Habakkuk 1:5 Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. -LORD God
These are the last of words of Jesus before He comes for His bride the Church. Revelation The Last Letter looks at the seven churches in their historical and geographical context in the first century. These were actual churches in actual ancient cities in what is modern day Turkey. What did Jesus actually say to the churches? Please, listen to the good news from Jesus Himself…
This is a great resource for small group Bible studies. Study questions are provided at the end of each chapter.
Revelation 2:24-25 But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them-I place no other burden on you . Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.
This message is for those in the church at Thyatira who did not follow the teachings of Jezebel. These believers have not studied the ideas of Satan…allegedly. These folks are off the hook as far as Christ is concerned. These believers are encouraged to stay the course in their lifestyle in Jesus.
…until I come…This is the Greek word ηεκο/heko. Strong’s defines the word as: to have come, have arrived, be present. Metaphorically: to come to one, i.e. to seek an intimacy with one, become his follower: to come upon one (unexpectedly); to come upon one, of things endured.
This word ηεκο/heko captures the essence of Christ’s work in the resurrection and rapture of the church. Jesus is returning for His bride. Christ calls on us to persevere and endure the pressures of this world. He desires a personal relationship with believers, those who follow Him. And He will come like a thief in the night if one is not ready.
Revelation 2:26-27 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 earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
The one who conquers…This is the Greek verb νικαο/nikao. It is a term for a victorious military hero. Again, the shoe brand Nike comes from this Greek root word. The grammar states the action is continuous.
…and who keeps my works…Again the action of the verb is continuous. The believer is to continue the deeds and works of Christ. It should be the attitude of the believer to continuously do the will of Jesus. Again, until the end when He comes again.
Pay attention, there are rewards on the line. Believers will be political rulers in the future Millennial Kingdom. This is not an honorary position. Jesus is making the claim. Details of the leadership are noted below.
…I will give authority over the nations…What kind of authority are we promised? The Greek word is εξουσια/exousia. Strong’s Concordance defines the word as the following: power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases; physical and mental power; the ability or strength with which one is endued, which he either possesses or exercises; the power of authority (influence) and of right (privilege); the power of rule or government (the power of him whose will and commands must be submitted to by others and obeyed); universal authority over mankind; the power of judicial decisions; the sign of regal authority, a crown.
…and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces… Jesus is quoting the Psalmist. This is the power and authority promised to the Messiah. He will share in His power with His bride the church.
Psalm 2:9 You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.
Notice the chain of command with authority in verses 26-27. It starts with God the Father. The Father hands authority to the Son. And the Son shares it with believers who are in Him. Believers will rule and reign with Jesus Christ in the Millennial Kingdom and into eternity.
Revelation 2:23 And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
This is the kind of verse the atheist and critic have a field day. I can hear them now.
“The God of the Bible is a genocidal ogre who wants to kill people and crush them under his thumb. God is not a God of love.”
The atheist and critic have one fundamental problem. They want to ignore the consequence of behavior. There is a right way and a wrong way. God made it very clear from the beginning. The message is consistent from the Garden of Eden through the end of the New Testament. If one disobeys, they will die. Plain and simple.
Genesis 2:17 “…but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The last thing the atheist and critic want is accountability. They want to do whatever they want. The end result of this thinking is anarchy. It did not work in the past and it will not work now or in the future.
Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
The atheist and critic have propped up their intellect as deity. They know what is best. And don’t anyone dare question them or point out moral standards. They will have none of it.
And I will kill her children with pestilence… The “her” continues to be Jezebel. “Her children” or followers will get theirs. The text literally states, “I will kill with death” in the original Greek.
…and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts… This message is not for Thyatira only. It is a message for all the churches and all the believers. God the Son (as well as the Father and Spirit) knows your thought life. He knows your feelings and intentions.
Psalm 139:1-2, 4 O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you understand my thought from afar. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all.
…and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. The atheist and the humanistic critic love to point out how humanity is getting better, constantly evolving, and improving. They say on balance, man has done more good than bad. They want to be judged on their merits and deeds.
Be careful what you ask for. At least three times in the book of Revelation, humanity is told they will be judged according to their deeds. The last two examples are mentioned in the context of the great white throne.
Revelation 20:12b …and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
Revelation 20:13b …and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
A message to the atheist and critic, Hell is real whether you believe it or not.
Revelation 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 2:20 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.
Jezebel, she calls herself a prophetess. There is absolutely nothing that is divinely inspired about this woman. She does not have a clue about the future. She is only thinking about the here and now. She wants her way.
Jezebel is a bad influence. She could care less about others. She leads others into temptation.
…commit acts of immorality…This is an example of the translators providing a sanitary, politically correct interpretation. The Greek word is πορνευο/porneo. It is where the English term “pornography” comes.
