Let us hear God's word from Revelation 2, beginning in verse 18. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, these things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass. I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience. And as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants, to commit sexual immorality, and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed, I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your works. Now to you, I say, and to the rest of Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. They shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels. as I also have received from my Father, and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen. As we begin here today, a term that has been used historically in our country is the term accommodation. But the term that we typically hear today, especially in the last roughly 50 years, is the term tolerance. Now, some try to say that these refer to the same things. But in fact, there are some fundamental differences. Since the beginnings of our country, we've talked about the idea of accommodation. How do you have a culture in America that is made up of all kinds of different cultures, people from different countries, and cultures, and languages, and so on and so forth? How do you have a melting pot, so to speak? How do you all live together here? Well, the principle of accommodation is we accommodate these differences, but we focus on something that unites us all. And of course, initially it had to do with primarily faith in Jesus, but also the principles of freedom and the principles of law and order and such, and eventually the constitution and the bill of rights and so on. Well, especially for the last 50 years plus in our culture, we have shifted from this principle of accommodation to a principle of tolerance. The difference here is we are now uniting around something that is different, something that basically says the United States is terrible and we must fundamentally transform it into something else. And then we need to just accept everybody, including accepting their sinful behaviors. We see this most notably with the LBGTQ and so on and so forth, but we see it in other ways as well. Now there's one thing to live with people who are different from us. It's another thing to accept sinful behavior. And Jesus here begins to speak in this message about some of the sinful behaviors in Thyatira, and that tolerating them does not please him. So, with that briefly in mind, The last time we began the longest of the seven messages here in Thyatira. And we reviewed some of the historical background of the city to help to assist us in understanding why Jesus said the things that he did. You might remember I said it's possibly the case that this was the smallest city of the seven cities and possibly it had the fewest number of Christians. But some of the archaeology and the documentation of Thyatira, there's just not as much here about this city compared to the others. So we're not as sure about some things. But it does appear that the worship of Caesar, the imperial cult as it was called, the antagonism of the Jews, these kinds of things were likely what was going on here in Thyatira, but not to the same degree as we saw in Smyrna and in Pergamos. The key pressure here appears to have been the trade guilds. And it's something, again, we've talked about with Smyrna and Pergamos. And so here, too, membership in these guilds included pagan worship and pagan practices. And so what does that mean for believers who live there? Alright, now Jesus then, as we saw last time, refers to himself as the Son of God, the one who sees everything with his blazing eyes, the one who has bronze feet and rules over everything. This is likely done as a polemic in part against what's going on in the culture, excuse me, Apollo, the principal God in Thyatira, was the son of God, the son of Zeus. He was considered the sun God, so could see things, all things even, they said, and had power and authority. But Jesus is coming and saying, no, I am the true God, excuse me, the true son of the true God. And I'm the one who actually sees everything and rules over all. And so this is an encouragement to those who are persevering and seeking to be faithful in the midst of this pagan understanding. But it's also a challenge then for those who are compromising and doing so to avoid suffering and to be like the world. All right. So we saw last time John being commissioned to write this message and send it to the church. And we also talked about Jesus' character a little bit. And so we come now, first of all, to Jesus commending them for their obedience. There are at least some believers in Thyatira that pleased Jesus. So we'll see more in verse 24, but we begin here in verse 19 with these words. Again, they say, I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience. And as for your works, the last are more than the first. All right. Well, like we saw with the messages to the Ephesian believers and in Smyrna and Pergamos, Jesus knows all things, and here that message is given to us yet again. He sees all that we do with these blazing eyes. He also knows everything about us. In particular, it says that He knows our works, which is the language we saw back in verse 2. Our efforts to obey Christ are what are intended here. We're not talking about works salvation. Jesus is not saying, I see how you tried to earn your way to heaven and I'm happy about that. That's definitely not what he is saying, but he is talking about our sanctification, how we are living as God's people. And so he sees that and he's pleased. He commends them. So our words are important. There's no denying that. The things that we say have great value. And here in the last few months, we had the Campbells and Maurizzi confess their faith before us. We had Philip come in