye, pottery, baking - and everyone engaged in these trades had to belong to a guild. Anyone refusing to join would have to give up their trade and lose their prosperity. The problem was that guild meetings began and ended with a formal sacrifice to the gods (like the formal saying grace at a mayor’s banquet), and the guild probably met in a temple. Also, these meals often ended in drunkenness and immorality. Was it possible for Christians to participate in this, and if not, what would happen to their livelihood?

The leading local god of Thyatira was Tyrimnos, the supposed son of Zeus. Tyrimnos worship was mixed with the worship of Caesar, the Roman Emperor, who was sometimes called "a son of the gods." The choice in Thyatira was clearly presented: Which "son of God" should I worship?

Jesus says: "I AM THE SON OF GOD."

Each of the seven letters to the seven churches repeats something about Jesus from the vision of chapter one. His description for Thyatira is: His eyes of burning fire. His feet of burning bronze.

These are symbols of absolute knowledge and judgment. He sees and knows all. He is ready to trample on that which is evil.

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.

Jesus always says "I know" to the seven churches:

• To Ephesus: I know your deeds and your hard work.
• To Smyrna: I know your afflictions and your poverty.
• To Pergamum: I know where you live.
• To Thyatira: I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

Jesus would say the same to Wayside or any church. "I KNOW!" He stands in the midst of the seven lampstands, which are the seven churches. He is in our midst. He knows who we are, and what we think and feel and do. And this omniscience extends to each of us as indivuals, too. Jesus knows YOU better than you know yourself. And yet He loves us!

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.

"Sexual immorality" is "porneusai" in Greek, from which we have the English "pornography."

There have been LEGITIMATE prophetesses in the Bible. Women who spoke the word of God, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit...Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Hulda, Anna, 4 daughters who prophesied, Elizabeth, and Mary the mother of Jesus. Several Bible chapters record the Word of God spoken by these inspired women. But Jezebel was a wicked woman, the the so-called prophetess in Thyatira was a wicked false teacher.

Jezebel is a famous figure, and evil queen, from the Old Testament. Here's some of her story:

Jezebel was the daughter of the King of the Sidonians, and she married King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom, and got him to worship Baal instead of Jehovah.

In I Kings chapter 16 we read of Ahab:

• 31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.
• 32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria(Israel).
• 33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.

Jezebel hunted down and murdered God's true prophets. One hundred of which were hidden and cared for by Obadiah (Ahab's steward, but a godly man). She fed 400 prophets of Baal at her dining room table. She was an open enemy of Elijah, and threatened him with death. She arranged for the murder of a man who owned a vineyard, so her husband could take it for himself. She practiced witchcraft. She was eventually thrown out of an upper palace window, died from the impact, and was eaten by dogs.

Jezebel is named only once in the New Testament: right here in Revelation 2:20. There was a woman in the church in Thyatira, apparently named Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess, and led the church members into sexual immorality and idol worship. AND SHE WAS TOLERATED BY THE CHURCH!

There is a lot of stuff like this being taught and tolerated in the American church in our time. For example:

On MSNBC.com, August 11, 2007, this just appeared in the news last week:

(Large main-line denomination)xxxxxxxxx OK pastors in gay couples
‘That is huge,’ says spokesman for 4.8 million-member church
Reuters
Updated: 1:06 p.m. ET Aug 11, 2007
CHICAGO - Clergy members who are in homosexual relationships will be able to serve as pastors, the largest U.S. xxxxxxxxxxx body said Saturday. The xxxxxxxxxxx Church in America passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in "faithful committed same-gender relationships."
The resolution passed by a vote of 538-431.

This is nothing new. This has already been a huge issue with most of the larger American denominations. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many other kinds of idolatry and sexual immorality are tolerated today in our churches.

21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.
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.
23 I will strike her children dead. 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.

Note:

1. God is patient. God gives people time to repent. "He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," we read in 2 Peter 3:9

The Greek verb to repent is "metanoeo." It literally means to change, to turn around. Repentance is a mixture of feeling, decision and action. We feel grief and guilt about our sins. We decide to turn from our sin to Christ. We actually DO turn from our sins to Christ.