Strong’s defines porneo as: to prostitute one’s body to the lust of another; to give one’s self to unlawful sexual intercourse; to commit fornication. Metaphorically: to be given to idolatry, to worship idols; to permit one’s self to be drawn away by another into idolatry.
…and eat things sacrificed to idols. This would be the case of food or animals killed in the name of other false gods.
A modern day example for the believer would be the Muslim holiday of Eid. Eid al-Adha is also known as the Feast of Sacrifice. This is a memorial of the Prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael to Allah. As contrasted to the Bible in Genesis 22 where Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac to Yahweh (God).
During Eid thousands of sheep, goats, and cows are sacrificed. This event marks the end of what is called Dhu al-Hiijah. The sacrificed meat is given to the poor. Jesus is stating, “Do not eat foods sacrificed to idols or other gods.”
As a reminder…Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Revelation 2:21 I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.
God the Father, Son, and Spirit is patient. The message to Jezebel is a message for all of us today. We have a free will choice. He is not making any of us change our behavior. He wants us to change our ways. There is time NOW to change our minds and ways. But there will come a time, when time runs out.
Revelation 2:22 Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.
Jezebel loved the bed and to the bed she will go…not exactly what she is expecting. In this case, the bed is effectively a hospital bed. It is the Greek word κλινε/kline; a couch on which a sick man is carried.
God is not interested in lip service. He wants abstinence instead of prostitution and other forms of unlawful fornication. If not, trouble is coming in the form of seven years of hell on Earth.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Revelation 2:20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel…
Jezebel…Her name means chaste or unexalted.
This may have been a woman locally with the name Jezebel or it is a symbolic reference to the wife of King Ahab.
Jezebel the queen and wife of King Ahab of Israel was not a nice lady. King Ahab was not a good king and she was not a good influence.
1 Kings 21:25 Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife incited him.
Jezebel was from Sidon. She was a Phoenician. This would be modern day Lebanon north of Israel. She worshipped Baal and was an idolatrous woman.
1 Kings 16:31 It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him.
Jezebel surrounded herself with prophets of false gods.
1 Kings 18:19 Now then send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.
While she loved the false prophets, she was hostile to God’s prophets. She promised to kill Elijah.
1 Kings 18:13 Has it not been told to my master what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, that I hid a hundred prophets of the Lord by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water?
1 Kings 19:2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”
Jezebel had Naboth falsely accused and stoned. Naboth was the owner of a winery that King Ahab wanted. King Ahab offered to buy the winery and Naboth refused to sell. So Jezebel forged a letter in the name of king. She had two men bear false witness Naboth. As a result, Naboth was executed. Ahab got his winery. See 1 Kings 21.
Evil was allowed to run its course and eventually Jezebel got hers. Jezebel’s death was prophecy fulfilled. Where Jezebel colluded with two men to lie about a decent man, Scripture bears witness to her promised death two times.
1 Kings 21:23 Of Jezebel also has the Lord spoken, saying, “The dogs will eat Jezebel in the district of Jezreel.”
2 Kings 9:10 “The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her.” Then he opened the door and fled.
Jezebel could not manipulate her way out of death.
2 Kings 9:30 When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out the window.
Her end was a violent death without burial as prophesied.
2 Kings 9:33 He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her under foot.
But there would be no burial for Jezebel…
2 Kings 9:35 They went to bury her, but they found nothing more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
And as a reminder…
2 Kings 9:36-37 Therefore they returned and told him. And he said, “This is the word of the Lord, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘In the property of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; and the corpse of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field in the property of Jezreel, so they cannot say, “This is Jezebel.” ‘ ”
Revelation 2:19 “I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.” –Jesus
Jesus knows what is going on in His church. The local body in Thyatira receives high marks and they are getting better. They appear to be the model church. Here are the characteristics demonstrated.
Love…the Greek word αγαπε/agape. Per Strong’s Concordance, it means: brotherly love, affection, good will, benevolence, to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly. This love is the nature of God.
Faith…the Greek word πιστισ/pistis. There is the dictionary definition and then there are times where Scripture defines the term. This is an example where the Bible is the definitive authority. The author of Hebrews defines “faith”.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
The idea of “hope” is the expectation of reality at some point in the future. “Hope” is not happen stance…well maybe? Gee, I hope so? No, Biblical “hope” is the belief the promise will come to pass.
Hebrews 11 is the chapter in the Bible on the topic of faith. The chapter has been called the “Heroes of Faith.” Faith was the issue, is the issue, and will be the issue. Do we believe God and what He has to say?
Hebrews 11:2-3 For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
Service…the Greek word διακονια/diakonia. It means: service of the office of prophet, apostle, evangelist, elder, administration, or a deacon; those who by the command of God proclaim and promote religion among men; the service of those who prepare and present food.
