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Sunday 8/30/26
Title: To Thyatira, Stop tolerating the intolerable!
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To Thyatira, Stop tolerating the intolerable!
This is our second week looking at the letter Jesus addressed to the saints in Pergamum.
Revelation 2:18-29,
“(18) To the angel of the church in Thyatira write the following:
“This is the solemn pronouncement of the Son of God, the one who has eyes like a fiery flame and whose feet are like polished bronze:
(19) ‘I know your deeds: your love, faith, service, and steadfast endurance.
In fact, your more recent deeds are greater than your earlier ones.
(20) But I have this against you:
You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and by her teaching deceives My servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
(21) I have given her time to repent, but she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality.
(22) Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness, and those who commit adultery with her into terrible suffering, unless they repent of her deeds.
(23) Furthermore, I will strike her followers with a deadly disease, and then all the churches will know that I am the One Who searches minds and hearts.
I will repay each one of you what your deeds deserve.
(24) But to the rest of you in Thyatira, all who do not hold to this teaching (who have not learned the so-called “deep secrets of satan”), to you I say:
I do not put any additional burden on you. (25) However, hold on to what you have until I come. (26) And to the one who conquers and who continues in My deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations – (27) he will rule them with an iron rod and like clay jars he will break them to pieces, (28) just as I have received the right to rule from My Father – and I will give him the morning star.
(29) The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
Now this is an interesting letter with a few possible places for misunderstanding. It was an interesting study. Not so much in determining the actual meaning, but in understanding how the English words chosen to represent the Greek text, actually convey that meaning.
As in the other letters, Jesus’ introduction of Himself, is the key to understanding what is being said. He IS both the revealer and the revelation itself.
Let’s read it
“‘The words of the Son of God, Who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.”
It is significant that this is the ONLY letter where Jesus refers to Himself as the ‘Son of God’. I’ll just come right out and say that I am not 100% certain why this is, but I have a somewhat educated guess.
All that follows addresses issues of authority, jurisdiction and judgment. Jesus later identifies Himself as having received His Own authority from the Father.
He then references His personal description by John in the 1st chapter as,
“…His eyes like a fiery flame, (15) His feet like fine bronze fired in a furnace…” – Revelation 1:14-15.
I refer to John’s description 1st because it seems as if that is precisely what Jesus is doing. Secondly I do it because it offers further understanding as to its usage with this church.
The “burnished brass”, according to John’s description is “fired in a furnace” which indicates purity.
These symbolic descriptions are of one whose eyes are pure and penetrating. Whose gaze can see, discern and evaluate.
Jesus later says in verse 23,
“I am the One Who searches minds and hearts”
His feet being of refined brass the appearance of which shines could have several meanings and ones likely to have been recognized by the readers of that age.
Feet were seen in many lights both by Jewish and Gentile people in the 1st century.
But more than one of the symbols has the feet representing power and authority. In substantiation of this I will offer these observations.
- The act of washing another person’s feet was associated with servants and social inferiority — which is what gave Jesus’s washing of his disciples’ feet in John 13 its shattering power.
- It was an act of humility and reverence towards a superior for someone to fall at another’s feet.
- It was a sign of respect and honor for a disciple to “sit at the feet” of their rabbi.
- Finally, the earth is a magnificent example of God’s creative work and will be the place He dwells with Man for eternity, and yet it is described also as the resting place of His feet.
Additionally these are other symbolisms…
- Strength and stability: Bronze was hard, durable, and associated with military power, weapons, armor, and lasting foundations. Feet of bronze could picture someone immovable and able to crush opposition. Crushing is mentioned later in this text, so I think it may have some bearing on the text.
- Purity through fire: If the metal appeared glowing or refined, it could evoke a furnace—something tested, purified, and free from corruption.
- Royal or divine majesty: Shining metal was associated with splendor and supernatural glory. Such feet would make the figure appear beyond ordinary human status.
