When Paul was writing the last letter we have from him to Timothy, he anticipated the future of Christianity beyond the point of his death. He was looking forward into the into the distant future of time and to what would characterize the story of Christianity in the world, from the apostles’ age until the moment Jesus Christ returns again. And here’s how he puts it: “For the time is coming,” he writes, “when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” 

He wasn’t wrong. The story of Christianity since the apostolic time until this day is the story of an explosion of false teaching and mistruth. That’s where this character Jezebel – that’s not her name, but it’s a nom de plume that Jesus uses of her — he wants to draw a parallel between the impact of the original Jezebel and the impact of this prophetess on this church in Thyatira. 

The original woman, back in the days of Ahab the king and the days of Elijah the prophet, hired 840 prophets of Astarte her goddess and set out to destroy and kill all the prophets of the Lord. So ruthless and widespread was this action that at one point the prophet Elijah in a down moment complained to God, saying, “I and I only am left.” It’s the kind of feeling that sometimes you get in life, when everybody in your family has one opinion and you’re the only one that has the contrary opinion. And it’s the experience of many Christians in the world today that, isolated as they are from fellowship with other people, they may feel that they are the only one who follows Jesus. Well, God corrected Elijah. There were, in fact, others who had not bowed the knee to the false gods, and it’s that idea that that introduces us to what I want to look at from this passage today.  

It’s a key lesson, or theme rather, that we find we find it very often in the prophets. We find it in the prophet Isaiah, and it’s the reference to there being within the covenant people of God, whether it’s Israel or the church, a righteous remnant. That is, within the covenant people — which is a mixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly — there are those who follow the Lord faithfully and there are others who are professing the Lord, but who do not possess what it means to know the Lord. The righteous remnant, wherever the church has been found, wherever it is in the world compromised, there will be a faithful minority within the church who remain loyal to King Jesus.  

Here we are in the Western world, and when we think of the Western world we’re thinking of Europe and America and Australia, and these developed parts of the world that have had the gospel a long time, have been known as Christian countries. Whose motto is – the mottos of their cities — I think of the motto of Glasgow. Today it’s “Let Glasgow flourish,” but the full motto of Glasgow going way back into the 13th and 12th century “Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word and the praising of his name.” Now that’s long, long gone. Not only long gone is the motto, but it’s long gone as a historical reality. It’s now one of the most pagan places in the world. And that’s true of many countries that were once Christian, and the churches in those parts of the world find themselves very often absorbed not in the agenda of the Word of God but in the agenda of the world around. And so, so many churches, the way they talk about abortion, or justice, or race, or gender, or marriage, or sex just talk about it the same way that the world does. Because they’re being shaped not by the Word of God, but by the philosophy of the world. 

Now you might ask the question then: why would a Christian, somebody who professes any understanding of the Christian message, why would a Christian sleep with Jezebel? And there are many reasons I suppose. Certainly, back in the time of Thyatira there were those who were persuaded that there were economic and social reasons for compromising with the world. Perhaps others are more spiritual, were rationalizing it to themselves and were thinking that a reasonable compromise might win people over. And then there are those who aren’t thinking at all but are swept along by the current of popular opinion that comes to them through the medium of television and through their social media all the time. 

And what does Jesus have to say to a compromising church? Well, he has to say what he said to the church of Thyatira: “Repent.” There’s only one word to say to a compromising church: “Repent.” And if you’ve been engaging, or your church has been engaging in spiritual infidelity with the spirit of the age, and thereby the god of this age, the devil, Jesus says to you and to your church: “Repent.” 

And he goes beyond that, and he speaks to the faithful within the church and says to them, “He or she who has an ear to hear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” For what happens when there’s no repentance? You saw that in the passage, that Christ will deal. He will deal roughly with those who do not repent. If they were, if the church goes into bed with the world, it will be cast by the power of God into a bed of disease and death. Whether that’s literally or metaphorically it doesn’t matter. It sounds bad – a bed of disease and death.  

Now how important is this warning that is being sounded here? I think we grasp something of the importance of it when we remember how the apostle Paul addresses a compromised church. The compromised church I mean, of course, is the church in Corinth. Here’s how he writes to them in Second Corinthians chapter 11.  