the ordination of him as a deacon. And so our words are important. But our works are just as important to either verify those words or not. Our words must be matched with our works. Our actions must demonstrate what we really believe. And I think we could say they always do. It's just, they might not match up with the things that we say. In James chapter two, of course, James speaks to this issue when he says that we are not only justified by faith, but justified by works. He is not talking about works salvation though. He's just simply saying, Anybody can say they believe in Jesus, but how you live is going to demonstrate to yourself and everybody else if you really do believe in Jesus. And so here is Jesus who sees everything. Here is Jesus who knows everything saying to at least some of the believers in Thyatira, I know your works and they affirm your faith. Your profession is the basic idea here. Well, Jesus then addresses four specific works. And notice how this is not what you typically talk about in our culture today. If you're going to talk to a Christian about the works that they are doing, they would say, well, I attend Bible study on this day of the week, and I go to church to help out in this way, or I'm doing this community service in that way, right? Those are the works that we talk about, which, okay, fine. But you see what Jesus is saying here. He's talking more about attitudes, approaches, not just the specific things we do, but the works of love, the works of faith and service, and of patience. We tend to itemize things a bit externally in our evangelical culture here in America, even in Reformed circles. But notice how he does it, and notice how it's different. And also notice this, that of these four things, each one of them are isolated. The New King James just runs them all together with a comma, but in the Greek it literally says, I am knowing your works, and your love, and your faith, and your service, and your patience. They're spelled out individually. So let's not just mash them all together, but talk about them individually. And so first of all, then he mentions love. And as you see there in your outline, this is the Greek word agape, which corresponds to the Hebrew word chesed. And these two terms basically mean the same thing. And they refer to covenant love, love by way of covenant. It was mentioned a moment ago about Jo and Brett with their wedding. And we think of that, there's a covenant relationship and the love that is associated in marriage. But in the scriptures, of course, the emphasis is on the covenant that God has made with His people, the covenant of grace. And so the love that God has shown to us by way of covenant. is the ultimate idea, but then also the love that we show back toward God because he has entered into covenant with us. And it refers to the love that we show toward one another as fellow members of the covenant. And so Jesus is saying, I am commending you for your love, your covenant love, the love that you have for God and for one another, fellow believers. Now sometimes you'll hear the term agape defined as unconditional love. Okay, fine, that's part of it, this deep and enduring and unconditional kind of love. But again, the focus has to do with this covenant relationship. And so this is a love simply that reflects God's love as we reflect it back to him and toward one another. And so they were doing so. Now again, notice you can then apply that in all kinds of different ways. Jesus isn't listing out some of the specifics of the ways that we could love, but we can approach helping people, loving people, serving people. I mean, you name it, the list is rather endless. And so does this work, this love characterize you? If we are just merely tolerating fellow believers, if we're socially nice or outwardly caring, that doesn't necessarily mean that we're loving in this kind of way. Jesus sees everything. He knows everything. And so here, at least at Thyatira, he is commending them for this kind of love. And it makes sense that Jesus would begin with this. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these is love. It would make sense to begin here, and that's what happens here with these words of Jesus. Most of the Greek manuscripts here give the word faith next. Now, the New King James, of course, puts that third, but depending on your translation, you may have it a second. I think it's probably best to put it second, but whatever the case, let's start with it here, and then we'll talk about service. And so faith here obviously is referring to trusting, to believing. Obviously this includes initial faith when we are converted, but it seems to be emphasizing here more the ongoing faith, the living by faith ideas. And so being a Christian is not merely a cultural thing. It's not something that we do because our parents are Christians. It's not just some one-time emotional experience when we pray the sinner's prayer. It's not just something we do even weekly when we come to church. Faith is to be a daily activity. Christianity is a way of life. Living a life of faith, living a life of trusting in God moment by moment for all things in all ways is what is emphasized here. And so whether it's going to work or you're standing in line at the store or you're watching television or cutting firewood or sweeping the floor, you name it, we are to live by faith. and not by sight. And when we strive to do so, and obviously there were believers in Thyatira that were, this is pleasing to Jesus. All right. Love and faith then give a kind of foundation for the next two, and that is service and patience. The next word here is service. Again, as you see in your outline there, this comes through the Greek word diakonia, which is related to the word diakonos, which of course is the word for deacon. But this is not the word for servant. There's a totally different Greek word