We're continuing with our study of the revelation of Jesus Christ, which is the last book of the Bible, and we are now in the section where Jesus is writing himself to the churches. He's instructing an angel of each church to write. And we've come to the church of Thyatira. This is chapter 2 verses 18 through 29. 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, 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 practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her into a sick bed, 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 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 who 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 the earth and pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have 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. Father in Heaven as we come to your word we ask that everything we do here would lift up your tongue and bow to the Lord. We pray in Jesus name, Amen. Jesus begins this letter like he does all the other letters with a declaration of who it is that's speaking, who it is that's writing this or telling the angel to write this. And he says this is the words of the Son of God. He's not claiming to be a Son of God, he's saying that he is the Son of God. And all through the Gospel Jesus calls himself the Son of God and the Son of Man, meaning that he is both fully divine and fully human. He has two natures in one person. So in a way he is reinforcing everything that has been taught about him throughout the Bible, the Old and New Testaments. He is superior in every way to Apollo, who was supposedly the Son of Zeus and was the patron deity of Thyatira and the deified emperors linked to him. And because the Son God Helios is linked to Apollo, Jesus tells him he has fiery eyes and feet of burnished bronze, which make Helios look dull by comparison. Jesus then commends them as a church that they've begun well and they've continued to excel. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance and that your latter works exceed the first. So Jesus is telling them that the way you love him, the way you love your neighbor, he sees it. He knows when you patiently endure for the sake of the Gospel. And whereas Smyrna and Pergamum, the two churches we looked at before, were in physical danger so much that the threat of arrest, imprisonment and death was weighing on them. To Smyrna he said, do not fear about what you are to suffer. Behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested and for ten days you will have tribulation. He says be faithful unto death. So even if you die, then I will give you the crown of life. And to the church of Pergamum he says to Antipas, my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells. So in both the churches previously that we looked at, death is an impending concern. But the danger in Thyatira seems to be more economic. And the problem was tolerance of false gods and false worship for the sake of financial security. Trade guilds dominated the economic life of the city. And so joining them was essential if you wanted to participate in commerce and if you didn't join them then you were severely handicapped in your ability to raise money and your ability to provide for your family and your ability to even live. But the difficulty for Christians was that to join they had to participate in these guild meals. And these meals were dedicated to the patron deities making it forbidden for Christians. But because of the pressure, many people in the church joined the guilds and those who didn't were more or less tolerant of those who did. And that's what Jesus is saying in verse 20. I have this against you, that you tolerate the 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. Now the word that's been translated sexual immorality here is the word porneo. And in this context most commentators agree, virtually all of them agree, that it means spiritual adultery or idolatry. In other words, worshipping false gods because you're participating in these guild feasts where the food has been sacrificed to the god Apollos or Helios or to one of the emperors. Jesus calls the woman Jezebel. Apparently she was a prophet in Thyatira who was leading people, she called herself a prophet who was leading people astray. And he calls the woman Jezebel which is a reference to the Old Testament character Queen Jezebel who was the wife of Israel's King Ahab. She was a Phoenician woman who was royalty and the marriage to Ahab was to form a political alliance but then Jezebel tried to bring her idolatrous religion into Israel and forced the Israelites to worship Baal. She went so far as to bring 800 prophets of Baal into Israel and you can read about that in 1 Kings. But you might recall that the prophet Elijah, the prophet of the Lord, challenged the prophets of Baal to something of a duel. They were told to get a bull for sacrifice, put it on their altar and then call upon their gods to consume it as part of the sacrifice. And what happened? They chanted and prayed and went on for hours. They even cut themselves as part of their ritual and nothing happened. Elijah taunted them, asked if their god had gone to sleep or had gone to the bathroom. Then when it was Elijah's turn he ordered that the sacrifice be covered with water, just poured water all over the sacrifice. And then he called upon God and God consumed it almost immediately. After that had happened, Elijah ordered all 800 prophets of Baal to be killed. So when Jesus calls this woman in Thyatira Jezebel, he is hearkening back to the Old Testament Jezebel who tried to get Israel to worship false gods, just like this Jezebel in Thyatira is trying to get the Christians to worship the false gods there in Rome. Now no doubt they're with idolatry, the spiritual adultery, a loosening of morality with some in the church. And people have always sinned in this area. But it's an altogether different thing when it's promoted as apparently was in Thyatira. However the major issue is spiritual adultery and