“I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the 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 practise sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols”  (Revelation 2:19-20).

Every Church has them, or will come across them sooner or later.  I call them the ‘narrow band’.  What I mean by that is that they believe they are the few who have a unique knowledge that others have not got.  It may be to do with anything from Bible versions to some unique spiritual experience they claim to have had.  In the Church at Thyatira it manifested itself in a dangerous teacher and her followers!

Thyatira was a small prosperous city.  It had a temple dedicated to Apollo, the sun god which may account for Christ introducing himself as the: ‘Son of God’ (v18).  In many ways the Church was thriving as it was a loving Church and was showing real zeal by increasing its work.  No doubt if you went to a service there you would have been made to feel very welcome and probably you would have had several invites to dinner (v19)!  But Christ knows his Church and, as verse 18 shows, he sees all, and some of what he sees does not impress him!

Four times in my pastoral vocation I have been accredited.  Once by the ‘Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches’, then again with the ‘Evangelical Fellowship of  Congregational Churches’ and also by the two Churches I have served in as Pastor. Each time I have been independently recognised as being called to my role as a Pastor. However, the: ‘woman Jezebel’ had not!  She called: ‘herself a prophetess’ and others in the Church had just accepted her word for it (v20)!  I think it is unlikely that her name was Jezebel, but rather it gives an indication of the damage she was doing to the Church.  In the time of the Prophet Elijah Jezebel: ‘killed the prophets of the Lord’ (1Kings 18:13) as she was a worshipper of the detestable god Baal!  The reference in verse 24 to: ‘the deep things of Satan’ may mean this woman was teaching that Christians could be involved the pagan idol feasts.  Or that to know Satan secrets you had to indulge yourself in sinful practise, but your soul would remain untouched due to God’s grace.[1]  But whatever she was teaching she was bad news for the Church just as her Old Testament namesake was!

The rather strange reference to Christ’s feet being like burnished bronze (v18) is coupled with the words: ‘refined in the furnace’ in Chapter 1 verse 15.  A furnace melts down metal to rid it of all its impurities, so this is a reference to the purity and holiness of Christ.  This helps us understand why his judgment will be so severe on this woman and: ‘her children’ which is probably a reference to her followers.  Yet there is an indication of grace here as Christ has given her time to repent (v21).  There are various times in scripture where we see that God protects his Church in this way.  Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11 are a good example as is the situation in 1 Corinthians 11:29-30.   Perhaps it was more common in the Early Church for the Lord to keep it pure in this way, but we should not rule out that he can still do it today!  However we look at it, verses 22-23 acts as a warning for Churches to remain faithful to scripture and to test each ministry against it!

But there were some faithful Christians in Thyatira and Christ wants to do nothing but bless them!  Those who are faithful are to: ‘hold fast’ as this blessing is not unwarranted.  But what a blessing it is as they will rule with Christ and have a share in Christ: ‘the morning star’ (v28 and 20:16).  There is a lesson here to check every ministry against the scripture as we are told: ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches’ (v29).  After all the Word of God is the ‘sword of the Spirit’  (Ephesians 6:17) and therefore greater than self appointed human authority!

Would you like to hear a sermon on this passage?  A Church that Tolerates Dangerous Teaching!

[1] Steve Wilmshurst, The Final Word, The Book of Revelation Simply Explained (Darlington, Evangelical Press, 2008) 44.