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WEEKLY
Volume 2 Number 4
24 June 2007
Be Ye Holy
(Message delivered by Rev Hien Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, June 17, 2007)
Text:
Rev 2:18-29
God is holy and He commands us to be holy so that we may have fellowship with Him and be blessed. We thank God that while we were dead in sins and trespasses, He has graciously delivered us from the power of sins and darkness, brought us to His kingdom of light, given us new life in Jesus Christ, and continued His good work of sanctification in our lives until our Lord Jesus comes back again. While we are still living in this world of darkness and sins, Satan works hard to tempt, seduce, threaten, discourage or persecute us to cool off our love for the Lord, to give up our faith, to compromise, tolerate or indulge in sins, worldliness, immorality, or wrong doctrines.
Although the church in Ephesus left her first love, she hated wrong doctrines and sinful practices, which were tolerated in the church in Pergamos and were allowed to be taught and
practised in the church in Thyatira! What a decline! Without Biblical separation, a church will gradually turn to compromise, tolerance, indulgence, and then apostasy without awareness.
Jesus’ Words to the Church in Thyatira
Recipient: to the messenger of the church in Thyatira.
Thyatira was a city in western Asia Minor, an important point in the Roman road-system, for it was situated on the road from Pergamum to Sardis and then to Laodicea. It was also an important centre of manufacture; dyeing, garment-making, pottery and brass-working are among the trades known to have existed there. A modern town Akhisar (White Castle) still stands on the same site.
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of many trade guilds and unions here. Membership in these trade guilds, necessary for financial and social success, often involved pagan customs and practices such as superstitious worship, union feasts using food sacrificed to pagan gods, and loose sexual morality.
The Bible tells about “A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God ” (Acts 16:14). Lydia was probably the overseas agent of a
Thyatiran manufacturer. This ‘purple’ was obtained from the madder root, and was still produced under the name ‘Turkey red.’ The church in Thyatira was founded upon the ministry of the apostle Paul, first to Lydia and her household in Philippi (Acts 16:14-15), and then to his disciples at the school of Tyrannus in Ephesus for two years.
The sinful environment in Thyatira did affect the church there with sexual immorality and idolatry. A certain woman known as “Jezebel” who “called herself a prophetess” taught and seduced believers there to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols, conforming to the paganism and sexual immorality of their surroundings. And the holy Lord Jesus Christ, with His “eyes like unto a flame of fire,” had to rebuke this church for their unholiness.
Author: Our Lord Jesus manifested Himself as “the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass” (v 18). When proclaiming that He is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ wants to remind us that He is the very God, eternal, glorious, holy, righteous, gracious, unchangeable, all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, all-present and that He is worthy to receive our reverence, honour, love, trust, worship, adoration, praise, thanksgiving, obedience and submission.
His “eyes like unto a flame of fire” reminds us of His holiness and His thorough searching. Nothing can be hidden before His eyes. We are so much comforted to learn that when our Lord Jesus “saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them” (Matt 9:36), and when Jesus “looked upon Peter” after he denied his Master thrice and reminded him of His Word and Peter repented bitterly (Luke 22:61). That is a look of grace and mercy! Truly, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Gen 6:8). However, we should remember that our Lord is holy and also has
a holy look like a flame of fire. Our Lord sees everything, searches the innermost part of our thinking, motives and hearts, and is angry to see any sin, idolatry, or immorality there. To the ungodly Jewish leaders, our Lord “had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts” (Mark 3:5). To the church in Thyatira, our Lord looked at them and rebuked them for their committing fornication and eating things sacrificed to idols. My friends, what does the Lord see in our minds, hearts and lives?
“His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace” (Rev 1:15; 2:18) reminds us of the heat, energy, firmness, power and brightness, indicating the zeal, sureness, power, glory and victory of our Lord’s walk and action in His church and in this world. No one nor anything can stop His walk nor hinder His work. To the church in Thyatira, our Lord says that He will “cast…into great tribulation,” “kill,” “search,” “give unto everyone of you according to your works.” My friends, what our Lord has said, He has fulfilled, is fulfilling and will surely fulfill quickly. Shall we not wisely fear Him and submit to Him and His Word?
Jesus’ Words of Praise: Our Lord says, “I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first” (v 19). It is a blessing to hear our Lord’s words of encouragement to you and me and to our church for our love, service, faith, endurance, and our more works for the Lord now than before!
