Revelation is one of the easiest books in the Bible to understand.  It’s the only one that comes with its own divine outline (Revelation 1:19).  Write the things which you have seen!  Chapter 1.  Write the things which are!  Chapters 2 and 3 or the church age.  Write the things which will take place after this!  Chapter 4 begins with what?  “after these things!”

And so chapters 4 and 5 what’s the scene?  The church in heaven!  Meanwhile, back on earth, all hell is breaking loose.  The Great Tribulation has begun having been triggered by the rapture of the church after chapters 2 and 3 (the church is not spoken of again on earth) and the Antichrist being revealed.  Chapters 6 – 19, the Great Tribulation.  God’s wrath being poured out on a Christ rejecting earth.

Yet 1 Thessalonians 5:9 brings the church great comfort as Paul wrote “for God has not appointed us to suffer His wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  And so the church…where are they?  Chapters 4 and 5 tell us…chapters 4 and 5 show us, the church, those that have been born again into a real relationship with the Father through the sufficient sacrifice of Jesus the Christ, is enjoying a seven year honey moon period with Jesus called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!

But when does that occur?  Good news!  Chapters 4 and 5 come before chapters 6 through 19.  Always have, always does, always will and so the church is taken out of the way as explained in the divine outline of the Book prior to the Great Tribulation upon the earth. 

And there at the end of the Great Tribulation, the end of chapter 19, Jesus comes back to earth to make war against the devil and against the evil kings of the earth…His second coming..and who’s with Him?  You got it!  We are!  We come riding in with Jesus to save the day.  The prince on the White Horse there in Revelation 19.  And then Chapter 20.  Satan is bound for 1,000 years during the mellenial reign of Jesus from Jerusalem on the earth and then Satan released one last time to tempt the saints, try his best, in order to prove their faith and then he and all the fakers are done away with forever at the Great White Throne Judgment.  Then chapter 21…all things made new…a new heaven and a new earth…New Jerusalem prepared by God descends from heaven to the earth and we live happily ever after!!

Now tonight we find ourselves back in act 2.  Chapters 2 and 3.  The church age.  These seven churches aren’t all the churches that were in existence at the time but they represent the church in its totality.  God never does anything to half completion.  He never leaves something incomplete and therefore He instructs John to write these seven letters to these seven churches and as we’ve read through them we’ve seen that there is quite a complete picture of the church as a whole in these letters.

Now these letters to these seven churches are to be applied, they are to be understood…locally as at the time there in Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey, there really were these places…these churches and so John could and did take these letters back to the churches there in Asia Minor.  They are also to be applied historically as we can survey what Jesus wrote and then we can look back into church history, back into secular history and see that they are right on the money in accuracy as to the conditions of those churches.

These letters must also be applied, understood, accepted personally!  Why do I say that?  Well I don’t.  Jesus says that!  At the end of each letter what does He say?  “He who has an ear…let him hear.”  Well, that’s us!  And we know that if we hear, if we read and if we keep what He has written, great will be His blessing and revelation upon our lives.

These letters must also be applied theologically and prophetically as they represent not only the church but also the church age.  Periods of time, phases that the church has seen and been through over the centuries.  Ephesus, the first church.  Representing the time period of about 33AD to 100AD.  And what was their issue?  They had left their first love.

Smyrna, representing the time period of about 101AD to 312AD.  The persecuted church.  Ten waves or ten days of severe persecution as millions of Christians were killed lawfully by the world.  Then, Pergamos, the compromising church, the church that put an end to lawful persecution under Constantine and married the church to the world.  This church came into existence around 312AD and came to an end around 590AD.  Which brings us to our study tonight.

