In the letters to Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamum and Thyatira, a fundamental principal is before us. Our Lord Jesus desires us to agape love Him, not just phileo love Him! When we bring ourselves into His intimacy, we fellowship into His loving grace; His glory leads us into another level of glory as we engage the lover of our soul! This is the Son of God in Thyatira!
This agape love principle fundamentally penetrates each of the seven church epistles. No, it is not announced in bold flashing, bright lights, but deeply beats in Jesus’ heart for the total Bride of Christ, a Kingdom of believers.
This is the reason Jesus writes these epistle letters to the seven churches; this is the reason He is writing these epistles to us! It will also throb the heart of anyone who hears what the Spirit is saying to the Churches!
In Ephesus it is “The words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” In Smyrna it is: “The words of the first and the last, who died and came back to life.” In Pergamum it is: “The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.” In Thyatira it is: “The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.”
In this letter to Thyatira, Jesus establishes Himself, not just as the Son of Man, but the Son of God. In His Godly deity, He sees completely inside the hearts of all men; He has the authority and Godly wisdom to judge with righteous judgment. Jesus, as God, requires all mankind to be accountable to His righteous standard of holy, pure righteous TRUTH. He is Spirit; He is Truth; He is God!
The reigning theme depicted throughout these seven epistles are the doors of believer’s hearts tending to be closed from the inside. This lack of agape love prevents and denies our personal fellowship with Jesus Himself, Rev. 3:20.
Pictured, in these series of epistle letters, is a departure from agape love, “our first love,” compromising with worldly circumstances, and denying the rich gift of Jesus’ life within us with resurrection power.
The history of mankind from the beginning, Adam and after, is one of foolish self-indulgence. Instead of a story of self-denial, sadly, it is a story of reverse separation, not toward God but rather, into physical, natural, temporal comfort. How foolish is mankind; how foolish are we!
There is an escalation pattern into apostacy through embracing local culture. The Bible illustrates this historic pattern of man’s weakness and behavior. This is the constant picture painted in scripture from Adam to Noah, from the flood through Abraham and Lot, from Israel to Babylon, from Jesus the Messiah to the rapture as revealed in these seven epistles of Jesus to the seven churches. These epistles are written to us, so that, we might overcome and hear what the Spirit of God is saying to all the seven churches.
These seven letters, these epistles of truth, are a wake-up call for people who have received new life as well as to those who still are without the Light of Life within them.
One message rings loud and clear, we are nothing without the redemption we possess in Jesus Christ, our redeemer Lord. There is indeed only one person between each of us and God Himself, it is Jesus Himself! We are nothing without His resurrection power reigning in our daily living, from day to day.
All of these epistle letters are addressed to the churches with a dual message. First, there is the corporate message to the Body of Christ as the church, then, each letter speaks to individual hearts; to all those who are to be the Bride of Christ!
“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.
“’I know your works, your love and faith and service and patience endurance, and that your later works exceed your first. 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. I gave her time to repent, but she refused to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold I throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 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 each of you according to your works. 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. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I have myself received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” -Revelation 2:19-29.
Listen to Donald Barnhouse: “The first fruits of an evil sowing were now reaped. Iniquity was ripening fast. The evolution of the church may be traced in Thyatira to its logical conclusion. In Ephesus, the believers lost their first love, became occupied with other things, and developed a class which was a sort of clergy, to whom the preaching of the gospel was entrusted. These preachers lowered the doctrine to suit the coldness of their hearers. By the time of Smyrna, the doctrine of true grace had been diluted with legalism until the synagogue of Satan was in the midst of the church. Married to the world, Pergamos exalted clericalism to a doctrine and low levels of conduct became common.
In Thyatira, the last step to apostasy is taken, Jezebel is exalted in the church and from her throne ministers unto Satan.”
In Thyatira the “Son of Man” is also the Son of God! In all the other six epistles Jesus is the Son of Man. In this small industrious town, god worship is in the form of Apollo who was the god of all the tradesmen and guild workers. Thyatira was noted in all the empire for craftsmen of varies trades like pottery, weavers, ropemakers and dyers. They were organized into “trade unions” which were very socially tight groups. A tradesman in this town worshiped Apollo who was the “son of god.” It was important, therefore, to establish our risen Lord as the God of all and including Apollo! This produced a difficult obstacle for someone like Lydia. But apparently she was an overcomer because she probably seeded this small church after her trip to Philippi.
This was also important because later in history, Rome declares Mary as the mother of God and people are instructed to access God thru Mary and not Jesus. At the time this epistle is written, this is not the case, but our current commentaries make it an issue because Thyatira is representative of the period of history when Rome is the dominant ruler of the religious world. It is very much an issue when looking at Roman Catholic doctrine in the context of 500AD to 1500AD.
This is also compatible with the issue of Jezebel which is applicable to Thyatira at the time
of John’s writing probably in the mid 90s AD. Jezebel may have been the name of the “a prophetess” who was actively advocating idol worship, fornication and a mystery religion associated with “groves” of trees. But most commentaries consider Jezebel as a label referring to the wife of the wicked King Ahab of Israel who brought her countries worship of Baal into the temples of Israel.
William Newell brings to our attention that “mother church” is not our teacher; it is the Spirit of God who speaks, “The words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” So we must diligent to hear what the Spirit says.
“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.”
The church of Thyatira has gone too far. Here we see God as the righteous judge discerning between those faithful few who are secure in God’s grace and those “Christians” who do not possess God’s gift of Life but merely indulge themselves in Satan’s church.
J.A. Seiss puts it this way: “… the abominable doings, of one whom He designates as “that woman Jezebel,” who, like her namesake of old, seems to have borne down what should have been the governing will, set aside the true prophets of God with her falsities, and entirely taken possession of the church for her own impurities. It was a Church with much activity of faith and love, and lying in the embrace of an adulteress, and, for the most part, completely in her power.”
But within this sinister culture of apostacy are those who are faithful. “I know your works, your love and faith and service and patience endurance, and that your later works exceed your first.” Notice our Lord says “love and faith,” not faith and love! Love always proceeds faith. Our faith is dependent upon God’s love. Neither can we conjure up enough faith to believe without our Lord’s work in us to make it possible.
When Jesus says the “words of him” in each of these seven letters, He does not use the Greek word common in our English today. The common English word in Greek is ρημα (rhema) but here the “word” Jesus uses is λογοs (logos) meaning the essence of all the qualities of God. Even here, we see the agape love of God working in behalf of all the churches and to all who are “in Christ Jesus.” It is this God of all creation Who
is reaching out to us to accept His agape love, to receive His grace.
And so it is a faithful few who become overcomers and hear what the Spirits says to the churches.
“There were those in Thyatira who walked the pathway of separation; they were not led away by strange doctrine. And so it was in the period which Thyatira represents. Luther and others like him separated themselves from the Roman Catholic System, and dared death itself to walk in the pathway which was pointed out to them in the Word of God. To such as these the risen Lord held out “that blessed hope” of His coming again as “the bright and morning star,” to take the true church unto Himself before the great tribulation begins to run its course. To them He says, “Hold fast until I come,” and promises the millennial blessing, in that they will be “joint-heirs” with Him as He rules over the nations of the earth. Always God has “a faithful remnant” who “have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
These epistle letters, written by our Lord Jesus thru His beloved servant John, are to us and His Churches. If we see with Spiritual eyes, we may have glimpses of “the Son of God” in each of us individually and … in each individual letter, which we already are!
““So faith comes from hearing, and haring through the word of Christ.””