“I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that the serpent as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” 

2 Corinthians 11:2-3

Now, do you see what he’s saying there? This is why it’s so important. The church is the bride of Christ. Ever since the story of God’s interaction with his people, and the idea of there being a covenant between God and his people, the emblem of that covenant relationship has been marriage. Ever since the Song of Solomon made it very, very clear that it was about the King and the bride of the King. Or Psalm 45, the King and his beauty and the bride by his side reigning with him. There has been this image of the church as the bride, the Israel of God his bride, the object of his affection.  

And what does God expect, what does Christ expect? A sincere pure devotion to him. That’s what he expects of the church as a whole, as a church, as an assembly of his people. It’s what he expects of us as individuals, but he expects of his church pure devotion to Christ. And in that chapter, 2 Corinthians 11, goes on to warn them of the ways in which the enemy disguises itself. Sometimes they disguise themselves, he writes,  

“as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if Satan’s servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. But their end will correspond to their deeds.”  

2 Corinthians 11:13-15

So Jesus’ warning then is serious. These people in in Thyatira were at risk because they saw compromise as a way to secure profitable commerce, social advantage, perhaps political clout. But compromise it was, and it threatened the church. So Jesus has two things to say to the remnant, that is, to the believing faithful within the church.  

First of all, Jesus has a message for the remnant in verse 24. We see an insight into the nature of what was going on in Thyatira. The language is used of spiritual adultery or infidelity. People who are trying to combine faithfulness to Christ on the one hand, and to marry the spirit of the age as well. And it’s, there’s a reference there to the children of the prophetess, the false teacher. Her children were those who drank in all of her teaching to its fullest extent. They were with her, her beliefs were their beliefs, her aims and character were theirs entirely. And Jesus says there is no hope for you, no hope for you. You will be cast out.  

But I want to focus on the others, the ones who are described in the text as the rest of Thyatira. Those who were wrestling with the claims of Christ, and the claims of their business life on the other hand. These people who were caught in the middle of the muddle if you will. They’d been unconvinced by what they heard the prophetess teaching. They, we’re told, did not hold this teaching. Whereas others were intrigued, others were convinced, others were sucked in by her teaching, and believed that she had a prophetic voice, and that she was really taking them into the deep things of God because she had the Holy Spirit. These people – the rest – were not convinced. 

Now, of course, it’s not everyone who has the skills to recognize error when they see it or hear it. And even when we sense that there is something wrong, for many, if not most of us, we may sense there is something wrong, but not be able to primarily, or precisely rather, articulate what it is that is wrong. Or even sometimes when we know that something is wrong, and even if we are wise enough or insightful enough to know what it is that’s wrong, we may lack the power of argument and the necessary resources to refute it.  

Jesus identifies the true spirit that lay behind the false prophet and the true nature of her teaching. Jesus says it was “the deep things of Satan.” That she did not have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that opens us up to the deep things of God, but she was into the deep things of Satan. I said let’s hear what the Holy Spirit that she claimed, let’s hear what the Holy Spirit expressly says. Paul writes to Timothy,  

“The Holy Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.”  

1 Timothy 4:1

Where people say they’ve got a secret knowledge that you don’t have, we’re to understand that they have a strange spirit, not the Holy Spirit. Because you as a believer, no matter how ordinary you think you are, you’re extraordinary in the eyes of God and in the eyes of this church because you, as John says, “you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things.” Now you may think you don’t know them, you may not know them absolutely or comprehensively, but you know all things. The Holy Spirit in you witnesses with your spirit when there is something wrong, and you can trust that impulse by the Holy Spirit. 

So there were those within the church who were not compromising with the world. I understand that this teaching that we were looking at last week and this week may be misunderstood. I know that because somebody very graciously wrote in and explained that they wanted to know how two things added up here. Can we have friendship with the world? Can we have friendship with people who are not Christians? Can we work with people who are not Christian? And these kinds of things. 

