1 The Jezebel Church Revelation 2:18-29 Introduction: 1) The name Jezebel is infamous and rightly so. She was probably the most wicked queen in Israel’s history and we find her treacherous behavior described in 1 Kings 16 – 2 Kings 9. She was “the power behind the throne” as the wife of a weak and wimpish King Ahab. She led her husband to worship pagan gods (1 Kings 16:31), kill God’s prophets (1 Kings 18:13), and murder a righteous and simple man named Naboth for his vineyard (1 Kings 21). She was evil personified and when God chastised a church for allowing false teaching into His Body, he said they were “tolerating the woman Jezebel” (v. 20). It has been well said we name our sons David and Paul, and our daughters Mary and Rachel, but we name our dogs Goliath and Nero; and we name our cats Jezebel! A Jezebel church is not a compliment. 2) Doctrinal and theological compromise is always a danger to the health, vitality and survival of the church. It can be like “spiritual kudzu” once it is allowed in. It will spread out of control sucking the life out of every living organism it touches. 3) Our Lord knew this and so He has a stern word for His people. Here is “tough love” on full display! It may not be easy to hear, but often it is absolutely necessary and for our good. I. Christ is characterized for us by penetrating judgment 2:18 2 1) John for the 4th time is told to write to the angelic watcher over “the church in Thyatira.” This is the longest of the 7 letters and the most difficult, and as Hemer writes, it is also “addressed to the least known, least important, and least remarkable of the cities” (Quoted in Mounce, 84). 2) Thyatira was an expendable military outpost 40 miles southeast of Pergamos. It was only important through its commerce in wool, linen, leatherwork, bronzework and especially purple dye. It had an extensive network of trade guilds or labor unions that dominated daily and civic life. Each union had its own patron deity, feasts, and seasonal celebrations that often included sexual immorality. Apollo the sun god and Diana the fertility god were the more significant deities. Acts 16:14 teaches us that Lydia, whom Paul led to Christ at Philippi, was from Thyatira and a seller of purple (Johnson, BSC, 50). It is quite possible she was instrumental in evangelizing Thyatira. By all worldly appearances the city was unimportant and the church rather insignificant. This is not the judgment of Jesus. Big or small, well known or hardly known at all, every church is important to Jesus. Whether you have 10,000; 1, 000; 100; or 10 members makes no difference to Him. He wants you to be pure where you are planted. He wants you to honor Him wherever your home is. 1) Know that Jesus’ judgment is perceptive 3  Christ is first noted as the “Son of God”, a title found only here in Revelation. It stands in contrast to the pagan god Apollo, son of Zeus, who was popular in Thyatira. It is Jesus who is the true Son of God not Apollo, son of a lifeless idol (Mounce, 153). Apollo is a piddly, pathetic, pseudo sun god, while Jesus is the eternal and majestic Son of God.  His eyes are like a fiery flame (1:14; 19:12). This speaks of His omniscience; his penetrating, perceptive, and piercing ability to see all that is. He sees all actions, thoughts and emotions. Nothing escapes His vision. And you can rest assured; he sees thru the deceptive appearance and seductive teachings of the Jezebel. Burning indignation and purifying judgment blaze from these divine eyes that continually watch all that is happening. 2) Know that Jesus’ judgment is powerful  His feet are like fine bronze (burnished bronze, NIV) speaks of strength and splendor. Thyatira was famous for its bronze work but their best pales in comparison to that of the Son of God. He is brilliant in appearance, unrivaled in strength, and utterly glorious as a judge. He is the master craftsmanship, the divine craftsmanship! There is stability and permanence to the judgments He renders. He is “prepared to tread 4 under his feet the enemies of the Christian faith. This stern portrayal prepares us for the equally stern words in verses 26-27” (Ladd, 50). II. Christ commends us for faithful works 2:19 Jesus graciously praises this church for the good things He sees. Our Lord is always fair in His assessment of His people. Even when He must rebuke and correct them, He will affirm and encourage where He can. Every church would be wise to follow in Thyatira’s footsteps in verse 19. 1) Let us do good works for Jesus Jesus praises His church for their works, their godly activity and efforts on His behalf. Specifically, He notes four things for which He delights in His faithful children.  Love and faith (HCSB, “faithfulness”) addresses their motives for the works they do (Mounce, 85). Love (agape) for Christ and others and faith (pistin) in God inspired and moved this church to action. Unlike the church at Ephesus, their love for Christ had not grown cold. Unlike the church at Ephesus, their love for truth had. Ephesians 4:15 teaches us to “speak the truth in love.” 2 and 3 John emphasize the necessity of both for a balanced Christianity. Ephesus lacked love. Thyatira lacked truth. A healthy church needs both. 5  Service (diakonian, “deacon-acts”) and endurance (upomonen; NIV, “perseverance”) notes the results which naturally follow from love and faith. A person with a servant’s heart is one, with longsuffering and steadfastness, who will give himself deliberately, voluntarily, sacrificially and joyfully to others in order that he may help meet their needs. He will walk away from his own concerns and private interests, and give himself, his time, his wisdom, his knowledge, his talents and gifts in order to help others. The qualities of the person with a genuine servant’s spirit will exhibit a spirit of humility, willing to stoop to serve another but never asking for recognition. Dependable (trustworthy), loyal, loving, patient, here are things every church should do. Oh, but it gets better. 