Jesus’ Words of Rebuke: Jesus says, “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols” (v 20). The term “suffer” here means “permit, allow, not to hinder,” and the term “seduce” means “mislead, lead astray.” It is sad and frightening that they allowed a woman named Jezebel to teach them and mislead them into thinking that it was not a serious sin to
commit fornication or to eat things sacrificed unto idols as it was a norm in their society! Paul had to write to believers in Corinth, a city of immorality and idolatry, “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body” (1Cor 6:13), and “What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils” (1 Cor 10:19-20). That is “the depths of Satan” (v 24), who misled Eve into thinking that eating forbidden fruit was not a sin, but a hidden blessing: be wise and as gods!
The name Jezebel reminds us of a very wicked woman in the OT. She was “the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians” (1 Kings 16:31), and the wife of Ahab, king of Israel. There are at least four wicked characteristics in her: (1) She did not fear God, the covenant LORD of Israel. She “slew the prophets of the LORD” (1 Kings 18:13) and “the servants of the LORD” (2 Kings 9:7); (2) She was zealous in pagan worship and idolatry. She had 450 prophets of Baal and 400 of Astarte, who “eat at Jezebel’s table” (1 Kings 16:31, 32; 18:19), and “the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many” (2 Kings 9:22); (3) She dominated and corrupted her husband to do evil (1 Kings 21:25); and (4) She did not respect God’s law. “She wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders” to kill Naboth with false witnesses to take Naboth’s vineyard, even his fathers’ inheritance (1 Kings 21:8-16).
Then the woman Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess and was allowed to teach and to lead the church of Thyatira astray from God’s Word, had the same characteristics:
She did not fear God nor
respect His Word, dominated man’s role of leadership, and misled Jesus’ “servants” into committing fornication and eating things sacrificed to idols. My friends, we can see these same characteristics in those who promote ecumenism or one world religion nowadays, misleading many into accepting all kinds of beliefs, unbiblical doctrines and convictions, idolatry and immorality, disregarding God’s holy Word!
Jesus’ Words of Warning: Although our Lord “gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not” (v 21), He says, “Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works” (vv 22-23). Jezebel, the wicked wife of Ahab, in the end was judged, and was thrown down from the window, and the horses trod her under foot and the dogs ate her flesh, exactly as God’s Word said through the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 9:33, 36). Truly, the holy and righteous God with His holy eyes cannot ignore sins, and “all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” How about you and me? Do you and I really know that our Lord is searching the innermost parts of our minds and hearts, and our thinking, desires, feelings, passions, motives, etc. and He will surely not ignore unrepented sins!
Jesus’ Words of Encouragement: Our Lord says, “But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come” (vv 25-25). To the rest in Thyatira, who did not follow Jezebel’s teaching nor involve in “the
depths of Satan” (a subtle lie and deception that indulging in eating things sacrificed to idols and committing fornication is permissible without sinning), our Lord did not put upon them any other burden except that they should hold fast what they already had till He comes: love, service, faith, endurance, and zeal, which we also should hold fast till our Lord comes.
The Reward for Those Who Overcome: Our Lord says, “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron… And I will give him the morning star” (vv 26-28). The reward is only for those who overcome Satan and his depths of deception as well as those who keep the Lord’s works unto the end, even unto death. It must not be our work, nor man’s work, but the work of the Lord. Only when we do His work according to His will and His way, will we receive the reward and our labour will not be in vain, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58). The
reward is: (1) to rule with Christ when He comes to establish His kingdom of peace on earth, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him” (2 Tim 2:12; cf Rev 20:6); and (2) to receive the morning star. The morning star appears in the sky to make us sure that the night and darkness has ended and it begins a new day. It is a blessed assurance for us that when our Lord Jesus, the Bright and Morning Star comes (Rev 22:16), this world of darkness will end and Satan will be chained, and our Lord will start His glorious millennial kingdom of peace on earth. Do you and I love and look forward to that glorious day? “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” ( Rev 22:20).
Conclusion
My friends, our Lord is still speaking to all the churches and to each one of us today. To be blessed, we are to keep ourselves holy and pure from sinful practices, immorality, unbiblical doctrines and false prophets, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation” (1 Peter 1:15), and “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3) until our Lord comes. Amen .
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