Letter :The Church of

ThyatiraThe Church Under

Pressure

“The longest and most difficult of the 7 letters is addressed to the least known, least important and least remarkable of the cities.”

Ruins of

Thyatira

Thyatira•First established as a military outpost.•No natural fortifications.•Came under Roman control in 190 B.C.

Pliny the Elder referred to …

“ …Thyatira and other

unimportant cities.”

“There were more trade guilds in

Thyatira than in any other town of

its size in Asia.”William Barclay

First Point

Jesus affirms the church that perseveres

under pressure.

Revelation 218 “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.

Revelation 219 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

The Church in Thyatira faced a

difficult challenge!•Pagan religions had penetrated and pervaded the trade guilds.•True Christians were in danger of being black-balled in the workplace.

Jesus commended the Thyatiran believers for identifying themselves with Him despite the consequences.

•Their faith was real.•Their faith was tough.•Their faith was growing.

Dr. Josef Tson

Romanian Missionary

Society

Matthew 16:25For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will

find it.

Second Point

Jesus sternly warns those within the church who

tolerate evil.

Revelation 220 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.

Revelation 221 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 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,

Revelation 223 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.

Queen Jezebel •Key sponsor of

Baal cult.•Ruthless murderer•Threatened God’s prophets with death.

Revelation 224 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.

2 Peter 315 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,

2 Peter 316 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

2 Peter 317 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.

New Expressions of Antinomianism

“It is high time for the church… to get back to proclaiming the only message that matters—

and the only message we have—the Word about God’s one-

way love for sinners. Tullian

Tchividjian

New Expressions of AntinomianismIt is time for us to abandon, once for all, our play-it-safe religion and get drunk on

grace. Two-hundred proof, unflinching grace.

Tullian Tchividjian

New Expressions of Antinomianism

It’s shocking and scary, unnatural and

undomesticated, but it is also the only thing that can set us free and light the church—

and the world—on fire.”Tullian

Tchividjian

Third Point

Jesus promises those within the church that

resist evil a place of authority at His side.

Revelation 224 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.

Revelation 225 Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations,

Revelation 227 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.

Revelation 228 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Psalm 2: A Messianic Psalm

7 I will tell of the decree:The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

Psalm 29 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

The Star"I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth. (Numbers 24:17)