Church Health #4 - Thyatira - When Salt Loses Its
Saltiness
Date: Sunday, January 28, 2007
Author: Rev.
Kenneth Wish
Listen
to this sermon
He was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia and was well on the way to
being discharged. In our
conversation I asked if he was connected to a particular faith group or church
and his reply, one which I hear with some frequency, was, “I don’t go to
church, at least not often, but I have a deep faith in God.”
As we talked, I asked if his faith was in the Christian tradition and he
indicated that his faith developed as he “borrowed” from various traditions
including Native American, Buddhist, and Christian.
His defense of this was that there is only one God and that truth is
where you find it. We were not in a
situation where I could effectively challenge that position.
This position is one that in my work as a hospital chaplain, I come
across with some regularity. I would
dare say that this view is not unfamiliar to most of us who are here today.
The church in Thyatira faced a challenge of this nature and thus the
letter is written. Thyatira itself
was not a noteworthy town. It served
as a kind of gateway to
Pergamum
and would have been a first line defense against an attack on
Pergamum
. In and of itself, Thyatira would
also not be easily defensible located as it was in a valley without any real
stronghold positions within its confines. The
only real political value of Thyatira is that it would slow down an attack of
Pergamum
. Thyatira did have a brisk
commercial value and had a variety of trade guilds that were present.
These were based on trades in bronze, wool, linen, tailors, leather,
potters, bakers, slave dealers and dyeing (
Lydia
, the dealer in Purple and one who came to Christ through Paul’s influence in
Acts 16 came from Thyatira). There were also a few smaller guilds as well.
The guilds were the likely reason for the challenges that the Christians
in Thyatira were facing. These
guilds were the center of the social life in Thyatira and were quasi-religious
in nature. In general, it was
required to become a member of a guild in order to practice in one of the trades
that provided the commercial base in Thyatira.
If one did not belong to a guild, it was virtually impossible to earn a
living in that city. These guilds
were not unlike our Unions that were so predominant in the third quarter of the
twentieth century. The problem in
Thyatira is that a member of the guild would be required to partake in all
activities of the guild, including sacrificing to the gods related to the
industry and then eating of the meals that the sacrifices produced. This was a
point of conflict for the Christians in Thyatira.
They first objected to the worship of other gods.
They also objected to the eating foods sacrificed to idols.
They further objected to the style of party that usually occurred around
the times of sacrifice. These
gatherings typically involved an undue amount of drinking and a loose practice
of morals. There was a constant
source of conflict with the Christian faith and life style.
If one were to visit the city of
Thyatira
, they would easily assume that this city populated with strong Christian
oriented people. This is due to the
overt generosity, acceptance and charity of the people.
Given this background of the city of
Thyatira
, we can now look at this fourth letter to the churches.
This is the longest of the seven letters to the seven churches and is
written to the least significant of the cities that are included in these
letters. Its length is indicative of
the level of concern for the believers in Thyatira.
18"To
the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God,
whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19I
know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that
you are now doing more than you did at first. 20Nevertheless,
I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a
prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality
and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21I
have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22So
I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit
adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23I
will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he
who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your
deeds. 24Now I say to
the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have
not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden
on you): 25Only hold on
to what you have until I come. 26To
him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the
nations—
27'He will rule
them with an iron scepter;
he will dash them to pieces like
pottery'— just as I have received authority from my Father. 28I
will also give him the morning star. 29He
who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The image at the beginning of
this letter is threatening and is apparently incorporated in the letter to
underscore the threat about which the Son of God is warning the church.
This is followed by words of high praise for the church’s activities.
They are honored for their love, faith, service and perseverance.
Jesus affirms their activities of their faith and acknowledges that they
have grown in their service to God and people.
There
is however an overriding concern that needs to be pointed out.
John, in transcribing this letter reports Jesus’ concern as being the
tolerance of the Christians in Thyatira. Particularly,
their tolerance of a woman identified as Jezebel.
The reference to Jezebel recalls to the mind of the Christian the
original Jezebel whose story of evil influence is found in 1Kings
16:30
-33. We don’t know the identity of
the Jezebel referred to in this letter, but it is apparent that she wielded
significant influence in the city. She
is a self declared prophetess and teaches tolerance of the belief in other gods.
She is a central part of the Christian church at the time of the writing
of this letter. It seems that her
primary teaching was that the Christians did not need to cut themselves off from
the ability to earn a living or from the social life of the city.