So I believe there is enough to go by to claim that feet which are represented as made of refined brass which shines would speak to Jesus’ power and authority, His purity as well as the solid stability of His character and reign.
Now these are mere guesses, but I believe they have some basis in the real importance of their mention here regarding the person of Jesus.
Once this introduction is completed, Jesus goes immediately into His purpose for writing.
“(19) ‘I know your deeds: your love, faith, service, and steadfast endurance. In fact, your more recent deeds are greater than your earlier ones.”
As in all the other letters, Jesus KNOWS (eidos) us. He knows our works, but more than that He is fully capable of knowing our thoughts and intentions as well as understanding the motives behind them.
He says here, that the deeds of this church are ones of – love, faith, service and steadfast endurance.
I have to tell you those four words capture and encompass the entirety of the Christian walk, purpose and focus. They are quite literally the central points of nearly every letter to the churches throughout the New Testament.
- Love for God and His children
- Relational trust in God which keeps us connected to our Vine and produce fruit unto His likeness
- Service, this is the spill over of the former two. Out of our love for God springs our love for our brethren. Out of these loves comes trust in God for those things which pleases His heart. And dear to God’s heart is serving others as was illustrated so well through Jesus’ washing of the disciples feet and His charge to them to do the same if they wish to excel in God’s Kingdom.
- Finally steadfast endurance – this is one of the major deciding differences between the first three hearts in the parable of the heart soils and the final good heart which produced fruit.
Jesus culminates this statement by saying, “In fact, your more recent deeds are greater than your earlier ones.”
This shows a difference between these believers and those of Ephesus who had forsaken their first works of love.
Now the next section includes most of the remainder of this letter. Let’s examine it!
“(20) But I have this against you:”
We’ve become rather familiar with this phrase. However, like our last church – Pergamum, the first issue was with those who were not committing the sin. Not directly anyway.
Paying attention to the wording is very integral to understanding this letter.
“You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and by her teaching deceives My servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.”
“(21) I have given her time to repent, but she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality.”
“You tolerate” – This is one of the keys to this passage, which would be easy to misunderstand. Many people attach the word “tolerate” to this Jezebel, but that is highly unlikely. It almost has to mean that they have put up with her influence over some in their church.
The verb aphiēmi translate as either tolerate, allow or permit does not require that the one being tolerated to be internal to their church.
In a more positive usage, Matthew 19:14 has Jesus telling His disciples to “tolerate/permit” (aphiēmi) children to come to Him. They were clearly not part of the disciples inner structure, but this word is used.
The verb describes allowing something to exist or continue in your sphere of awareness/influence, not necessarily within your formal structure.
So the church’s sin here was that they were aware of this woman who calls herself a prophetess, they knew her teachings were deceiving some of the saints, and they were not actively countering or warning against her influence.
In fact this reading requires her to be an external rather than an internal influence.
Additional clues:
IF this woman had been part of the fellowship of saints in their assemblies, then Jesus’ call to repent would have started with THAT and a rebuke, for letting a woman assume a role of authority and teaching in the church AND for allowing her to use her assumed call as a prophetess to lead the saints into sexual immorality and idol worship. The rebuke would have been very much like that which Paul gave to the saints in Corinth to rid their assembly of the man living in unrepentant sexual sin. However there is no such call to evict this woman from their church.
Additionally, Jesus is said to have already confronted this woman Himself, calling upon her to repent and she willfully refused. This all paints a picture of a woman who called herself a Christian prophetess, but who did not submit to the authority of the elders in the church but used her assumed role as a prophetess to draw the gullible to her for a following.
The fact that Jesus called upon her to repent could indicate that this woman was a true child of God, but who had allowed herself to be deceived and was fully set to gain followers. However, we know that God also calls upon all humans everywhere to repent, so that is not a sure indicator.
In the end, this seems more like a woman who was never saved and was in fact influenced herself from a demonic spirit. If so, then what we are witnessing here is Jesus, calling her to repent and since she didn’t He is judging her as someone on the “outside”.
