Title Revelation 02:18-29 Church of Thyatira
Contents Church of Thyatira, Revelation 2:18-29,
Not long ago, I played the guitar in the church's copy room. However, one of the strings was loose and there was no sound at all, and the other was not properly sounded because the strings did not fit. If you want to play with a guitar with the strings loose like this, you have to pull the strings tight to get each note right. Only then will the guitar be able to perform beautifully for its intended purpose.
As I looked at the seven churches in the Book of Revelation, I felt like I was listening to one church, one church. Some churches have a beautiful performance, some don't play at all, and some do play but are dissonant. When these churches apply the praises from the Lord well, and take into account the rebuke and drive them out of our lives, then our lives will be a beautiful performance in the sight of a beautiful God.
The church in Ephesus had right doctrine and right actions, but decidedly the first time they saw that their love had cooled. The performance of this church is a performance of faith without earnestness, longing, and poverty in the sight of the Lord. Therefore, this kind of performance is not a performance that pleases the Lord, but a performance of narcissism that pleases them. Therefore, the Lord warned that this player would be changed unless they repent and change. How was the performance of the Smyrna Church? It was a performance that moved the Lord. They were a church that played a truly beautiful performance that pleases the Lord, despite suffering, privation, and blasphemy without abandoning their love for the Lord and fidelity of faith. The performance of the Church of Pergamum was somewhat lewd. By accepting the teachings of Balaam and the teachings of the Nicolaitans, they fell into the sins of idolatry and fornication. We have seen the Lord appear fighting these people and warn them to turn this church's performance into a beautiful one.
Today is Thyatira Church. How about this church?
It is similar to the Pergamum Church, but the concentration is more severe. It's a deeper look.
First of all, what is the appearance of the Lord in this church? Verse 18. The appearance of the Lord in the Thyatira Church appears as a person whose eyes are like flames and whose feet are like shiny tin. In other words, it appears in the form of a judge who knows everything. This means that the church in Thyatira now has a sin that it hides from the Lord, and that there is a sin that deserves judgment. What is that? He tolerated the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. And as she leads, she commits fornication and idolatry.
Thyatira Church was playing beautiful music until Jezebel was tolerated. See verse 19. There was business, love, faith, service, and patience. It is seen that the business involves love, faith, service, and patience, and unlike the church in Ephesus, they had love. Faith, service, and patience were more later than the first. In other words, it is a church that tried to be better than it was at the beginning. I tried to play better than the first one. Service, service, faith, and patience were more numerous and abundant afterward than at the beginning. So far, their performances have been fine. But for some reason, the performance is going in a slightly strange direction. When is that? It's after I accepted Jezebel.
Who is Jezebel?
Perhaps, rather than a woman named Jezebel, I think she was a woman who had a very serious and bad influence on the community like Jezebel in the Old Testament. What kind of woman is Jezebel in the Old Testament? She is the wife of King Ahab. But this woman is a foreign woman who brought the gods Baal and Asherah idols into Israel and made the whole of Israel stained with idolatry and fornication. Such a woman seduced the servants of God and the people in the church in Thyatira to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
To understand this more, we need to understand the city of Thyatira.
This city was an economically developed city. It was an economic city that developed wool, dyeing, leather, clothing, ceramics, and ceramics industries. But these things did not just develop, but developed in the form of combinations. The problem is that these combinations have their own guardian deities. So, if you had a certain type of job, you had to become a member of that job, and if you became a member, you had to serve the guardian deity of that union. The guardian deity they worship was not just bowing down in front of an idol set up at work, but it was an active pagan act of participating in union members' festivals, eating food sacrificed to the idol at that time, and participating in lewd parties. In other words, if they wanted to make a living in this city, their livelihoods would be threatened without participating in these lewd and idolatrous rituals led by the union.
In other words, the believers of Thyatira Church have lived through the daily struggles and pains that they cannot but experience when they are forced to do things that they cannot do as believers while working. Will they live up to the demands of society? Or will you live according to the word of the Lord? I was conflicted at the crossroads. If you do not obey the Word and live according to the demands of society, you will be ostracized from society and your life will be difficult. If you follow the demands of society, you will feel a sense of remorse because it is against the word of the Lord. Thyatira Church is the church that tried to live according to the Word with love, faith, service, and perseverance in the midst of such circumstances.
But one day, Jezebel, a woman who calls herself a prophet, appeared.
He appeared and even prophesied, saying, "If we are going to preach the gospel in society, God has told me that there is no problem in participating in the activities of the union unless we deny Jesus with our lips." And then he did it first. So, how tempting must this teaching be to the members of the church, who were still conflicted over these issues? While you were wearing the chains of remorse and worries, how much relief would you have been when a prophetess, who said that she had received an oracle from God, appeared and took the chains off and released them?
At this time, the leaders of the church in Thyatira rebuked this woman and drove her out of the church, but they tolerated Jezebel. And the leaders, along with Jezebel, took part in that act. All of a sudden, the performance broke and became a mess. The atmosphere in the church suddenly changed. It seemed to be brighter and more comfortable, but my godliness decreased and I was spiritually depressed. I became closer to the world and living in the world became more comfortable, but I became trapped and far from God. The church was deeply stained with the sins of fornication and idolatry to the extent that weak leaders and weak members tolerated the evil Jezebel, so that evil was stained throughout the church and finally the Lord had to appear as the judge.
the Lord's warning
The Lord appears in this church as a judge and warns you to turn away from idolatry and fornication and restore the original beautiful performance. This warning is the mercy of the Lord. It is said that even a clever sinner like Jezebel will give them an opportunity to repent, and also those who have committed adultery with it. No matter how terrible the sin of fornication, if you repent and return to the Lord, you will be able to play the original beautiful performance again.
If he does not repent despite giving him this opportunity to repent, he will throw him into the bed. It is meant to bring great tribulation. That is, 'I will repay you according to what you have done' (verse 23). A bed of pleasure becomes a bed of sickness, and children die.... Our God is loving, but he hates sin. He hates sin so much that He crucified Him. But we are too tolerant of sin. I know well that I have to live a holy life, but I do not want to live a holy life. But the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames, is looking, and his feet are like tin, and he will repay you for what he has done.
But thankfully, there were people in this church who did not participate in this evil and kept waking up and playing beautiful music. The Lord did not ask for anything else from them. Keep playing until the Lord comes. Jezebel's temptation does not stop once, but continues until the Lord comes. So, are you God until the day our lives are attached? Are you Baal? Are you Lord? Is it my pleasure? that the fight goes on. In this fight, we must not loosen the ties of our faith.
If we live like this, we may have heard the slander that we are going against the tide of the times. You may be evaluated as a person who has no sense of reality and is savvy. no it will So you may have to pray secretly through the night in tears. But remember. Everyone knows the Son of God, whose eyes are like sparks of fire and whose feet are like shiny copper. What does he say? ?쏝ut hold fast what you have until I come.
la" he says.
We see that there is still pain to bear in the word to hold onto it firmly. But in this case, He says that you will receive the promises of God.
What is the promise?
In verse 26, I will give you 'authority over all nations'.
In verse 28, I will give you the 'morning star'.
So let's hold on tight. Let's hold on tight no matter where I've been. Do not compromise with the world and become a slave to sin, do not tolerate even the smallest of sins, cut them off in advance, and live a life of holiness, thinking of the Lord's return. Then our life will be a truly beautiful performance before God.