There is no salvation without repentance. (That's not to say we must be perfect in order to turn to Christ.)

Remember the old hymn, "Just As I Am."

Just as I am, without one plea
But that thy blood was shed for me
And that thou bidd’st me come to thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need, in thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just a I am; thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;
Now to be thine, yea, thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

2. However, God's patience is not infinite. It is not eternal.

3. God will strike with suffering (a blessing really, another push toward repentance); and eventually with death.

Lesson: You cannot forget that God is holy and righteousness, and that He demands repentance and holy living in His churches.

"All the churches will know." The word "know" in Greek is the same wrote as Gnosticism: the doctrine of secret knowledge. And this may be a play on words leading up to the next verse.

24 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):

What are "Satan's so-called deep secrets?" He is refering back to the idolatry and sexual immorality, which are presented by the false teachers, not as sin, but as advanced Christianity. Everything is re-interpreted. Those who are in the inner circle, and get the special teachings, understand. This is the Pagan Gnosticism that was presented persuasively these past few years by Dan Brown's Da Vinci code book and movie.

But God says in Isaiah 5:20-21....

• 20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
• 21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

25 Only hold on to what you have until I come.

Part of the Christian life is simply PRESERVATION. There is such a thing as an aggressive advance. "Like a mighty army moves the church of God....Onward Christian soldiers!" But there will also be times and places in history where we will have to circle the wagons and just defend ourselves, and hang on to what we have. The Book of Jude speaks of this....

• 1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
• 2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
• 3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
• 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

We don't know, and don't want to know, the "secret knowledge," which is nothing but Satan's lies. But we do know that Jesus is Lord.

26 To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations-
27 'He will rule them with an iron sceptre; he will dash them to pieces like pottery'- just as I have received authority from my Father.

Authority over the nations of the earth has been given to Jesus by the Father, and Jesus says He plans to share that authority with those who love Him.

This is an authority of POWER, not of persuasion. We NOW live in an age of persuasion, an age of Gospel preaching and appeals. But that day will eventually end. Jesus must rule with a rod of iron. He must dash the wicked to pieces. This seems to imply that there will come a time in which Jesus and the Saints rule with a strong hand over those who are not Christians. How and when will such a time come to pass?

1) The postmillennials say that as the Gospel is preached, the percentage of Christians on the earth will grow to the point where grass roots believers will be a majority, and governments will then become Christian governments with Christ-centered laws and values, and the wicked will be checked by Christian governors, Christian armies and Christian police. Finally, when the entire world has been won to Christ, Jesus will return to set up the eternal Kingdom.

2) The premillennials say that the world is now getting worse and worse, but that Jesus will return to rescue us. After Jesus returns there will AT THAT TIME still be a world full of unbelievers, having children, living as they do now, and that Jesus and Christians will rule from Heaven over such a world.

3) The amillennials say that we are living in the Millennium already, and that the Church is Christ's Kingdom. They say that we must somehow spiritualize this idea of Jesus reigning over unbelievers with an iron rod.

I'm not going to give you my opinion. I'm trying hard to avoid giving you my mere opinion about anything in the Book of Revelation! But I will emphasize the important thing: Jesus has all authority. Jesus WILL reign in glory. Those who oppose Him will be dashed to pieces. Remember Psalm 2:

• 1 ¶ Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
• 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
• 3 "Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters."
• 4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
• 5 Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
• 6 "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill."
• 7 ¶ I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
• 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
• 9 You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
• 10 ¶ Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.
• 11 Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.
• 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

28 I will also give him the morning star.

Isaiah 14:12 calls Satan the "morning star."

"How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!"

The New Testament (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) says that Satan is an "angel of light."

• 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
• 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
• 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

But Satan is merely wearing a mask. He is a pretender, a usurper, to the throne of Christ. Revelation 22:16 says Jesus is the Morning Star...

16 "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."

Star in Greek is "astera." (note our English word "asteroid.") The Morning Star is Jesus Himself. Those who love and serve Him will have His friendship for all eternity.

29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

AMEN!