The idea of being on the outside as opposed to the inside is something that dates back to Jesus’ discussion with His disciples as well as the passage we read last week in 1 Corinthians 5 which told the saints there to judge those who were on the inside of Christ’s body, but that the judgment of those outside the body, meaning in the world, God Himself would judge. That is almost certainly what this is!
“That woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess” – The name Jezebel calls all kinds of images to people’s minds, but the real Jezebel had a few qualities which make sense in regard to this woman. Queen Jezebel was manipulative, conniving, underhanded, a demanding woman who used the power and authority of her husband’s throne to influence those around her and motivate them to her purposes. Baal and Astoreth were both the pagan deities she sought to establish in Israel, and Astoreth was a fertility deity so the sins of Queen Jezebel and that of this woman in Thyatira were pretty well aligned.
“and by her teaching” – This word teaching is to be taken in the sense of tutoring, directing, offering advice or influencing their thinking.
“she deceives My servants into sexual sin and idol worship” –
This church, like our previous churches, had trade guilds which were connected to deities and their worship. Most likely this self proclaimed Christian prophetess was using her assumed calling to influence believers towards compromise. She probably was not encouraging outright worship of these idols, since the text mentions being misled and outright idol worship would constitute much more than being simply misleading.
This was most likely telling these people that because the idol represents nothing, there is no sin in increasing the pay by which you feed your family by “playing along” with the guild so that they can still be members.
Additionally though it is not impossible, it is more than a little unlikely that real Christians were being literally deceived into outright pagan idol worship and into thinking that sexual immorality was acceptable. So I dug a little deeper and found that this word deceive is actually a textual variant worth noting.
The Textus Receptus (the “Received Text” behind the KJV) renders the verb in the passive — “to be deceived” — while the critical text supported by the earlier manuscripts (Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, and others) uses planā in the active indicative, making Jezebel the clear, unambiguous agent of the action.
Planáō (Strong’s G4105) carries the root meaning “to (properly, cause to) roam from safety, truth, or virtue,”
What this means is that these earlier copies do not say that Jesus’ servants “were deceived” — it says Jezebel was the active agent who was deliberately leading them astray.
This is an important distinction: the object of the verb is tous emous doulous (τοὺς ἐμοὺς δούλους), “My servants” in the accusative — they are who she was acting upon. She is the grammatical subject doing the leading astray. Some translation use the word “seducing My servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols”.
This is supported by several translations.
Additionally, the words “she teaches and seduces” are two coordinate present-tense verbs ascribed directly to Jezebel herself. What this means is that she was currently and continuously teaching and leading astray. Hers was a sustained, methodical, ongoing ministry of misdirection — not a single act of trickery. This is important because this is also indicated in regard to the sin of these saints in following her. Theirs was not an immediate fall into sin, but a slow, progressive straying from the truth.
“Time to repent but she refused to repent of her sexual immorality” – we already addressed this. The wording seems to indicate that this woman was NOT a child of God, and therefore NOT really a prophetess who, like Balaam, wanted to mislead God’s people. All we know about her in this text implies she was deliberate, patient, methodical and devilish in her attempts to mislead and seduce into error.
Now Jesus addresses His judgments.
Now, the Greek of Revelation rewards attention to detail. The text here is doing quite specific things grammatically and the standard English translations, while serviceable, inevitably flatten some of those distinctions so that they do not properly stand out or flag one’s attention.
“(22) Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness, and those who commit adultery with her into terrible suffering, unless they repent of her deeds.
(23) Furthermore, I will strike her followers with a deadly disease, and then all the churches will know that I am the One Who searches minds and hearts.
I will repay each one of you what your deeds deserve.”
The word look is emphatic. WHile it does NOT strictly point to the outcome we read in the next verse in a known causal way, it was very likely the intention of Jesus in calling the attention of this church to what was about to happen.
The judgment is going to be sudden, swift, decisive and powerful.