for servant. So we're not talking about the obligation, the force that is behind the idea of service in that sense, but we're talking about the willing aspect of serving people. Now, in an ultimate sense, yes, we are slaves of God and we are obligated to obey him, but that's not what's emphasized here. What's emphasized here is the desire to help people, to serve people, to come alongside those in need. to support people, to minister to one another. Now, this includes money. It includes time. Basically, it includes our whole selves. We are ministering, helping, serving one another personally. We are other people focused. And so, In a few moments, we're going to pass around the plate for the deacon's fund. That's one way we can do it. But don't stop there. Let's minister to one another in all kinds of ways. So in Thyatira, there were some that were doing this, and Jesus is happy about this. So then the last word that we have in this list is patience. Your translation may use the term endurance or patient endurance, maybe steadfastness or perseverance or something like that. And obviously, this is the idea of persevering, having patience in times of difficulty. Now, certainly, this includes, if you will, the big events. The big hardships that we face, whether it's issues of disability, as we're talking about in Sunday school, or maybe we had tornadoes ripping through the South and in the West here, what was that, a week and a half ago or whatever. It includes these things, certainly. It includes being persecuted for our faith. But let's not forget about the importance of being patient and persevere in our day-to-day demands of life. The difficult grind, you might say. The world talks about it all the time, right? It's just terrible to be back to work on Monday. Monday is such a terrible day. And hump day on Wednesday. We're halfway done with the work week. And Friday, oh, this is a great day. We can be off of work. I mean, they're constantly talking about the grind of life. And we can understand that, right? whether it's our working of 40 hours or our schoolwork, or the repetition of washing clothes, or washing dishes, or cooking food, or cleaning the bathrooms, or personal hygiene, or the challenges of parenting or grandparenting. And I mentioned last week how some of the trades in Thyatira were bronze working and linens of some sort, right, with the wool and the dyes and so on and so forth. You know, to actually produce something out of bronze, that takes a lot of patience. It takes perseverance. to wear something, right? We just go to the store and buy something, order it online or whatever. But if you're going to shear the sheep and you're going to then take that wool and wash it and maybe dye it and then put it and make it into a thread of some sort and then make the outfit and so forth, I mean, this takes time. It takes patience and perseverance. The point I'm trying to make is simply this. Don't merely think of the need to be patient in the big events of life. We need that. We need to persevere. But in some ways, it's the day-to-day grind, dealing with my sin and other people's sin, the effects of sin that we all face, the fight against apathy and lethargy and boredom, the second law of thermodynamics, aging. These activities can become quite burdensome. But Jesus is pleased when we patiently endure and we continue to show love and live by faith and serve one another, even when maybe we're just tired and worn out from all of these things. And so, yes, we should stand strong against evil, against wickedness, but even against some of these day-to-day things, too. And if we patiently persevere, Jesus is pleased, and there were people in Thyatira that were doing that. So, as I've been implying and even saying to some degree already, how are you doing in these ways? How are your works? When Jesus sees with his blazing eyes and knows with his omniscience, how would he respond to you? Would he be pleased with the works that you are doing? Would he commend you for your love, faith, service, and patience? Well, again, for the believers of Thyatira, at least for some of them, they were doing these things. And notice how the verse ends. It says they were growing. As for your works, the last are more than the first. So they're getting better at these things. This probably includes quantitative as well as qualitative improvement. And so they are growing. They're doing more now than before. And so again, we ask the question, how are you doing in this way? Are you growing? Are you improving in these things? Or have you shown your service and you kind of say, okay, I'm done, I don't need to do anymore? Or something to that effect, right? Are we growing? Let's be honest with ourselves. Don't just give the right answer. We all know what the right answer should be. But what is it really? Now, if you look at verse four here a moment, in the message to the Ephesians, remember the words in verse four, it says, Nevertheless, I have this against you that you have left your first love. Now, notice the word left and notice the word love. And first of all, let me connect the word love to our passage here. The only two times that the noun form of love, agape, is used in the whole book are these two places. The verb form is used a few other times. But in terms of the noun, the only time we see it is in Ephesus and now here in Thyatira. And notice in Ephesus, their love is waning. But here in Thyatira, their love is growing. Note the contrast. Jesus sees this. He knows this. And in here, for the believers in Thyatira, he's commending them in this way. Okay. Now, again, the question is for us. What does Jesus see in us? Does he see our love growing or does he see it waning? If it is growing, give God thanks. Be grateful for his grace to you. But if you see it waning, then let's hear his words in verse 20. And so we turn now to verse 20 and notice