Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week we're continuing our sermon
series, Dear Church, where we're looking at the
letters in the opening of the book of Revelation
that are written from Christ to the church. And
today our guest preacher, Bill Crawford, is taking
us through the letter to the church in Thyatira.
Jesus has some harsh words for this church. Words
about compromise from within and the dangers
of tolerating false prophets. So what does Christ
have to say to them, and what warnings does Christ
have to offer to us? Our readings today are from
the book of Revelation, beginning with chapter
1, verses 4 -5, and chapter 2, verses 12 -17.
John, to the seven churches in the province of
Asia, grace and peace to you from Him who is,
and who was, and who is to come. and from the
seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus
Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn
from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of
the earth. 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. I know your deeds,
your love and faith, your service and perseverance,
and that you are now doing more than you did
at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you.
You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself
a prophet. By her teaching, she misleads my servants
into sexual immorality and the eating of food
sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to
repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.
So 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.
I 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. Now 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 except to hold on to what you have
until I come. To the one who is victorious and
does my will to the end, I will give authority
over the nations. That one will rule them with
an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces
like pottery, just as I have received authority
from my Father. I will also give that one the
morning star. Whoever has ears, let them hear
what the Spirit says to the churches. The word
of the Lord. For those who don't know me, my
name is Bill Crawford. I am... I coordinate the
men's ministry programs here at Trinity. And
for the last year, I've also led the group that's
put together the monthly community meals. uh
here at trinity uh and i'm very happy to to say
that uh actually just a few days ago on thursday
we uh we started year two of our community meals
we've been running them for a whole year uh we've
done 12 and and we we have about 60 65 people
on average they're coming every month And it
was a real nice, for me, a privilege to be part
of that community meal program here at Trinity,
serving the hungry and lonely in our neighborhood.
And I also, I'm a deacon in training, known as
a DIT to my friends here at the church. D -I
-T, DIT. Lovingly known as, I'm hoping. And so
as part of that process, Rob has asked me a couple
of times to preach in front of the church, which
is a great honor, and I'm so glad that Rob trusts
me with that responsibility. But I have noticed
that it's always when he is here at the church.
It's almost as if, you know, if I go off the
rails, he can go, Bill Crawford! everybody and
then move on to something else. So let's hope
that doesn't happen, Rob. But feel free if it
does. So we're right smack in the middle of a
sermon series called Dear Church, Ancient Letters
for Today's Church. And today we're going to
be talking about Jesus's letter to the church
of Tyre Tyre. So let's get started with a prayer.
May the words of my lips and the meditation of
all of our hearts be now and always of you. In
Jesus' name, amen. Home. Home is where we feel
safe. Inside the four walls of our homes, we
feel secure. We feel protected. There are outside
forces, both natural and unnatural. but our homes
repel the rain and keep us dry. They keep unwanted
guests from getting inside. Home is our refuge.
We even have the phrase home church, and Trinity
has been my home church for over 30 years. But
we use that phrase to identify that place of
worship where we feel safe and the most comfortable.
But what happens... when it is not an outside
force, but the threat comes from within. You
may be familiar with the old horror film trope
called The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs. It
started with a movie called When a Stranger Calls,
way back in 1979, and they did a remake in 2007,
but there's lots of other movies that use that
trope or make fun of it. It goes something like
this. A teenage girl is babysitting at night.
The children have been put to sleep upstairs,
and the babysitter is downstairs watching television.
The phone rings. The caller tells her, check
on the children. The adolescent dismisses that
first call, goes back to watching television.
The anonymous caller dials back several times.
The caller uses her name in the call, which is
creepy. And another call, he says that he can
see her. I'm looking at you right now. Super
creepy. Eventually, the babysitter calls the
police, who inform her that they will trace the
next call. The stranger calls again. And then
the police return a call. And they say, we traced
the call. It's coming from inside the house.
What happens next? You might want to know. I'm
not going to tell you. I don't want to ruin it
for you. But there's lots of different versions
of that film, that movie. And they all have slightly
different endings. But I'm just going to give
you a bit of a spoiler. Most of them are pretty
gruesome. So be careful. But this scenario is
exactly what happened to the church of Thyatira.
If you recall from last week, the church of Pergamum
was being assailed by external influences from
all sides, economic, religious, social, medical.
They were getting battered from the outside in.
The church of Thyatira had a different problem.
They were exposed to a lot of the same... external
forces as pergamum was but were fairly well insulated
probably because of their faith and their good
deeds as jesus described them in the letter yet
there was an unchecked threat from within and
if left alone it was going to be their ruin Now
let's start with a little background about the
little town of Thyatira. It was a small town.
In fact, it was one of the least important of
the seven churches that received letters in the
book of Revelation. Its only real significance
was that it was a popular trade route, or it
was on a popular trade route between Pergamum
and Sardis. Originally set up as a military garrison
that mostly served as an early warning system
of an invading army heading to Pergamum. But
over the centuries, it became an economic hub,
attracting a number of tradespeople and artisans,
including those who worked with wool, linen,
dyes, leather, and bronze. And they set up trade
guilds to help grow and protect their businesses.