As noted earlier, guilds were a critical part of the city.
The Christians resisted joining the guilds because they worshipped other
gods and sacrificed food that became a part of their common meal to idols and
due to the nature of the revelry that occurred.
This prophetess, this Jezebel, was teaching that it would be alright for
the Christians to join the guilds and tolerate the practices of the leaders of
the guild, trusting the Holy Spirit to protect them from the false teachings.
The Christians were of course not to take food that had been sacrificed
idols, they were not to worship other gods, nor were they to live immoral lives.
By joining the guilds, they would need to participate in these ways, or
be cast out of the guild. Jezebel
encouraged this in the hopes of protecting her own commercial interests, rather
than helping the Christians maintain the Christ-like life style.
This
letter warns the readers that there has been time given to Jezebel to repent of
her teachings and accept the grace and mercy of Christ.
Her time was running out and the consequence of her refusal to repent
would not be contained to her alone, but would also extend to those who also
turned their back on God. The
adultery that is referred to here is not necessarily literal, though could be,
it could refer also to the unfaithfulness of some people to God.
Those who followed the instruction of Jezebel, are those who were
unfaithful to God. If they also
participated more fully in the revelry of the guilds then the adultery reference
would likely be literal as well.
Jesus
in this letter reminds the church that He is the one who looks at the hearts and
minds of the people rather than just the seeing their actions.
In His searching of the hearts and minds, then God will eventually give
judgment according to our faith.
There
were apparently those in the church that had followed the false teaching and the
warning that is outlined here is meant for those who were aligning themselves
with Jezebel. The last portion of
the letter is a caution for those who are holding to the faith.
This caution acknowledges that the believers had not succumbed to her
teaching and therefore had not learned the deeper secrets (evils) of Satan.
The caution itself is to hold onto the faith in the face of the
temptation to be overcome by the culture in which they live.
Jesus promises that there will not be any further challenge or judgment
against those who maintain their faithfulness to God.
He encourages them to hold onto what they have until he comes.
The promise to the overcomer is that God will give us authority over all
nations and will also give to us the morning star.
Both of these promises are references to Christ Himself.
To be given authority over the nations is to be given the same authority
that is outlined in the Messianic Pslams. To
be given the morning star is to be given Him who is the light of the world, the
same One who has victory over Satan and will cause us to rise with Him in the
time of resurrection and the day of the Lord.
This letter has a tough message in it.
The people who received it are guilty of the sin of practicing a diluted
faith. They were allowing the
fervency of their faith to cool in the face of the cultural pressures that were
surrounding them. The personal needs
of maintaining their livelihood and support for their families could not be met
if they did not join the guild, but joining the guild meant compromising their
faith. They were further tempted by
the continuing teaching of the prophetess and her followers.
I think that what Christ might have expected differently is that the
Christians in Thyatira would have first refuted the teachings that they were
hearing from Jezebel and second have depended on God to supply what they would
need for survival when they did not join the guilds.
This would have been more pleasing to God than tolerating her teachings
and compromising their Christian disciplines by participating in the practices
of the guilds. Jesus is making it
clear that accepting a watered down expression of our faith is not acceptable.
He underscores the need for continued discipline and dependence upon God.
We
are faced with if not the same situation in our culture, but similar
temptations. This is evident in the
interaction with the patient with whom I was talking.
His view was that truth could be found in any religion and
that it doesn’t make any difference what you believe because a person
can still find the one God no matter what religion you happen to be following.
Jesus declares clearly that He is the only way to the Father.
There is the ongoing temptation for us to be accepting of other gods and
faiths. While we are called upon to
respect them, we do not need to accept them.
This
means that we need to be clear in our own hearts and minds what it is that we
believe. To not succumb to the
temptation to allow our faith to be watered down, we must be clear about what we
believe and continuously trust God to supply the needs that we have.
In maintaining our own faith, we will continue to do what Christ called
us to when he said, “You are the salt of the earth.
But if the salt loses it’s saltiness, how can it be made salty
again?” (Matt. 5:13).
Let us hear clearly what the Spirit says to the churches and maintain our
Christ empowered love, our gift of faith, our call to service and our
perseverance in the face of temptation, challenge or even an atmosphere of
tolerance.
Benediction: Now
to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according
to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in
Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Back to Sermons
