Thytira – The Compromising Church – Sermon 8 September, 2013

Thyatira – The Compromising Church

Rev. 2:18-29

So far, we have examined three of the seven churches in the book of Revelation; the Church in Ephesus, the Church in Smyrna and the church in Pergamum. The church of Ephesus did many good deeds, but they had forsaken their primary love. Therefore Jesus calls them to repent and turn back to their first love. The church of Smyrna had faced many persecutions and kept the faith and Jesus was happy to award them with the crown of life. The church of Pergamum was tolerating the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and the teaching of Nicolaitans.

Today we will look at the Church in Thyatira.

It’s interesting to note that the longest letter is written to the smallest city mentioned in these chapters, which was a significant economic centre.

What is happening here that had Jesus so upset? He was upset because this church had allowed the worst possible sin. What would God say to the churches today that practice the same thing?

Thyatira was a smaller city and had a temple to Apollos the sun god, but it was not a centre for idol worship like the other cities. This was a centre for business of wool, silk, leather and many others. There were many public meetings and luncheons were organised, where many people conducted their business and signed business contracts. During the lunches they were offered food offered to the idols. It was difficult to keep the Christian principles for the believers living in similar situations.

Jesus is referred as the Son of God and described here like a warrior; eyes like blazing fire and feet like burnished bronze. He saw all the works and the services of the church as well as its weaknesses. He said: “I know your deed, your love and faith, your services and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first”. What more He wanted and demanded from the church. As you see the list is long. Not one, not two, but six positive things this church had.

Jesus knows well what His church does and how it lives. The members of this church had done their share with faith, love, humbleness, patience and hard work. But all this was not enough for Jesus.

Today the church could do great deeds and register good results. But Jesus’ expectation is that with this all success to see the steady steps of a non-compromising church. Jesus told to the church of Thyatira I have something against you. The church had accepted the norms, the ideas and the principles of the evil. Instead of keeping its principles it had allowed sin to come in.

Here we see John doing what he had done in each of the previous letters.  Used the history of the city and familiar marks; he presented those pictures to give a judgment to the church.

The prophetess Jezebel enticed and convinced the Israelites to add Baal worship with their worship of Jehovah. This was an act of compromising. The Gospel cannot be compromised.  God punished them and her, because of that unacceptable compromise.

Because of His love to the church Christ condemned the members of the church and warned them saying: “Hold on to what you have until I come”. The church to be perfect church should not do any compromise, especially in Christian principles.

Many churches today have become like Thyatira

Church after church have gone away from condemning sin and continually water down the gospel to a point that whatever you believe is fine. Nowhere in the Bible have we seen God accept that kind of compromise with the world.

God finally had it with this Jezebel. Verses 21-23 tell us that Jesus had given them opportunity to repent, but they hadn’t.

That unrepentance was going to cost them. The time for Jezabel Judgment had come.

Now was the time for Thyatira to repent. God told them what the judgment was; what Jezebel was going to be. He told them that if they don’t repent, they too will be judged as she was.

This congregation was doing things that were right. They weren’t completely evil, they were corrupted. God commended them for their love and faith. He commended them for their service and perseverance. He commended them for continual growth. The one thing that was saving this church was the fact that they were growing in their faith.

But they were corrupted, they had compromised the Gospel, they were in danger of judgment if they didn’t change.

With the warning, there was a call for victory and awarding, which puts the believer on the right track. The expectation of God is clear, perfection. To be part of the body of Jesus Christ does not know weakness. Therefore repenting and being firm is important and could be accomplished by rejecting the flaming arrows of the evil.

This is not possible without Christ. We will face trials and many currents, but we should oppose them. It does not matter how good we are and what good deeds we have, we should never register compromise.

But, because they were growing in their faith, God had held off their judgment to give them time to repent. He wants all to repent. If the church is truly seeking to grow in faith, as soon as it learns of its error, it should be willing to repent.

Are we compromised?

Have we become corrupted in our faith?

We have time to repent. God wants us to repent more than anything.

Krikor Youmshajekian