These trade guilds, which... also doubled as
social and religious clubs, became quite powerful
and exerted a lot of influence over the people.
Basically, if you wanted to work in your trade
in Thyatira, you needed to be a member of a guild
and to participate in their activities and their
festivities. Out of all the letters in Revelation
chapters 2 and 3, this one is the longest. but
it's written to the least important city. And
this tells me something. What mattered most to
Jesus was not how big or how powerful the city
was, but how faithful his people were. Let's
get into the letter. The main body of the letter
is very similar to other letters to the seven
churches. The first part is a commendation. Basically...
Jesus complimenting them on what they were doing
well as a church. The second part is the condemnation,
and that is Jesus' warning, highlighting what
they are doing wrong. The third part is the promise.
Each letter concludes with a promise and a blessing
or a reward for the one who overcomes. In verses
18 and 19 we read, These are the words of the
Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire,
and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know
your deeds, your love, your faith, your service
and perseverance, and that you are now doing
more than you did at first. Jesus starts by letting
them know who he is. He is the son of God, big
S, big G, the son of God. And he's telling them
that he's more powerful than the gods, lowercase
g gods, that are worshipped in the temples. He
has eyes like blazing fire, symbolizing his ability
to see everything. Nothing is hidden from him.
Not our struggles, not our secrets, not even
our motives. His feet of bronze show his purity
and his ability to trample evil underfoot. Our
all -knowing and all -powerful God takes a look
at the church of Thyatira and sees a faithful
church doing good works and even growing. That
sounds great so far, but there is a problem.
and there always has to be a but. But in this
case, it's a nevertheless. Jesus says, nevertheless,
I have this against you. You tolerate the woman
Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her
teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual
immorality and the eating of food sacrificed
to idols. So Jesus rebukes the church for tolerating
the false prophet Jezebel, who is leading believers
into sexual immorality and idol worship. But
the question is, who is Jezebel? And Jesus calls
her Jezebel, but that's likely not her actual
name. One of the commentators in the books that
I read in preparing for this sermon said, no
one in that time would ever, ever... ever call
one of their children Jezebel. It just was not
a name that would be used because of the historical
significance. So Jesus calls her Jezebel in this
letter as a symbolic reference to the Old Testament
queen Jezebel who promoted Baal worship and idolatry
in Israel. You can read about her story in the
Old Testament books of 1 Kings chapter 16 to
21 and 2 Kings chapter 9. These chapters detail
her marriage to King Ahab, her promotion of Baal
worship, her persecution of God's prophets, her
role in Naboth's death, and her own violent end
where she is thrown from a window and trampled
by horses. It's great reading. Just go home today,
look it up. Amazing stuff. And there just happened
to be someone who pulled out their phone and
took a quick pic. This is the actual scene. Jezebel
thrown from the window. She's on the ground.
She's being dashed by horses. It's a real photo,
guys. Just as the original Jezebel led people
into sin and immorality, the woman in Thyatira,
who claimed to be a prophet but was not, was
teaching the church to engage in similar practices.
The name serves to highlight the wicked and corrupting
influence of her teachings, and the lifestyle
within the community. She called herself a prophet,
a role of authority and leadership within the
church. There are lots of examples in the New
Testament of the apostles choosing a member of
the church, setting them apart to lead, but this
is not the case here. She was self -appointed.
She did have some authority within the church
to teach, but her teaching misled the faithful
into sexual immorality and the eating of food
sacrificed to idols. Scholars don't know for
certain, but she was likely teaching a version
of antinomianism, which is a belief rejected
in the New Testament that Christians are not
bound by God's moral law, viewing it as a license
to sin. From the Greek words anti, meaning against,
and nomos, meaning law, antinomianism is the
view that the law, particularly that of the Old
Testament Mosaic law, is no longer binding or
relevant for Christians after they have received
God's grace. They basically have a license to
sin or a free hall pass. If you get my meaning.
You can see how this would be appealing to the
Thyatarian Christians because it would allow
them to fully participate in trade guild activities
and festivities. They would be able to keep their
jobs, feed their families, remain in good standing
with the trade guilds. Jezebel's teaching told
them that they could worship other gods, they
could commit sexual immoralities, and eat food
sacrificed to idols. and not suffer any consequences
because it didn't really matter what Christians
did after they had received God's grace. Later
in the same letter, in verse 24, Jesus refers
to her teaching as Satan's so -called deep secrets.