Well, I think that does need to be cleared up for us this morning. And I want to say just as an introduction to it here that this was not the issue in Thyatira. This was not a question of people working alongside non-Christian people or living with non-Christian neighbors and having them round for a meal. This was nothing to do with that. These were people who were professing to be Christian and be pagan at the same time. Now Paul addresses this very question in First Corinthians chapter 5. This is what he says,  

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.”  

1 Corinthians 5:9

Then he goes on to say this is

“not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy, or the swindlers, or the idolaters.”  

1 Corinthians 5:10

Now you see what he’s doing there. He’s written this letter. It was a letter that was challenging the kind of problem there is in the church in Thyatira. And he said to them, “I told you not to have anything to do with the sexually immoral.” Maybe he had mentioned the greedy, and the swindlers, and the idolaters, as well. I don’t know. But here he’s saying, “I did not mean people of the world who do these things. Or else,” he goes on to say, “you’d have to leave the world.” You’d have to get out of the world. You just couldn’t exist. You couldn’t do business; you couldn’t live without having friendships and relationships with people who are not Christians in the world. So what he’s saying to them is there’s absolutely no problem with you mingling with non-Christian people who are swindlers, greedy, idolaters, and even sexually immoral. You can befriend these people. You can vote for these people. Often you have, you can do business with these people. You might even like these people. That’s okay. The world is worldly. That’s the point. And it will remain that way, that’s the way it is. The world is worldly. 

The Apostle goes on to say this, 

“Now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or an idolater, or a scandal monger, critic, a reviler, a drunkard, or a swindler.” 

1 Corinthians 5:11

And he sums it all like this: 

“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? It is inside the church whom you are to judge. God judges those outside.” 

1 Corinthians 5:12-13

Now this is a very vital lesson for us, to have sane balanced productive lives as Christians in the world. If we get this principle wrong, we’ll do all kinds of zany and weird things in our Christian life and not be a good witness to Christ. Paul is being very clear here, and I want to be as clear as I possibly can. What we have said about Jezebel and about these children, the people who followed her in the church of Thyatira – this is not you being involved in business, commercial or otherwise, relationships with people who are not Christians. This has nothing to do with you voting for, or recommending, or writing a letter of appreciation for, or welcoming into your home somebody who’s not a Christian, who falls into any of these categories, and many others we could imagine. This is about people who call themselves Christians, and who hold to the teaching of the false prophet, and who have learned the deep things of Satan. These people had refused, had pursued intellectual and spiritual mysteries as an addition to and as a substitute for obedience to Christ.  

So Jesus talks to those who did not hold to this teaching and had not learned the deep things of Satan. And he says to them, “Just as I cast out those who were the followers of Jezebel, I will not cast upon you, I will not lay upon you any other burden.” Jesus will not impose on his beloved faithful more than they can handle. Here they are, they’re resisting Jezebel, they’re holding on to the faith. That’s just about all that they can do. They’re trusting in Christ. Jesus says, “That’s what you’re doing, you’re holding on to what you have.” You know sometimes in life, brothers and sisters, holding on is all you can do. At such times, that simple faithfulness of holding on to Jesus is all the heroism that is required, all the heroism that is needed. Just to trust him.  

“I will lay no other burden.” Jesus says. Kind of reflects the language that that is used in Acts chapter 15 when the tensions between the believing Gentiles and the believing Jews, and the bringing of their culture together, and the clashes that there were, and it was being sorted out by the leadership of the church. And they wrote to the churches, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you.”  

The church leaders in Thyatira were responsible for church discipline. They may have been too compromised to do so. If that was true when the apostles were still alive, it’s much more likely to happen in our day. But Christ addresses his church as his covenant community, and he says, “Look, you who are holding on. I’m not going to impose more on you. I’m not going to impose rules and regulations and stipulations on you. You’re holding on to the truth as it is. 