It seems clear that the only ones able to repent at this point are those who have followed her deeds. Her opportunity has passed in much the same way as Pharaoh’s did when he dug his heels in through obstinance against God’s command.
These verses present us with 3 distinct groups, each receiving a different judgment. This is another place where the English flattens out the text too much and leaves some room for misunderstanding.
The three being addressed are:
- Jezebel herself (αὐτήν) — she WILL BE “cast into a sickbed” (klinēn) This is unavoidable.
- Those committing adultery with her (τοὺς μοιχεύοντας μετʼ αὐτῆς) — WILL BE cast into great tribulation (thlipsin megalēn), “UNLESS they repent of her works“. This is conditional.
- Her children (τὰ τέκνα αὐτῆς) — killed with death (apoktenō en thanatō). This is not the redundant phrase it appears to be. It is a poor English attempt to emphasis the gravity of the situation. Their death will be sudden and there is NO chance of avoiding it. It is as good as done!
That last point is significant.
Those “committing adultery with her” are offered a conditional escape — ean mē metanoēsōsin, “if they do not repent.”
While on the other hand, those who are called her “children” or “followers” are the Greek word tekna and they receive no such conditional clause. The judgment on them is stated as a flat future indicative with no escape offered or possible.
This grammatical difference of a conditional for one group, and an unconditional judgment for the other clearly points out that the two groups are not the same people.
The text is presenting an escalation. Those who follow her loosely still have opportunity for repentance; her tekna do not.
The noun “her” autēs (genitive feminine singular) attached to tekna places these children in direct relational dependence on Jezebel. They belong to her.
Given the consistent New Testament use of teknon language for those brought into being spiritually through a teacher’s influence, the text is pointing to those who have been most deeply impacted by and who conform themselves to her. These are not merely people who attended her teaching or committed acts alongside her, but people who have become her progeny in the sense. Her doctrine has become their own identity and they are her disciples.
The purpose of the judgement is because her activities have gone on long enough. Like the Amorites, she was given sufficient time to repent. NOW her judgement will serve two purposes.
- It will bring justice.
- It will be an emphatic lesson to all the churches which they will not miss and will most likely heed. They will know that Jesus does not just “know” but “searches minds and hearts and will repay each one of you what your deeds deserve.”
Now Jesus turns His attention back toward His faithful.
“(24) But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the “deep things of satan”, to you I say,
This wording implies a direct connection with some form of Gnostic teaching.
“I do not lay on you any other burden. (25) Only hold fast what you have until I come.
(26) The one who conquers and who keeps My works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, (27) 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.”
Do you now see the connection between Jesus’ introductory statements regarding His person and His reward to the faithful as well as his warning and judgements upon the unfaithful and demonic?
“(28) And I will give him the morning star. (29) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” – Revelation 2:24-29
I don’t have the time to get into all this is saying in a proper way which would require me to go back through its similar usages throughout scripture, but I will clearly state the conclusion.
The “morning star” is that star which breaches the horizon just before the sun.
It appears before full day, announcing what is coming, bringing the first definitive light into darkness before the sun rises.
In each passage that applies this to Christ Jesus, that astronomical function — the herald of dawn, the bringer of light before full day — is what is being invoked.
The mode of emphasis differs:
In Numbers 24 is emphasizes royal sovereignty
In 2 Peter 1:19 it is an inward illumination which will wise in each believer’s heart in eminent anticipation of Christ’s return (the parousia).
In Revelation 22:16 it is Jesus’ Own self-disclosure of divine identity
And in our passage of Revelation 2:28 Jesus is promising to give, as a gift to the overcomers – His very self.
The underlying image is consistently one of light that precedes and announces a greater light, and it is consistently applied in the New Testament to Jesus or to participation in Christ.
I am 100% certain that we have no real idea what eternity holds, but this is its most outstanding, staggering and outlandish promise. A promise that is so startling as to seem irreverent and yet, for those of us who are growing in our intimate knowledge of Him and connection with Him, it is the only destination that makes any sense, given the nature of the journey we are on with Him.