what he says next. But nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants, to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols." All right, well, a lot here in this verse. We'll get to some of it here today. Notice, first of all, the contrast. If your translation just says but or something like that, put an underline under that. This is a strong contrast like we read in verse 4 just a moment ago. And notice he spends four verses on this idea. The whole message to Smyrna was four verses. And so notice how important this is for Jesus. And so there's this strong contrast. There are some in Thyatira who are living in a way that please Jesus, but unfortunately, there's this strong contrast to those in the church who are not. And so we come now to C number four, the condemnation for their disobedience. And notice here then next that their actions are ongoing. a continuous kind of behavior. That includes Jesus. Literally, it says, I am having against you on a regular basis. And then it says, you are permitting or allowing. And then Jezebel is calling herself, and then she is teaching, she is leading astray, or how's the new King James say it again? Seducing my servants. These verbs are showing an ongoing action. This isn't something that just happened once. It's not just something that happens on occasion, but it's a regular kind of behavior. And so for Jesus, He's continuously upset at this behavior. The church is not stopping Jezebel and her false teaching and behavior. And so He says, I am having against you. That's literally what it says. It's not just a few things either. He's just against them. And obviously it's not good when Jesus is against us. And his main grievance then, his main criticism, is that they are permitting, allowing, tolerating, not opposing this Jezebel. You know, it's not surprising when we as Christians sin. When we fall prey to some kind of behavior that is not honoring to the Lord, when we become convinced by something that is unbiblical, some false teaching, I mean, those things shouldn't surprise us, right? We're sinners. This is gonna happen. We're influenced by the world. Satan is tempting us. But where it becomes a big problem is when we allow it to continue, right? When we're tempted by something and we ignore it or we push it away, fine, okay? Even if we fall prey to it for a moment, you know, not surprising. But if we continue to do it, now it becomes a big problem, right? And so if some of us were to fall into sin, say adultery or theft or slanderous posting online or something like that, If nobody did anything to try to stop that, that is what Jesus is most displeased with here. Again, notice what he says, I am having against you because you're allowing her to say and do these things. And so if the church is not disciplining its members, Jesus is not happy. If I'm not disciplining myself, if parents are not disciplining their children, do you see the point here? Childish sinful behavior, I mean, you expect that, okay? That doesn't justify it. But the point here that he is making is that if you continue in it without stopping it, okay, as he's going to go on to say, all right, this can lead to death. There's some severe consequences for this. And so if a church does not discipline a member who is sinning in some way, does not try to stop their ungodly behavior, then Jesus is upset. If a false teaching is propounded, whatever it happens to be, and the elders do not stop it, then Jesus is very angry. Now, each one of us are responsible as Christians in this way, and even the church as a whole is responsible in this way, but the leadership in particular, your elders especially, but also your deacons. In our homes, obviously, the parents are responsible in this way. Why do we have kids that are out of hand? Well, they're born sinners. It's because parents aren't trying to stop them. I was somewhere yesterday and there was a couple kids that it was quite obvious the parents weren't restraining them. And that's where it becomes such a big problem. And so simply speaking then, the leaders, at least some of them here in Thyatira, were allowing the false prophetess to continue her teaching in ways. Note the contrast with verse 15. And verse 15, it says, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. It's something that they are having, which is bad enough. But now here, they're tolerating it. They're not stopping it. And so in Pergamos, it was bad, but it's even worse here, you might say. Now, I mentioned here a moment ago, chapter 2, verse 4, and the other word that connects here is the word to leave. And so we have the connection with the word love, even the word nevertheless, but also here, this word to leave. In Ephesus, they were leaving their first love. Well, the word for leave and the word for allow are tolerates the same word. And so in this case, the leaders in Thyatira were leaving their responsibility to restrain this Jezebel and to stop her from what she's saying and doing. And so they are permitting false teaching, permitting false behavior. And, you know, that's really a result of abandoning our love for God, right? I think the connections here are quite deliberate. And in Ephesus, as we talked about, they were starting down the path. They were still doing good works and Jesus commends them for it. Their heart were starting to get indifferent. It was starting to wane, their love. They were starting down the path away from God and Jesus firmly speaks to them. Well, now here in Thyatira, they've gone the next step. They have, at least some of them, have forgotten their first love, which is demonstrated by their works, and in particular by accepting Jezebel and permitting her to do her thing. As we'll see next in the message to Sardis, the church is dead, at least most of it. Do you see the connection here? It's very deliberately done. And so here for Thyatira, Works