I think there’s a warning there, by the way, to all the churches to be careful not to add to what Jesus requires of us – things that we would like to see, things that we’ve dreamed up and thought would be useful – kind of imposing spiritual requirements on the faithful that go beyond what Jesus asks for. It was the Pharisees who placed heavy burdens hard to bear on the people’s shoulders. Jesus called the Pharisees “the blind leading the blind.” Don’t be a Pharisee. Don’t let people who are playing the Pharisee tie you up in knots, in their own rules and regulations. There is only one canon, that is, one yardstick, one criterion against which to measure everything, and that is Holy Scripture. Because what we learn about the Lord Jesus is the Lord Jesus’ yoke is easy, and his burden light. God’s commandments are not burdensome.  

Jesus says to these people in this church, “Here’s what I, here’s what I have for you, only hold fast what you have.” “Hold fast what you have.” That’s Jesus’ message to the remnant. And here is a promise to the remnant, very briefly, because we’re moving towards the sacrament of the Supper. But he has a promise to the remnant. “To those who conquer,” that is, to those who persevere to the end, keep going, keep keeping on. Now we will rule with him one day. We will rule with him one day.  

Those words of verse 27 come from Psalm 2. A psalm that was a Messianic Psalm, was recognized as that even before Jesus was born. It highlights Jesus’ words as he introduces himself to the letter to the church at Thyatira with the words: “The words of the Son of God.” In Psalm 2, it reads like this:  

“the Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 

Psalm 2:7-9

“You are my Son today” – today is the eternal now. In eternity there is nothing which is past as though it had ceased to be, and nothing that is future is though lay in the, was not yet in existence. There is an eternity to God – only the present now. Because as Augustine says, “what is eternal always is in the eyes of God.” So when we read God saying to the Son, “Today I’ve begotten you,” would you understand this is the eternal birth or begottenness of the Son, without any beginning. The Father is eternally fathering the Son; the Son is eternally being fathered by the Son. He is the only begotten Son – God from God, Light from Light — the fullness of God being given by God the Father to the Son. The fullness of the Godhead being received by the Son, eternally without a beginning and without an end. But when the Son assumed human nature, when the Son became the Messiah, when he came into the world in his human nature, he obeyed God. He died for our sins, he rose again for our justification, he is exalted to the highest place. And now in a human way, in a human way, he has the authority which he always had in a divine way, without interruption he now has in a human way, as our representative.  

And he’s saying to us, he who has all authority in heaven and earth, he was received authority from his Father eternally, and now he’s received it from the Father as a human being in our place. He’s saying to his church, “I share my authority with you.” I love that that insight into eternity that Paul gives us in Ephesians chapter 1. I’ve often read it and tried to get my head around what it’s saying. He’s writing to the church in Ephesus, and he’s saying about the people there and us now he’s saying that right now, at this very moment, from the eternity’s point of view we are right now – present tense – seated with him in the heavenly places. That’s what it says. Go home and read it. Ephesians chapter 1. Right now that’s where we are in eternity. What does that mean in eternity right now? Your life has ended. The world has ended. Christ has returned. We’ve been resurrected. We can see God face to face. It’s already happened in eternity, because in eternity there’s no yesterday and no tomorrow.  

Therefore, right now we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. And where is Christ seated? He is seated on the throne of God, and from the throne of God he will judge the world and he will judge angels. And what does he say to his church, that is, to you and me? We will judge angels. And we will judge the world. Isn’t that amazing? Here we are, “Not many of us wise, not many noble, not many powerful.” And yet what is our destiny? It is to judge the angels, to judge the world, to crush Satan under our feet shortly. And not only will we rule the world with him, we will receive the morning star. Those who persevere to the end possess Christ. Numbers 24 refers to the coming Messiah as the “morning star,” that comes at the very beginning of the day and heralds the morning. The new morning, the new day, the day of the Lord, that lasts eternally. At the end of the book in chapter 22 of Revelation, Jesus says, “I am the bright and morning star.” What is the greatest prize that Jesus can give you? He gives you himself. He gives you himself, to see him as he is, to see through him the very essence of God in a creaturely way. 

“The bride eyes not her garments, 
but her dear bridegroom’s face; 
I shall not gaze on glory, 
but on my king of grace; not of the crown 
he gives me, but on his pierced hands; 
the Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel’s Land.”

Anne R. Cousin, The Sands of Time Are Sinking