Revelation Chapter 2 Verse 18

• Thyatira was to the east and south of Pergamos.  It was situated to the north east of Smyrna and Ephesus.  And so if you picture it in your head from south to north you had Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyatira and then Pergamos.  Actually it was quite close to Pergamos, only about 30 miles and possibly because of this close proximity it was controlled by the rulers of Pergamos.  By controlling Thyatira, the rulers there in Pergamos could protect the southeastern approach to their city.
• Interesting as we looked at Pergamos last time being the “compromising church.”  The church that allowed and initiated and instated the “questionable marriage” or the “perverted marriage” of the world to the church.
• Well the world and the church had a baby, and they named it Thyatira.
• Thyatira is known as the corrupt church.  And truly corruption or decay or death will always follow this idea of compromise.  Whether in a church, in your marriage, in your parenting, in your thinking…decomposition, falling apart will soon follow.
• A theologian once said, “A wife who is 85% faithful to her husband is not faithful at all and just like that there is no such thing as part-time loyalty to Jesus Christ.”  In reality there isn’t any loyalty that isn’t all-in yet this church, like its parent church there in Pergamos, gives us a picture of this type of effort.
• The church in Thyatira represents the church age directly following Pergamos around 590AD and this church, just like the others we will look at as we survey the remainder of chapter 2, remains today.  How do we know that? 
• How do we know that the next four churches are all still on the earth today?  Well Jesus talks about two things in each of the four remaining letters.  Two things that we don’t find in the first three letters to the first three churches (that are no longer on the scene…that age of church history is concluded).  Those two things are His second coming and the Great Tribulation.  That’s how we know they are current.  These remaining churches need to know what they will see, what they must prepare for.  Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos…no need to prepare for these things because you’ll be gone…not the remaining four. 
• Thyatira, just like the other churches that we will look at, remains even today.
• Notice, Jesus says “These things say the Son of God.”  This is epic because the first time that the phrase “Son of God” appears in the Bible is in Daniel Chapter 3 verse 25 when we are onlookers to the three that were thrown into the fire by Nebucadnezzer.  He looks into the fire and says, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God!”  And as we survey the remainder of the Bible, the Jews called Jesus the Son of God, John the Baptist called Jesus the Son of God, the centurion called Jesus the Son of God, the tempter or Satan himself calls Jesus the Son of God in Matthew 4, the people call Jesus the Son of God, the unclean spirits call Jesus the Son of God, the angel that appeared to Mary to tell her that she would bear a child called Jesus the Son of God, John the apostle, Nathanael, Martha, Philip, Paul all identifying Jesus, proof positive, first hand, explicitly as the Son of God…but never Jesus!  Never before now that is…
• You survey the scriptures and Jesus revealed yes that He was the promised One, the Messiah, that God was and is His Father…but these words, “These things says the Son of God…” never before spoken by Jesus.  Why?  Why now?  You see the church there in Thyatira had grown corrupt.  And Jesus, commanding a break through in their corruption, commanding the church there that had sold out to idolatry, reminds them of His authority.  And by doing so He asks them, poses to them, presents them with a question that you and I also face…and we all answer whether we own up to it or not…whether we take cognizant responsibility for our answer.
• Is He God or not.  If He is, there are great and direct and distinct ramifications.  The consequence is…if He is God then He must have the preeminence.  No matter what we’ve been taught, no matter what we’re in to…no matter how we feel or what we think is logically right or wrong.  If He is God then He is to be feared.  We make that choice each day.  As we either choose to live for Him and obey Him and believe Him or we choose to live for us…and in doing so, we deny Him. 
• And He says that His eyes are like a flame of fire and His feet like fine brass.  Fire and brass are strong symbols, strong types all over the Bible.  Fire speaks of purification…brass speaks of judgment. 
• And He goes on now to offer six things that are good about Thyatira.  Six, what an interesting number.  Surely He could have found only 5…so that His commendation would speak of lawfulness, or surely He could have found 7…maybe they had clean pews or something…so that His commendation would speak of completeness but no…He chooses 6 which is the number of man, the number of the flesh…and truly this church, even though He has commendation to offer, their works were performed, carried out, motivated by the flesh.