People were attracted by the idea of receiving
special knowledge or having the inside scoop.
on the Christian faith. It was appealing. It
was exciting. And she was offering a way to alleviate
the conflict between their faith and their work
life, something Christians in Thyatira were probably
already trying to reconcile for themselves. But
Jesus confirms that it was false, and in fact,
from the devil himself. Okay, so what was the
problem? Jesus does make it plain that Jezebel
was a clear and present danger from within the
church. She was a problem that she was, she was
a problem, but she was not the problem that Jesus
had with the church of Thyatira. Jesus says,
I have this against you. You tolerate that woman
Jezebel. So here's the real problem. The church
did not confront her. They tolerated her. They
said, we don't want to cause division, or maybe
it's not our place to judge. Or perhaps they
thought, you know, she's helping us reach more
people, so maybe we should just let it go. Tolerated
compromise is the problem. Jesus, who sees all,
is condemning the church for turning a blind
eye on the negative influence of Jezebel from
within the church. I have given her time to repent,
Jesus says in verses 21 to 22, of her immorality,
but she is unwilling. 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. This is the consequence.
Jesus basically says, you had your chance to
intervene and you did nothing. So now I'm taking
care of it. He said he gave Jezebel a chance
to repent and she refused. So she is going to
be punished for her discretions, as well as all
those who fell for her false teaching, unless
they repent. Then everyone will know that Jesus
sees into the hearts and minds, hearkening back
to his description of himself in the beginning
of the letter, and everyone will get what is
coming to them according to their deeds. Verses
26 and 28 read, To the one who is victorious
and does my will to the end, I will give authority
over the nation. I will also give that one the
morning star. This is the promise. Not everyone
in Thyatira was following this false prophet,
and Jesus offers a reward to those who hold fast.
Authority over the nations and eternal life with
him. In verses 24 and 25, Jesus says, To you
who do not hold to her teaching, I will impose...
I will not, sorry, I will not impose any other
burden on you except to hold on to what you have
until I come. Isn't that good news? That's great
news. Jesus doesn't pile on impossible expectations.
To the faithful, he simply says, hold on. He
says, stay faithful. He says, turn off the phone.
He simply says, do not give up. So what can we
do to hold on? Well, the first thing we can do
is we can read the Bible. I'm hoping your Bible
isn't as dusty as that Bible in that picture.
It's begging, please read me. When I worked as
a poll officer for the elections, we received
detailed training manuals describing exactly
what we needed to do in any given situation.
Every time someone asked the trainer what to
do, he always said, the first thing you do is
go back to the manual. That's true for us as
Christians. The first thing we need to do is
to go back to the Bible. Romans 15 .4 states,
for everything that was written in the past was
written to teach us so that through the endurance
taught in the scriptures, and the encouragement
they provide, we might have hope. What else can
we do to hold on? Well, we can pray. Prayer should
be our go -to response to whatever it is that
we're dealing with. Don't know the right thing
to do? Pray about it. Don't know what to say
in any given situation? Say a prayer. Not sure
if what is happening is good or it's right? Pray
on it. Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says, do not be
anxious about anything, but in every situation
by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present
your request to God and the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard. Your
hearts and mind in Christ Jesus will guard your
hearts and mind. What else can we do to hold
on? Well, we can test everything. We can test
all things. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 20, 22, we're
told test all things and hold fast to what is
good. Reject every kind of evil. And this passage
is crucial. for dealing with false prophets,
which is the situation that the church in Thyatira
has found itself in, by providing a balanced
approach. Don't reject all prophetic utterances
out of hand, but rather diligently test them
to distinguish truth from falsehood, and then
embrace what is good and reject what is evil.
1 John... was a book that was written to a church
that was dealing with false teachers. And chapter
4, verse 1 reads, Dear friends, do not believe
every spirit, but test the spirit to see whether
they are from God, because many false prophets
have gone out into the world. In a different
one of the seven letters to the churches in Revelation,
Jesus commended the church in Ephesus for knowing
how to deal with fake prophets. It's amazing.
As you look over the seven letters of the churches,
some churches, they're all in the same area of
Asia Minor, but some churches knew how to do
something right while other churches were having
difficulty. The church in Ephesus knew how to
deal with fake apostles, but the church in Thyatira
needed work to do that well. Because they weren't
doing it. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked
people, that you have tested those who claim
to be apostles but are not and have found them
false. So to wrap up, Jesus warns of compromise.
Even a faithful, growing church doing good deeds
can become susceptible to compromising influences.
And we need to watch out for false teachings
from the inside out. We may be ready to guard
ourselves from the more obvious external pressures
that attack our faith, but we also need to be
aware of and protect ourselves from the less
obvious potential threats from within. We can
guard ourselves by reading the Bible, by praying,
and by testing all things. Jesus wants us to
hold on, to stay faithful, and to not give up.
The Bible promises that we don't have to worry.
Through prayer, petition, and thanksgiving, we
can present our request to God, and the peace
of God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus. Now to he who has an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit says to the churches. Amen. Thanks
for tuning in to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This sermon was recorded at Trinity
Church Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario on
September 28th, 2025.