May 25th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Photo from www.HolyLandPhotos.org

Our next stop on the tour through the letters to the churches in Revelation is Thyatira.  Thyatira differs from the other cities we have discussed in that it was not known as a major center of worship to deities or emperors.   Thyatira was a hard-working city known for its trade guilds – the 1st century version of labor unions.

The letter to the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29 is sobering.  Jesus’ introduction in verse 18 gives a hint of what is to come:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

Jesus, the Son of God, is worthy and able to judge His Church.  His blazing eyes cut through reputation and appearances, piercing to the heart of each individual and the church as a whole.  As we stated at the beginning of this series, a king’s feet symbolized authority in ancient times.  The fact that Jesus’ feet are red-hot shows His authority to judge and discipline.  This introduction sets the stage for the letter to come.  The issues in Thyatira are deep, serious, and will be judged rightly from the one who sees it all.

Verse 19 begins on a positive note -

I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

I am so struck by the mercy of our God.  Not only does He see all of our sin, all of our twisted motives, all of our junk… but He also sees what is good.  He sees it all.  The good AND the bad.  His merciful commendation does not last long, however.

Nevertheless, I have this against you… (v. 20)

If you read through the letter to Thyatira, you will notice that their problems do not originate from outside the church walls – this church was being eaten from within as they tolerated deep sin and doctrinal error.  Unlike Pergamum, however, the issue was not localized to a small minority in the church.

Most of the church at Thyatira seems to be culpable in this situation… and much of the issue stemmed back to one female teacher in the church.  One woman who has taken on an inappropriate role in the body.  One woman whose influence was leading many around her into destructive sin.  One woman who refused to repent.

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. 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.

Revelation 1:20-23

Sobering words.  Words that strike me to the core as a female teacher in the church!

To be continued…

If you have missed posts from the Revelation series, you can find them all listed here.  To make sure you don’t miss any more, I hope you will consider subscribing in a reader or by email!

May 22nd, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

This has been a sparse writing week for me!  Lots of “life stuff” going on behind the scenes here at our house – mostly good.  ;)  The blog has taken a back seat- I’m sorry if you’ve noticed and wondered where I was. :)

I wanted to give you a heads up about a very exciting upcoming project…

A site to equip and encourage you to dig in to the Word!

The site is still under construction (being put together by my dear friend Teri Lynne!), but beginning next Monday, May 31st, it will be up and running with more information and introductions from the contributing writers.

Hope you’ve been having a great week!  See you on Monday with more thoughts about the Revelation letters to the churches.

May 19th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Yesterday we began looking at the letter to the church in Pergamum, found in Revelation 2:12-17.  This church was located in a spiritually oppressive climate, to say the least – verse 13 describes Pergamum as the place where Satan’s throne is and where he dwells.  And yet… even while the majority of this church remained faithful to Christ in the face of severe persecution, the church at Pergamum had a serious problem.  Apparently a significant portion of this church had begun to compromise both doctrinally and morally.

Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Revelation 2:14-16

Both the “teaching of Balaam” and the teaching of the Nicolaitans encouraged believers to compromise, to accept practices and beliefs that had no place in the lives of followers of Jesus.  The idea of “Christian liberty” was abused and twisted, and believers were even swayed to attend and participate in pagan feasts.  These believers thought that they could live with one foot in the world and one foot in the body of Christ.

John MacArthur notes,

The majority of the believers at Pergamum did not participate in the errors of either heretical group.  They remained steadfastly loyal to Christ and the Christian faith.  But by tolerating the groups and refusing to exercise church discipline, they shared in their guilt, which brought the Lord’s judgment. (89)

The church at Pergamum offers a serious warning for our modern churches.  We all know that our culture has heartily embraced tolerance as the ultimate virtue – and unfortunately this thinking has found its way into the church.  The Bible’s admonition to not judge and slander our brothers and sisters in Christ (James 4:11-12) has been embraced to the exclusion of Biblical commands and patterns to lovingly confront sin and for church leaders to practice Biblical church discipline.  Many individuals who claim to follow Christ boldly proclaim that doctrine is unnecessarily limiting – that to claim that we know what the Bible says and who God is is arrogant, narrow-minded, and wrongly exclusive.

Jesus’ warning is clear: the church as a whole faced looming judgment for tolerating doctrinal error and sinful living.

Speaking truth isn’t going to win you any popularity contests.  The way to do this is not always clear-cut or easy.   It must be done in love.  It must be done in a spirit of grace and humility – lest we fall into self-righteous judgmental legalism, destroying those around us and presuming we can discern the motives and intentions of others.  But grace and humility are not the same thing as overlooking sin.

We as believers need to know the truth, first of all – the church is largely Biblically illiterate, coasting by with small bites of “inspiration” from music, large-group teaching, or simply cultural Christianity rather than studying and knowing the Word for themselves.  We need to speak truth to one another, sharpening one another, being willing to confront sin in appropriate and humble ways.  We need to pray fervently for our churches – for God to purify the body, for our leaders to have wisdom and courage to do and teach what is right even when it is becoming increasingly unpopular, and for believers to be wise and discerning as we live in a culture that increasingly pressures us to compromise and exchange the truth of God for a lie.

The prescription is serious.  The stakes are high.  Get into the Word and hit your knees.

If you have missed posts from the Revelation series, you can find them all listed here.  To make sure you don’t miss any more, I hope you will consider subscribing in a reader or by email!

Art used (with permission) by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992. To order prints visit her “Revelation Illustrated” site,  http://revelationillustrated.com.

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May 18th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Image from www.bibleplaces.com

So far in our trip through the letters to the churches in Revelation we have visited Ephesus and Smyrna.  Today we come to the church at Pergamum, addressed in Revelation 2:12-17.

“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.

I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.

Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

Pergamum was a powerful and influential city known for its vast library.  Similarly to Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamum was also known for devoted worship to pagan deities as well as Roman emperors.

Pergamum was an important center of worship for four of the main deities of the Greco-Roman world, and temples dedicated to Athena, Asklepios, Dionysos, and Zeus were located there.  But overshadowing the worship of all those deities was Pergamum’s devotion to the cult of emperor worship.  Pergamum built the first temple devoted to emperor worship in Asia (29 BC), in honor of Emperor Augustus.  Later the city would build two more such temples, honoring the emperors Trajan and Septimus Severus.  The city thus became the center of emperor worship in the province, and there, more than in any other city in Asia, Christians were in danger of harm from the emperor worship cult.  Elsewhere, Christians were primarily in danger on the one day per year they were required to offer sacrifices to the emperor; in Pergamum they were in danger every day.  (MacArthur, 85)

The spiritually oppressive atmosphere in Pergamum surely could not be stated any more clearly – in verse 13 their city is noted as the location of “Satan’s throne” and also “where Satan lives.”  I wonder what it was like to live there… surely the spiritual oppression and presence of pure evil was palpable, the danger imminent, fear ever-present.

Danger did not exist solely outside the church walls.  Apparently a portion of this church, although not all, had fallen prey to dangerous false teachings and had capitulated to the pressure and influence of their surrounding culture.  Tomorrow we will look more closely at this sobering reminder to stand firm for truth.

If you have missed posts from the Revelation series, you can find them all listed here.  To make sure you don’t miss any more, I hope you will consider subscribing in a reader or by email!

The amazon.com link in this post is an affiliate link. I would receive a small percentage of any sales resulting from this link.