Chapter 18 Verse 19

• Notice works comes before love.  And works comes before service, faith and patience.  Complete and utter failure in ministry.  Love must always come first!  Love must always be the fuel, the motivation and the end goal!  The other way around…idolatry.  And so Jesus says the last are more than the first…more meaning more important, more meaning that they should be all….love, patience, service, faith should be all, should be more…are more in God’s economy always…than works.  Works are a result…love, patience, service and faith are fruit…the manifestation of a real walk with God…

Chapter 18 Verses 20 - 21

• Jezebel was probably not a real woman in the church there at Thyatira…Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess, was a character in the Old Testament, back in 1 Kings and so the assumption here made by Jesus, the implication by Jesus…know your Bibles! 
• Jezebel was a wicked wicked woman in the Old Testament.  Jehu called her “the most abominable woman.”  She was a daughter of a pagan king…the king of the Sidonians…who also was a priest of Ashteroth…the goddess of fertility…also known as Semiramus…also known as Diana…also known as Ishtar…and she was given to King Ahab in marriage.  King Ahab was the King of Israel and to that point he was the most wicked of kings yet.  The Bible records that he set up altars for Baal in Israel…why did he do that?  Where did he get that from? 
• Jezebel was a worshipper of Baal and Ashteroth.  Or Nimrod and Semeramus…the mystery Queen of Heaven Babylonian religion that we spoke of at length last week.
• And the story goes that Ahab her husband king we upset, saddened that a man named Naboth would not sell to him his land.  And so Jezebel there in 1 Kings says, “hey you’re the king!  Do what thou wilt!”  (which is the slogan of Luciferians by the way!)  “Tell you what hubby, I’ll get that land for you.”
• And so what did she do?  Well she couldn’t just go and murder him so she set up false accusations against Naboth accusing him of being apostate.  He was tried and put to death.  You see Ahab and Jezebel inherited the land, acquired the land in a power play and an inquisition.  Keep that in mind for a little bit later.
• Also keep in mind that even though your Bible might say “I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality” or maybe some of your Bible say “fornication” understand the word there is porneia and it doesn’t just pertain to illicit physical transgression…it also speaks of idolatry.   Often times this idea of a spiritual relationship with idolatry is presented in the Old Testament.  And so what Jesus is saying here is this.  This church, these leaders, these people, were not only allowing idolatry, their system was encouraging it! 

Revelation Chapter 2 Verse 22

• And so here we go.  Check this out.  This is major.  People say “will the church go through the tribulation?”  My answer, “not the true church.”  Not the ones that as the church of Ephesus cannot bear evil.  Not the ones that as the church in Smyrna endure persecution…not the ones that are truly born again unto a life of love and closeness with the Father like Jesus described that night to Nick in John Chapter 3.
• But Jesus here says, your idolatry, your religion, your life of self…consider it proof positive that there’s an issue…it’s called sin.  And if you do not repent, into the Tribulation you go….because you’re not truly saved.  You’ve divised a way, you’ve invented a method…just like Jezebel and Ahab, to grow in power and position and fortune and lands and you’ve mixed in false religion that says something other than what the Bible says, something other than what Jesus said, concerning salvation.  And it’s not going to work.  It will leave you behind.

Chapter 2 Verse 23

• This church has many children.  Very interesting.  Not just folks that attend.  In fact this church was rather small at the time that this letter was written…but it’s grown.  And in its growth, this church has produced many parent/child relationship churches.

