1. You’ve Got Mail
Letter to Thyatira

2. Revelation 2:18-29
“18 "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

3. bronze. 19"'I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 20 But I have this against you, that you

4. 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. 21 I

5. 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

6. tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 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

7. each of you as your works deserve
each of you as your works deserve. 24 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

8. lay on you any other burden
lay on you any other burden. 25 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

9. nations, 27 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. 28 And I will give him the

10. morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Revelation 2:18-29

11. You’ve Got Mail
Letter to Thyatira

12. I. Thyatira ---
Jezebel’s city

13. II. Location of Thyatira

14. 40 miles southeast of Pergamum

15. III. Trade Guilds

16. Today, we would call a trade guild a UNION…

17. Today we would call a trade guild a UNION…
TRADE GUILDS:
weavers – tanners – bonze cobblers – pottery workers

18. Thyatira’s most well-known Christian convert was…

19. Thyatira’s most well-known Christian convert was…
…Lydia (mentioned in Acts 16),

20. Unlike our unions in America, members of a guild worshiped the god of a particular profession.

21. If you DID NOT BELONG to a Guild you got…

22. Pergamum was center of emperor worship…

23. Pergamum was center of emperor worship…
Thyatira was the capital for the Guilds…

24. POPULAR ROMAN GODS
Apollo Bacchus Ceres
Cupid Diana Faunus
Fortune Hebe Janus
Juno Jupiter Juntas
Lares Libertas Mars
Mercury Ops Quirinus
Minerva Mars Vesta

25. Bacchus - God of wine and pleasure
Isis - Egyptian goddess of fertility
Jupiter - God of the sky
Hercules - God of victory commercial activities
Mercury - Messenger of the gods of trade
Minerva - Goddess of trade guilds
Venus - Goddess of love, beauty and prostitutes
Quirinus – rape of the Sabine women

26. Every Guild had a god. For example, your local:

27. Every Guild had a god. For example, your local:
electrician had a Guild god…

28. Every Guild had a god. For example your local:
electrician had a Guild god…
plumber had a Guild god…

29. Every Guild had a god. For example your local:
electrician had a Guild god…
plumber had a Guild god…
friendly telephone company…

30. Every Guild had a God. For example your local:
electrician had a Guild god…
plumber had a Guild god…
friendly telephone company…
Internet service provider...

31. IV. Real purpose for the Guild gods...

32. IV. Real purpose for the Guild gods...
These guild gods would enable you to drink a little more often.

33. During the early days of the Empire, it was against Roman law to DRINK INTOXICATATING DRINKS except at the feast of your god.

34. Marcus Aurelius "meditations."
“multiplicity of Roman gods and Roman Guilds is the fact that that's the way we can get drunk.”

35. You would come to your guild:

36. You would come to your guild:
drink

37. You would come to your guild:
drink
eat some meat offered to an idol

38. You would come to your guild:
drink
eat some meat offered to an idol
drink more wine

39. then the Guild prostitutes were brought in and sexual immorality would begin…

40. This normally happened at least once a month.

41. V. Our Text

42. Revelation 2:18
“18 "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.”

43. “omnipresent” all present

44. “omnipresent” all present
“omniscient” all knowing

45. “omnipresent” all present
“omniscient” all knowing
“omnipotent” all powerful

46. “…eyes are like a flame fire and….feet are like burnished bronze.”
Revelation 2:18
“…eyes are like a flame fire and….feet are like burnished bronze.”

47. Christ’s eyes on this Church are able to…

48. Christ’s eyes on this Church are able to…
penetrate and see into the DARKNESS

49. Christ’s eyes on this Church are able to…
PENETRATE and see into the DARKNESS
see all the WONDERFUL GOODNESS

50. Are they in trouble?

51. Are they in trouble?
There's no church of the seven more EXTERNALLY SUPERIOR…

52. Revelation 2:19
“19 "'I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

53. The brothers in Ephesus had left…

54. The brothers in Ephesus had left…
Pergamum had remained faithful even…

55. The brothers in Ephesus had left…
Pergamum had remained faithful even…
Thyatira, as far as what they are doing, they surpass…

56. working church

57. working church
loving church

58. working church
loving church
church with faith

59. working church
loving church
church with faith
known for service

60. working church
loving church
church with faith
known for service
they’re persevering

61. working church
loving church
church with faith
known for service
they’re persevering
growing

62. Now God is not writing this church off as useless…

63. Now God is not writing this church off as useless…
If I had read verse 19 and were looking for a church…

64. It was everything a congregation of God's people ought…

65. It was everything a congregation of God's people ought…
Revelation 2:20
“20 But I have this against you…,”

66. revival

67. revival
repentance

68. revival
repentance
evaluation

69. revival
repentance
evaluation
improvement

70. revival
repentance
evaluation
improvement
checking our current urgency for the lost…

71. Revelation 2:20
“20 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.”

72. Old Testament Queen Jezebel was a Phoenician princess who married Ahab.

73. Old Testament Queen Jezebel was a Phoenician princess who married Ahab.
Her father was Ethbaal, king and high priest of the Sidonians.

