Well, we're going to be spending a second week in Revelation 2, 18 through 29, the letter to the church of Thyatira. It's on page 17, if you want to follow in the version we're reading from, or you can use your own Bible to follow along. But hear the word of God. And to the messenger of the church in Thyatira write, These things says the Son of God, he who has the eyes like a flame of fire and the feet like fine brass. I know your works, the love, the faith, the service, and your endurance. In fact, your last works are greater than the first. Nevertheless, I have against you that you tolerate your wife Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and deceives my slaves to fornicate and to eat things offered to idols. I even gave her time so that she might repent, but she does not want to repent of her fornication. So I am throwing her into a sickbed, and those adulterating with her into great affliction, unless they repent of her works. And I will execute her children, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your works. Now to the rest of you who are in Thyatira, I say, to as many as do not hold this teaching, those who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I am not putting any other burden on you. Just hold fast what you have until I come. And as for the one who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, I will give him authority over the nations, and he will shepherd them with a rod of iron. They will be smashed like clay pots, just as I have received from my father, and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. Amen. