[Special: Seven Churches] The Church of Thyatira - A Letter of the Lord to the Church in Thyatira (1)
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 13859 |
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July 24, 2011 |
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* The Church of Ephesus
* The Church of Smyrna
* The Church of Pergamum
* The Church of Thyatira
* The Church of Sardis
* The Church of Philadelphia
* The Church of Laodicea
 Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
Chairman, The United Holiness Church of Jesus Christ
Permanent President, The World Christianity Revival Mission Association
Joint President, Association of Lovers of National Assembly and Prayers for the Country
Founder & Board Chairman, Global Christian Network
Founder & Board Chairman, World Christian Doctors Network
Founder & Board Chairman, Manmin International Seminary
Founder & Board Chairman, The Alliance Holiness Theological Seminary
Doctorate of Ministry, and Honorary Doctorate of Divinity
Senior Pastor, Manmin Central Church
His sermons were broadcast by the Far East Broadcasting Company and the Asia Broadcast Station
His Christian columns appear on The Chosun Ilbo, The Hankook Ilbo, The JoongAng Daily, The Dong-A Ilbo, The Munhwa Ilbo, The Seoul Shinmun, The Kyunghyang Shinmun, The Hankyoreh Shinmun, The Korea Economic Daily, The Korea Herald, The Shisa News, and The Christian Press.
He conducted crusades in Tanzania; Argentina; Los Angeles, Baltimore, Hawaii, and New York City of the USA; Uganda; Japan; Pakistan; Kenya; the Philippines; Honduras; India; Russia; Germany; Peru; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Israel; and Estonia.
A Letter of the Lord to the Church in Thyatira (1)
"And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this: I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols." (Revelation 2:18-20)
Thyatira, at that time, was enjoying prosperity in commerce and manufacturing. The people of the same job types organized into groups that were similar to today's guilds. If they did not join a guild, they might have had a problem in managing everyday life. The members had to attend its regular gatherings. At their guild gatherings they performed ceremonial rites to their guardian deities. After the ceremonies, they ate the food sacrificed to idols and guild members were forced to participate in lewd and lascivious activities.
What advice did the Lord give to this Church of Thyatira?
1. The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this
'The Lord's eyes are like a flame of fire' means that His eyes shine brilliantly bringing the feeling of warmth like a flame in the darkness. At the same time, the flame of fire scorches all sin and evil, searches each and every heart, and discerns the truth from the untruth. The Lord uses His eyes like a flame of fire to search each and every heart, soul and mind. That's why it says His eyes are like a flame of fire.
What does it mean by, 'His feet are like burnished bronze'? Revelation 1:15 says, "His feet were like burnished bronze." If we refine gold, silver, or bronze at an extreme temperature using a furnace, any impurities in them are removed. The purer it becomes the higher its value. Even the feet of our holy and perfect Lord are pure and bright like this refined and burnished bronze.
The reason why the Bible says the Lord's eyes are like the flame of fire and His feet are like the burnished bronze is because God wants us to realize once again how glorious and majestic our Lord is. Also, it emphasizes that the Lord is the Son of God, that the Lord is one with God the Creator, and that He is the Holy and Majestic One.
2. I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.
One may think this is actually commendation of the Lord, but actually, it's not. It's just that their deeds of late were greater than at first. Unlike the Church of Ephesus who lost their first love and received a rebuke from the Lord, the Church of Thyatira had more deeds as time passed.
The purpose of the church is only for the salvation of souls and for the kingdom of God. Here, their work was not related to some sort of industry or business seeking profit, but it is related to the deeds of the work in the Lord. It is the deeds of work for the kingdom of God and it is everything done in the Lord that includes saving souls. For example, it includes visiting church members, performing mission works for souls' salvation, or fulfilling our God-given duties faithfully.
Some people do this or that business saying that they do it for the kingdom of God, but the real purpose inside their hearts is for their own benefit. In this kind of case, God is not delighted, and there will be troubles. Therefore, there should be nothing related with conducting any worldly business in the church. Furthermore, God is not pleased with us when we have a conversation that is related with worldly business inside the church.
Next, there was love in the Church of Thyatira. In churches, there must be love that seeks others' benefit, sacrifices for them, and gives life to them. It is the will of God for us to love each other as written in 1 John 4:7-8. It is also the new commandment that was given to us. We have to love God first, and we have to love our neighbors as ourselves. The Church of Thyatira has such a love.
The Church of Thyatira also had faith which was directly related with truthfulness. A man cannot believe others when he himself is false in his heart. Only when a person is true in his heart can he see and know the truth in others and be able to have trust and belief in them. The same applies to faith. As much as we have truth in our hearts, we can believe God's word that is the truth and have true faith.
There was also service in Thyatira Church. Even though the Lord had existed in the form of God, He came to the earth in the form of a servant. Unlike human beings who desire to be served, He came to serve us and not to be served as recorded in Philippians 2:6 and Mark 10:45. We must take His example. We have to love God first, and then serve each other. When we consider others better than we are, we can serve others not just on the outside, but from the bottom of our hearts.
Lastly, there was perseverance in Thyatira Church. As recorded in Matthew 7:13-14, the way that leads us to heaven is narrow. So in order to walk the way, it requires our perseverance. We have to strive against sin to the point of shedding blood. We must pray and fast, and be faithful both to and for the kingdom of God. Sometimes we may suffer in the name of the Lord. When our faith is weak, we may think the way is hard, and we want to take a rest. But we are able to walk the narrow way again since we know how great the fruit will be after we endure all these things (Romans 8:18).
What then, does it mean by 'I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first'? It means that their deeds on the outside became more. The Lord wanted them to realize whether or not their outer deeds were really truthful.
On the outside, their good works such as relief and successful businesses were increasing, but what was the real purpose? It's not that their good works themselves were wrong. It is that they also had to check whether the purpose of their good works was to show the aspects of their goodness to other people.
3. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess
Jezebel was a daughter of the king of the Sidonians in ninth century B.C. She married Ahab, the king of Israel. When she married Ahab, she introduced the idols of her country to Israel, and later not only Ahab the King but also other subordinates and its people were stained by idol-worshiping. For that reason, Israel had to suffer many tribulations. It did not rain for three and a half years. The people of foreign countries invaded Israel frequently.
Even though the man of God, Elijah, drew fire from heaven and made it rain by the amazing power of God to testify to the true God, she still didn't repent, but instead she tried to kill Elijah. She did many evil things and also moved King Ahab with wicked schemes. Jezebel piled up evil on top of evil, and she eventually faced a miserable death and her corpse was eaten by the dogs as prophesied by Elijah.
The Church of Thyatira also tolerated the source of the sin of Jezebel in the church and they became stained in the sin. God warns His children many times in the Bible not to be bound together with evil men as written in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16. Furthermore, we must not tolerate the course of the world. We must not tolerate being tempted by untruth.
When we are bound together with those who stand against God in our individual life such as in a marriage or a business, we will suffer trials and tribulations. It doesn't mean that we should unconditionally avoid anyone who doesn't believe in the Lord in our home or at work, but we should surely not make the mistake of tolerating people like Jezebel and be bound to them.
4. She teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols
Here, 'eating things sacrificed to idols' was not just about the literal meaning, 'eating things that were offered in sacrifice to idols.' It was rather a warning against the various evil acts that accompanied and were associated with the eating of things sacrificed to idols. They even participated in idol-worshipers' acts of immorality. This was a more serious problem.