In the sense of the body of Christ, we are all ministers. We can all serve the Lord in one way or another. We have different skill sets and gifts. We all need each other in Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.
Ephesians 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ…
The book of 2 Corinthians discusses this term more than any other book in the New Testament.
Perseverance…the Greek word ηυπομονε/hupomone. It means: constancy, endurance; in the New Testament the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith by even the greatest trials and sufferings; patiently and steadfastly enduring.
Love one another. Have faith in the promise of God’s word. Serve one another whatever your calling. And persevere and endure until He comes and gets us.
Revelation 2:18 “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:
Jesus is connecting many dots with this initial statement to the church at Thyatira. He is identifying Himself with references to Scripture. There are three characteristics in the verse that point to the person of Jesus Christ…1) the Son of God, 2) who has eyes like a flame of fire, 3) and His feet are like burnished bronze.
The Son of God. Jesus Himself is identifying Himself as the Son of God. The idea that God has a Son is noted in the Old Testament.
Psalms 2:7 I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”
The Son is confirmed by the Father Himself in the Gospel accounts. One example is in Mark with John the Baptist in the Jordan River. All three persons of the Trinity are present.
Mark 11:1 and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
Even the demons know Jesus is the Son of God.
Luke 8:28 Seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.”
Satan knows Jesus is the Son of God in Matthew 4.
…eyes like a flame of fire…One person in the Bible has these kind of eyes, Jesus Christ. This is His description at His second coming.
Revelation 19:12 His eyes are a flame of fire…
John, the author of Revelation describes Jesus with eyes like fire.
Revelation 1:14b …and His eyes were like a flame of fire.
Daniel’s description of a man dressed in linen fit.
Daniel 10:6a His body also was like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches…
…His feet are like burnished bronze…
John describes the feet of Jesus in the Patmos vision.
Revelation 1:15a His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace…
Daniel’s description of the man dressed in linen (garments of a priest) by the river had descriptive feet.
Daniel 10:6b …his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze…
This is what Jesus is going to look like. Just add white hair, crowns, and a red robe on a white horse.
Revelation 2:18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write…
Tηυατειρα/Thyatira in the Greek means: “odor of affliction” per Strong’s Concordance. The “odor” may get its identity with a large swamp that is outside of town on the Lycus River. The area is reported to be full of bugs, insects, and disease. The city was located on the Lycus River.
The name Thyatira means “the castle of Thya” per International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Today ancient Thyatira is modern day Akhisar, Turkey. Akhisar means “white castle”.
Thyatira was about 45 miles southeast of Pergamum.
Thyatira was home to a Christian population until 1920 AD. At that time, the Greek Orthodox population was deported. –Wikipedia.
The ancient city was considered to be a melting pot of religion and culture. This was not a city of political significance.
Thyatira was a city of trade but never a large metropolis. Agricultural crops included olives, olive oil, water melons, grapes, and raisins.
Thyatira had an extensive network of trades. Coppersmiths and construction work were part of the local system. Thyatira was also known for their purple dyes. Purple goods were synonymous with royalty and wealth. Lydia in Acts 16:14 sold expensive clothing and textiles. These items were a significant part of the local economy.
Revelation 1:11 saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” –Jesus
The Greek word for “book” is Βιβλιον/biblion. It means: a small book, a scroll, a written document. This is the word where we get the term Bible.
The word “book” is singular in the sentence. It would appear John sent one “book” or epistle to the seven churches. The book was sent from the island of Patmos. The order of the seven churches listed is geographical and clockwise in nature. The first stop on the mainland of Turkey was Ephesus. Next, the letter would have gone north to Smyrna. The third stop was north in Pergamum. Following Pergamum to the east and a bit south was Thyatira. The fifth stop to the south would have been Sardis. A jog to the east and the letter stopped in Philadelphia. The last stop to the south and east was Laodicea.
All seven churches are located in what is modern day Turkey.
Four of the seven churches in Revelation have references to Satan. Jesus is the one talking directly to the churches. Jesus got His information from God the Father (Revelation 1). This is not conjecture. The churches are: Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, and Philadelphia.
Acts 16:6 They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia… The Holy Spirit made sure Paul and his companions stayed in modern day Turkey instead of advancing east to China. The regions of Phrygia and Galatia are in the heart of Asia Minor.
Satan has his trinity. He plays the role of God. The antichrist plays the role of Jesus. And the false prophet plays the role of the Holy Spirit. Satan clearly has a foot hold in Turkey per the comments of Jesus to the churches in Revelation. Satan has a religious system and structures in place in this geographical area. If Satan’s home land is modern day Turkey, would it make sense for him to establish his kingdom with his minions here?