that are bad are an indication of a love that has gone bad. And so whenever we fall prey to false teaching and whenever we fall prey to sinful behavior, it's actually an indication that we have turned away from God. Remember what we learned in Romans 1? All that list of sins there in chapter 1 is a result of are turning to idols. That's God's punishment for us. And so if we turn away from God, we're going to turn to something else, and we see evidence of that by the works that we have. Now, like the believers in Ephesus, this does not necessarily mean we've completely turned away. And here in Thyatira, we can maybe say the same thing, but if we persist in it and we don't repent of it, this is a sign of apostasy. And then we are, if you will, going to church in Sardis. And so notice how things are linked together in this way. I think it's very deliberately done. False teaching and behavior is evil, worthy of judgment, but permitting false teaching and behavior is worse. Whether it's our own selves justifying that behavior, or as parents allowing children to do their sinful behavior, or a church allowing these things to take place. Jesus is not happy when it happens. Let's turn to Acts chapter 20 here a moment. Let me call our attention yet again here to these words of Paul. I've done it a few times now here in our study of Revelation. And you recall here in Acts 20, Paul is on his third missionary journey, heading to Jerusalem with the money to help the people there. And he stops at Miletus and he calls for the Ephesian elders there, verse 17. And so they come and notice verse 28, therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. And so as elders, right? Representative leaders of the church, you are to oversee them and you're to shepherd them so that they will follow you in the right direction. And so then he continues. Verse 29, for I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears." And so there's going to be external pressures, there's going to be internal pressures, but as leaders of the church, we must be on guard so that Jezebel will not take up residence in our church. among other things, like the Nicolaitans and Balaam and so on and so forth, right? This is our responsibility. Here, we're talking about the church. We can say the same thing about a Christian school, about our homes, and again, ourselves individually. Look, it's not the government's job to do this. This is our responsibility. If you turn a moment to 1 Timothy 1, here's another example. And you recall that Paul sent Timothy to Ephesus to minister there and noted 1 Timothy 1 verse He says this, this charge, I commit to you, son, Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you that by that you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. Basically, Paul kicked him out of the church. And he encourages Timothy to be vigilant in the same kinds of ways. Do not endure false teaching, do not endure false behaviors, but we as leaders have this responsibility. So do not tolerate evil, do not permit it. And so obviously we see this in the church, but again, if I speak to the family a moment, As parents, as grandparents, are you guarding your children or your grandchildren? How much time are they watching TV or surfing on the internet or playing video games? There are many evils in these things. What books are you allowing them to read? What are they learning at school? What are they learning in the classroom? What are they learning from their friends? Are they learning to follow a modern Jezebel? Are you protecting them from that? As the saying goes, evil prospers when good men do nothing. How are we doing as parents? How are we doing in our positions of leadership in this way? Well, as always, there is so much for us to say here, but you see this point before we even talk about what Jezebel is saying and doing. We have this responsibility, and this is ultimately why Jesus is not pleased. And so maybe you could say this is a word especially for Stan and Joe and myself. But it is a message for us all, and even for you as a congregation, you know, help us in this way. Challenge us if we are falling short in this way, because we want Jesus to be pleased with what we are doing here. And so, anyway, a few thoughts for us this morning, and we will pick up next time with the teachings of Jezebel, what all that's about. And so let's pray together. Our Father in God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what you have given to us here. Lord, we are thankful that you work in us by your Spirit and strengthen us to do what is good and right. And we are thankful that when we do see acts of love and service and living by faith and being patient and enduring, this is an indication of your love for us, not because we're somehow great or better than somebody else, but actually because You have mercifully worked in us to lead us in righteousness. And so we thank you for that, Lord. Grow us in these ways, Lord. Help us to have our works to be more now than they were before. And Lord, we pray, too, that you would be merciful to us as individuals, as families, as a church, that you would help us not to tolerate evil. You would help us not to permit these things to take place. All of us do it. Every family here permits sin. We do so as a church in different ways. Lord, make it clear to us, help us to be aware that we may put it aside and that we may strive and pursue righteousness even more. We pray for your mercies here in this way. We pray, Lord, that your eyes will expose our sin, that we might serve you even more as the Son of God, as our Savior, as our Lord. We pray, Lord, for your goodness and your grace in these things, and that your name would be lifted up, and your kingdom would be advanced, and that we would be even more holy and righteous in your sight in these ways. We pray all of this, then, in Jesus' name. Amen.