In Acts 15:29, we can find that apostles and elders instructed the Gentiles who accepted the gospel to abstain from 'things sacrificed to idols' and from 'blood' and from 'things strangled' and from 'fornication'. The Jews at the time grew up under strict instruction in keeping the Law. It was not difficult for them to abstain from what God prohibited. But, for the Gentiles it is not easy to keep all of the Law. So, in the meeting of the apostles, they decided to give the Gentile believers some freedom except for a few things. The reason that they told them to abstain from things sacrificed to idols was again that they might be stained in idol-worshiping and its other related sins if they were closely associated with the things sacrificed to idols.
But Timothy 4:4 says, "For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude." Therefore, we cannot judge that eating the food sacrificed to idols is in itself definitely sin unless we participate in the rites of worshiping the idols. Even though the food was in front of idols, since all the food was given by God, as long as we eat it by faith, it doesn't matter.
But 1 Corinthians 8:7 reads, "However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled." If someone who is not courageous enough in faith eats food sacrificed to idols, while thinking it is sin, then his conscience will be defiled because he willfully does what he considers sin.
If someone who is weak in faith sees a person they consider to have faith eating in the temple of an idol, he may think it's acceptable to eat food sacrificed to idols. If he also begins to eat things sacrificed to idols without using discretion, he may participate in greater sins. Therefore, even when our faith is strong enough to eat food sacrificed to idols, if we might cause brothers who are in weak faith to stumble because of it, then it is proper not to eat the food.
The acts of immorality and eating things sacrificed to idols do not refer to just physical acts. In a spiritual sense, when children of God love something more than God, or worship idols that God hates, it is spiritual immorality. Also, when they align themselves with the people who tempt believers to fall into worldly pleasures and to pursue the untruth, and participate in their acts, it is eating things sacrificed to idols.
5. Today's cases like the Church of Thyatira
Today, some churches accept beliefs of different local areas under the pretext of 'indigenized' religious tolerance. One church allows Koreans to worship their ancestors. They say they believe in the Only God and Jesus Christ as their Savior, but do something like this.
Of course, paying a tribute to ancestors' deeds and being thankful for what they accomplished is not wrong. But, when sacrificial rites are tolerated for reasons of moral obligation, it will eventually lead to standing against the truth that is the word of God. (1 Corinthians 10:20) Recently, some protestant churches also say something similar and unite with other religions that worship idols, giving benedictions to them. They say that doing so is to have a generous heart, seeking the unity of all mankind. But God is never delighted when churches tolerate and hold hands with other religions that worship idols. It is to blaspheme God to send congratulations on the day of celebration of Gentile gods or to bring idol-worshippers into the sanctuary of God.
Those who cannot clearly discern the truth may bow down and pray before a mere creature. Serving and worshipping the Virgin Mary, who conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit, is a model case of the situation of not understanding the truth well. They insist that they just show their highest respect to her because she gave birth to the Savior, the Lord Jesus. But they are going against the word of God.
As said in John 2:4 and John 19:26-27, Jesus called Virgin Mary, "Woman." He did not call her "Mother." There is no record in the Bible that Jesus ever called the Virgin Mary 'mother'.
In Exodus 3:14, God says, "I AM WHO I AM." Nobody gave birth to God or created God. Therefore, Jesus, who is originally one with God the Father, cannot call Virgin Mary, a mere creature, 'mother.' Jesus was not conceived by the sperm of Joseph or the egg from Mary. He was solely conceived by the power of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus just borrowed the body of Mary. Thus, making the image of Virgin Mary and worshipping it is definitely improper.
Additionally, in many different areas of life there are many examples of things that are against the truth. For example, some churches allow smoking and drinking. Smoking and drinking itself may not be the problem itself. The problem is that it causes or leads to many sinful things. Our bodies are a holy temple of God, and we must not defile it with smoking and drinking (1 Corinthians 3:17).
Also, there are some people who confess their sins before others who function as mediators. It is not right at all, either. Jesus became your mediator by redeeming you from your sins. If you came before God through other mediators, how sad God would feel! Furthermore, even if someone says, "Your sin is forgiven," our sins cannot be forgiven just by words alone.
To be continued in the next edition
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