2) Let us grow in our good works for Jesus Jesus likes these characteristics of His church. He also loves that “Your last works are greater than the first.” They are not stagnant or satisfied in their service to their King. They had gotten better! They were doing more than ever! “Do good things and grow in good things” is a wonderful goal for any church of Christ, and that goal had been met in the church at Thyatira. Still, there was “a dark spot of cancerous sin eating away from the inside” (Swindoll, 59). Our Lord now moves to address the serious spiritual sickness that impaired the health of this body. 6 III. Christ condemns us for excessive tolerance 2:20  William Hendriksen says, “Thyatira was indeed a lampstand, a light-bearer. But this does not constitute an excuse for failure to exercise discipline with respect to members who make a compromise with the world” (More Than Conquerors, 89). Now, we should be clear. God does not expect us to be perfect, though perfection is the mark we strive for (Matt. 5:48; Phil. 3:12- 14). What He does expect is for us to be a “community of repenting sinners.” What He does expect is for us to call sin what He calls sin. Swimming against the currents of the culture will be hard and almost always unpopular. However, as Peter and the apostles said in Acts 5:22, “We must obey God rather than man” (cf. Gal. 1:10).  Jesus addresses four areas of danger and temptation a church must recognize and confront immediately when they see them. The sooner the better. Delay can be deadly. 1) Guard against a personality cult  Jesus has something against this church: “You tolerate the woman Jezebel.” This is most certainly a descriptive title and not the woman’s actual name. It would conjure up images of the evil and vile queen of Israel. However, I do believe our Lord is talking about an actual person. This woman was a powerful personality who had built her own 7 following and kingdom in our Lord’s church. She was smart; influential in personality and powerful in speech. It was easy to join her because she made so much sense in what she said. However, like Jezebel of old, she was evil and deceptive, domineering and scheming, idolatrous and sexually immoral. The liberty she promised would actually lead them into slavery and away from God and the Lordship of Jesus.  There is such a valuable lesson here and one we must never forget. Anything or anyone that gets your eyes off of Jesus is not of God. Anything or anyone that minimizes or adds to the gospel is not of God. Anything or anyone that compromises on biblical truth is not of God. The impressiveness of their abilities, gifts and visions makes no difference. Indeed, the greater the gifts, the greater the dangers. 2) Guard against an authority problem This danger naturally flows from and is connected to the threat of “personality cults” in a church, denomination or Christian organization. The Jezebel (a man can be a Jezebel too!) called herself a “prophetess.” Here was a self-proclaimed leader. Who said she was a prophetess? She did. Not God! She did. Now, that there is a legitimate gift of prophecy that may involve women is clearly taught in Scripture (Anna, Luke 2:36; 8 Philip’s daughters, Acts 21:9; cf. also Joel 2:28 ff. – Acts 2:17; 1 Cor. 11:5). Here, however, was an illegitimate usurpation, an inappropriate seizing of raw ambition. Drawing upon parallels to the wicked Jezebel, we can say this woman was 1) cleverly deceptive, 2) manipulatively domineering, 3) viciously scheming, and 4) spiritually idolatrous. She clearly was a leader because people were following her. But leadership can be good or bad, a blessing or a curse. Someone should have stepped up and confronted her. But no one did. Fear paralyzed the good people in the church from dealing with this false teacher. 3) Guard against a theology problem  A false prophet will mix truth with lies. Not everything they say will be false or wrong. If it were we would have no problem spotting it. No, it will contain just enough truth to deceive the gullible and shallow, those who for whatever reason cannot think in biblical categories and with a Christian worldview.  The Jezebel “teaches and deceives my slaves” (Gr. duolos; ESV, “servants”). Her doctrine was attractive and seductive. At first blush it seemed insightful, deep, perceptive. She had a way of opening the Scriptures that were new and exciting. Her teachings promised freedom. They promised prosperity. They promised life. They 9 promised to exalt Jesus, but in actuality they dethroned Jesus. She claimed to have the truth but she peddled a lie. God’s standard was perverted and God’s Son removed from His preeminence (Col 1:18). The church must never lose sight of the fact that doctrine matters. Theology matters. Truth matters. We must continually be on guard. Truth is too easily compromised then lost. 4) Guard against a morality problem The Jezebel taught and deceived God’s servants to do two things: 1) commit sexual immorality and 2) participate in pagan idolatry. Robert Mounce is very helpful in putting this in historical context. It is striking how 21st century it sounds! He writes: “One thing we can state with a sense of confidence; the problem in Thyatira centered on the guilds. For persons to maintain their livelihood, some connection, indeed membership, in the guilds was s virtual necessity. For Christians the problem was that this mandated participation in the guild feasts, which themselves involved “meat offered to idols”, since the patron gods of the guilds were always worshiped at the feasts. At times this could also involve immorality. The extent to which these feasts degenerated into debauchery is questionable, and many have argued that “commit adultery” here is an OT metaphor for idolatry…however, it is more likely 10 a reference to immoral practices (thought the noun form in 2:21 probably does have this figurative meaning). Whenever Christians refused to participate in the feasts because such participation would compromise their faith, they faced the anger of the pagan populace, and it had economic repercussions if they lost their jobs. Thus while at Pergamum it was a life-threatening situation, at Thyatira the problem was more economic and social. Jezebel probably “taught” that there was nothing wrong with a Christian taking part in the guild feasts and celebrations, for it was merely civil. Since idols were nothing, Christians would not destroy their faith by participating” (156-157).  Jezebel said it is fine to compartmentalize your sacred and secular worlds. If you are going to survive in this dog eat dog world, you will have to make some allowances. On occasions you will have to compromise your convictions. It won’t hurt anything. Jesus understands. He never expected that following Him could be bad for business. And remember, you are free in Christ! She was wrong. These compromises in belief and behavior set the Lord Jesus “against” His church.  Sexual immorality and acts of idolatry, in any culture, are a big deal to God. God calls us to holiness not harlotry. He calls us to purity not