Chapter 2 Verse 24

• It’s very interesting here that Jesus would say “depths of Satan.”  Satan of course is not a name.  It’s a title.  Its root means adversary or one who seeks his own.  Yet Jesus says “depths” here.  What’s interesting about that is that the priests of Ashteroth, the Queen of Heaven, they espoused that they alone knew the mysteries, the deep things of heaven and existence.  They had the direct line to the Sun God and the Moon Goddess and so people, just listen to us…
• What’s interesting is that we still see that today.  Because this church is still on this earth.  A religious system that employs an elite group who can absolve sin, who alone can speak to God and so they must be sought by the common people…even today, they hold service in a language that only they understand…isn’t that odd?  Latin.
• Oh here you go Matt.   You’re about to come down on the catholics.  Well look, if you think I’m hard on them come back next week when we look at the church of Sardis which represents the protestant churches…Jesus had nothing good to say about that church…so just hang in there, I’ll equally offend everyone by next week.
• I mean look the writing is on the wall!  The name Thyatira…literally means “continual sacrifice.”  Even today what is the mass?  The re-crucifixion of Jesus.  And the belief is that this killing again of the Savior brings about grace and salvation which is in stark contrast to “It is finished!”  And it encourages a debase life.  Do as you please all week and we’ll take care of all that at mass. 
• The holy communion in the catholic church…since the continual sacrifice continues, is believed to actually be the actual body of Christ and the actual blood of Christ.  That is why none of it can remain.  The priest will go to great lengths to make sure all of the bread is consumed and all of the wine is drank. 
• The doctrine of indulgences, the doctrine of pergatory, the doctrine of intercessory saints and the worship of Mary…nowhere, any of that, not a place, not a mention, in the Bible.  The last place we find Mary is in the beginning of Acts, there with the disciples and what do we read of her…nothing.  They were not looking to her, she didn’t even speak…her last words were all the way back in John Chapter 2, “whatever he says to you, do it!”  So where did it all come from?  The same place Jezebel came from…the Mystery Queen of Heaven Babylonian religion.
• Want one more nugget?  Ever seen the two keys that are always sewn onto the robe of the Pope?  What are they?  Where did they come from?  The priests of Babylon carried around two keys on them.  One was the key of a god named Janus, the other the key of a god named Cybele.  And with the authority of holding these keys, the Babylonian priest could approach the hidden things, the mysteries, the things that were locked away that pertained to the heavens.  Today the Pope emblazons on his arms these two keys as the ensigns of his spiritual authority and he is believed to be what….infallible. 
• But look what Jesus says here…He calls out a remnant.  He says I know there are some that simply seek Me yet they find themselves in this false religious center…you have enough problems!  I put no other burden on you…

Chapter 2 Verses 25 -26

• There, “hold fast til I come.”  First time Jesus talks about His return.
• Notice Jesus says here…to him I will give power over the nations.  Jezebel and Ahab wanted power, they wanted land, so they took it.  “Do as thou wilt”  The Roman Catholic church today is the richest organization in the world in land holdings and shear wealth.  Vatican City is it’s own recognized nation!  According to the CIA, it has its own economy, its own military, its own government…and its net worth, unmeasurable.  How did it obtain all of that wealth?  Who is the richest man on earth?  Bill Gates, some Saudi King?  Nope…you can measure their net worth…
• But notice Jesus says here…all that power you want, all that land, all that position…overcome and I’ll GIVE it to you!!  Oh but we want it NOW!  So we’ll have it!  By conquest, as a gift from the darkness of this world and in return, we will absolve sin…idolatry…all in the spirit of Jezebel.

Chapter 2 Verse 28

• What is the Morning Star?  Well not what, but who.  Jesus said in Revelation 22 verse 16, “I m the Bright and Morning Star.” 
• Don’t buy into this system people.  We are lulled into a sleep and programmed to place position and power and politics and wealth above salvation and eternity and love!  And we end up dashed to pieces instead of soft, wet clay in the potter’s hands!  Don’t fall prey to the world system, the capitalistic system, the religious system, this Luciferian system that says “Do what thou wilt!”  And if you overcome, and keep the works of Jesus (love, grace, truth, suffering, service) then Jesus you will have!

Chapter 2 Verse 29

• He who has an ear, and that’s all of us, but do we really?  Does our heart hear?  Do we even care?  Will you at all, in any way change your life deliberately and challenge the nation of desires within you…for the sake of knowing Jesus.