God is so against this that it appears throughout the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament. I chose just one section in Ezekiel 16 to give you an idea of how opposed to this God is. He says to Israel, Ezekiel 1620, Furthermore you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to me and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. For your obscene practices, a trivial matter, you slaughtered my children and offered them to idols by making them pass through the fire. Israel was participating in child sacrifice, the burning of children to appease the gods. And this is what God says about it in verse 23, Then it came about after all your wickedness, Woe, woe to you, declares the Lord God, That you built yourself a shrine and made yourself a high place in every public square. You built yourself a high place at the very beginning of every street and made your beauty abominable and you spread your legs to every passerby and multiplied your obscene practice. God is serious about idolatry. He's deadly serious about idolatry. In similar practices to the ones I just mentioned were being advocated in the churches. Jesus warns the prophetess that she will face judgment if she doesn't repent, which she has refused to do. I gave her time to repent. I will throw her into a sick bed and those who participate with her, they'll face great tribulation unless they repent. And I will strike her children dead. Her children here, meaning those who follow her, not her actual physical children. So those who commit adultery with her spiritual idolatry will have great tribulation. Her children will be killed, those who follow her into the idolatry. Now you might be thinking, what does this have to do with us here in Nova Scotia in 2025? Why are we talking about what was happening in Thyatira? We said at the beginning of looking at these seven churches that not everything in the seven churches, what's being commended and what's being criticized, not everything is true of every church, but there is something in the churches that applies to us somewhere along the line. So let's think about that. Who was the original Jezebel? She was a queen married to Ahab, king of Israel. What is the king and queen? They're the government. And they're bowing to false gods and threatening to take all of Israel with her. In Revelation, the governing authorities are bowing to false gods to Apollos, to Helios, and to the emperors. Well let's look at the governing authorities here. They promote child sacrifice in the form of abortion. They promote medical assistance in dying. They support transgender surgery for children. They support homosexuality. All of these things, and there are many more, directly oppose the teachings of the Bible, and this was once a Christian nation. Now here's the danger. The danger is that we become so used to these things that they're just part of the fabric of where we are and who we are and where we live and, you know, O Canada and all that. But this is true of us. The danger is they seem like the norm. So when our churches participate in these things, we want to be tolerant, but it becomes more than tolerance. Soon it's just not to tolerate. Then it becomes not tolerance, but we have to accept. And soon after that, its acceptance isn't enough. We have to promote. And finally, we have to celebrate. And this is true of who we are and where we live. It's not just here, but we're here, so that's what we're talking about. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, he writes, 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 you come, until I come. So what does it mean to hold fast? What does it mean? It means to hold fast to the gospel. Hold fast to what you've taught. Hold fast to who you are. In 1 Timothy, Paul said to his protege, Timothy, he said, teach what I've taught you. Say it the way I said it to you. Hold fast to the gospel, to the sound teaching. One of the ways that we can hold fast to the teaching of the Lord is to recognize our own idols. Our idols may not be anything that I mentioned so far, but there's something. Everybody has them. And you're fooling yourself if you think you don't. Harvard Professor Albert Brooks talks about the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas with regard to our idols. He says there are four main idols, power, money, pleasure, and honor. And the idea is that the one main idol in your heart is the one that you are most likely to succumb to, the one that when you fall into temptation, that will be the one. And the result will be that you will be disappointed or even devastated. It is the one that promises the most, but in the end delivers little. It promises delight, but in the end delivers misery. So one of the ways that Albert Brooks says you can determine what your main idol is, is by doing this exercise. You don't have to do it now. I'm going to walk you through it. You can do it later. You can do it now if you want to, if you do it quickly. But let's take those four, power, money, pleasure, honor. You look at those four and you think, okay, which one is the least tempting to me? Which do I care about the least? And you eliminate it. Okay, now there's only three left. You go through the same exercise. You say, all right, I've eliminated the one that I really don't care about. Now you have two left. Let's say you're left with money and pleasure. Now you have to decide which is it, which is the one that is most tempting to me? Which is the one that I'm most likely to sin with? And you eliminate one more. And if you're honest, that is the one that will get you if you aren't ready for it. But the good news is that if you know what it is, you are better equipped to resist. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12, therefore let one who thinks he stands watch out that he does not fall. This is how you watch out. You are aware of yourself. You think about it. Which idol is most likely to get me? Which is the one I'm most attracted to? Which is the one that I have to guard against the most? Now we all have all of them to some degree, but everybody has, according to this, a main one. So he says, no temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind. So you're not unique. And God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. So you figure out what your main idol is, and then you steal yourself against it. You don't feed it. He goes on to say, 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 any other burden on you. Only hold fast what you have until I come. So one of the ways to hold fast is to recognize your idol. Hold fast to what you have. But what do we have? One of my first teachers after I became a Christian, it's a man named Jim Sylvester, and he had this list of 40 things that we all have because we're Christian. I'm going to tell you some of them. I probably won't say all 40. First we have a relationship with Christ. We're made alive. We have an intimate family relationship with Him. Christ is in us. We have eternal life and a resurrected body, hope, and a personal home prepared by Christ, and we are light. We have a righteous standing before God. All my sins have been paid for, past, present, and future. I stand perfect in God's eyes. My sins are absolutely forgiven and forgotten. There's no condemnation. We're new creatures. We've been made like Christ. We've given power in the Holy Spirit. We have promises that will supply all our needs. We're joint heirs with Christ. We're citizens of heaven. We have victory over fear, over the world, over sin, victory over circumstances. We're liberated. God has given us His armor. The devil has been rendered powerless, according to Hebrews 2.14. These are all what you have in the Gospel. These are all what you have in Christ. You have the promise of answered prayer. You have confident access to the throne room of God. You've been seated with Christ in the heavenlies, and at the right hand of the Father, the position of authority. We reign with Christ. We're royal priests. We've been given the Holy Spirit who indwells us, who baptizes us into the body of Christ. He seals us. He's a pledge of our inheritance. He fills every life. He illuminates our minds. He empowers us for evangelism. He's the giver of all spiritual gifts. We are made spiritual. He produces fruit in and through us. All of these things and so much more is true of you because you are in Christ, because you believe the Gospel, and this is what Jesus is saying through John, hold fast. The only way you can hold fast, though, is to know what tempts you to go away. Is it power? Is it honor? Is it money? Is it pleasure? Honor can be credit. I don't think that's my main one, but I can remember when I was a new staff person with Campus Crusade for Christ, I was at Kent State University, and I came up with this idea. How important it was is I don't even remember what it was. I came up with this idea, and everybody on the staff team thought it was great. The director thought it was so good that he went to the area director, who was Jim Sylvester, that I just quoted, and told him about it. Only he didn't say it was my idea. He said it was his idea. And then Jim, in front of all the staff in Michigan and Ohio, talked about this idea and what a great idea it was and how it came from not me. I was sorely upset because I wasn't getting credit. You see, that is the temptation. It's like I have to have credit. I have to have honor. That's what it looks like. Power means you want to control other people. Money means that you will like those in Thyatira, compromise. Join the guilds so that you can have the money. And what does it look like here? It's all kinds of things that we're asked to do, possibly, in our jobs, which are against what the scriptures tell us. But we think, well, I have to do it, or I'll be fired, or I'll have to do it, or I'll lose my position, or I have to do it, or I won't be promoted. Pleasure is easy enough to figure out. But to hold fast to the gospel, you have to know what you're being tempted in, and you have to know who you are in Christ. Now, maybe you're here and you've never really believed the gospel. This is the gospel. That God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect sinless life in our place. So that His righteousness would be credited to us, because then He was punished in our place for sin. And then after He was punished, He was buried, because He was dead. And then three days later, He rose again from the dead, and now He's seated at the right hand of God the Father. You have to believe that. You have to believe that I am a sinner in all of my efforts to save myself, all of my succumbing to these idols. I need to repent like the prophetess in Thyatira refused. I need to repent, and I need to turn to Christ and humbly believe the gospel. If you've never done that, I'm asking you to do that now. Paul says, I beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God, and I beg you on behalf of Christ. Be reconciled to God if you have never believed, believe now. He goes on to say, the one who conquers and who keeps my word until the end, to Him I will give authority over the nations. Does that mean that you can never sin? No, that's not what it means. What it means is that you continue to believe the gospel. He says, He will rule with a rod of iron, when the earth and pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father, and I will give Him the morning star. That means that I will give Him the morning star. Later in Revelation chapter 22, this is the morning star, I Jesus have sent my angel to testify you of these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. So when Jesus says I will give him the morning star, He's saying I will give him myself. The spirit and the bride say come, let the one who hears say come, and let the one who is thirsty come, let the one who desires take the water of life without cost. If you haven't believed, believe now. If you haven't repented, repent now. Believe the gospel.