74. Baal worshippers, participated in:

75. Baal worshippers, participated in:
sex worship

76. Baal worshippers, participated in:
sex worship
fertility rites

77. religious prostitution
Baal worshippers, participated in:
sex worship
fertility rites
religious prostitution

78. religious prostitution human sacrifice
Baal worshippers, participated in:
sex worship
fertility rites
religious prostitution
human sacrifice

79. The emphasis of the Old Testament Jezebel’s teaching was, get in there and enjoy it…

80. The emphasis of the Old Testament Jezebel’s teaching was, get in there and enjoy it…
…a religion of seduction.

81. 1 Kings 16:31-34
“31And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of

82. the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him
the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33And Ahab made an Asherah.

83. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.”
1 Kings 16:31-34

84. 1 Kings 21:25
"25There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited."

85. Baal worship was all about seduction. Her greatest evil was:

86. Baal worship was all about seduction. Her greatest evil was:
seducing her husband Ahab to provide places for idol worship

87. promoting sexual immorality as part of worship

88. promoting sexual immorality as part of worship
put all of this in the open, in front of God’s people as a temptation.

89. So, Jezebel is not only an immoral woman, but
influential
seductive
ruling

90. Was there really a woman named Jezebel living in Thyatira?

91. It appears that Jezebel may have been used to personify the teaching that was going on…

92. VI. What’s the real problem?
--Do they believe her?

93. VI. What’s the real problem?
--Do they believe her?
--No, they tolerate her…

94. Revelation 2:21-23
“21 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

95. commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who

96. searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.”

97. Revelation 2:23
"23…mind and heart”

98. Revelation 2:23
"23…mind and heart”
The word translated heart is the Greek word for kidney, vεφρoυ (nephrou)..

99. the mind was the center of intelligence…

100. the mind was the center of intelligence…
the kidney was thought of as the center of emotion…

101. WHEN I JUDGE JEZEBEL and her children, THE CHURCHES will FEEL and KNOW that I SEE ON THE INSIDE…

102. So again, for whose sake does the church need to repent?

103. So again, for whose sake does the church need to repent?
If the church will repent of tolerating this teaching, maybe Jezebel and her children will repent.

104. Job 33:19-20
“19 Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones, 20 so that his life loathes bread,”

105. Isaiah speaks of bed as suffering – the bed is too…

106. Isaiah speaks of bed as suffering – the bed is too…
Ahaziah, son of Jezebel, by his mother's horrible example is cast into the bed of affliction, and not repenting, dies…

107. Revelation 2:24, 25
“24 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……..25 move

108. over to the other side of the city in Thyatira and established the Northside Church of Christ.

109. “25 Only hold fast what you have until I come.”
Revelation 2:25
“25 Only hold fast what you have until I come.”

110. This toleration may have worked something like this.

111. This toleration may have worked something like this.
How can you know if it’s really bad or good until…

112. If you should see me step in quicksand, please don't jump in with me so you can say….

113. If you should see me step in quicksand, please don't jump in with me so you can say…
Stand on solid ground,…

114. These brothers in Thyatira did not need to empathize with Jezebel, they needed to be intolerant toward her teaching…

115. Revelation 2:26-28
26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even

116. (psalm 2:9), even as I myself have received authority from my Father
(psalm 2:9), even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star.”

117. Revelation 2:26-27, This seems to simply be a promise of rulership of the world because I am overcoming faithfully to the end.

118. God in a sense rules the world through the church…

119. God in a sense rules the world through the church…
We teach the world about Jesus and they…

120. “28 And I will give him the morning star.”
Revelation 2:28
“28 And I will give him the morning star.”

121. “Revelation 22:16
“16 I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things, for the churches. I am the Root and the descendant of David, the bright Morning Star.”

122. So what is it that Jesus is promising the overcomer?

123. So what is it that Jesus is promising the overcomer?
Himself!

124. When you look up in the sky, the morning star is which star…

125. When you look up in the sky, the morning star is which star…
…the last one you see just before daylight comes…

126. Christian in Rome just watched his wife…

127. Christian in Rome just watched his wife…
the morning star…

128. When the world was wrapped up completely in the darkness of sin, Christ burst forth like the morning star.

129. When the world was wrapped up completely in the darkness of sin, Christ burst forth like the morning star.
While exposing evil, HE MADE SURE HIS LIGHT…

130. After the long night of sin, what Jesus offers is sweet relief…

131. Revelation 2:29
“29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”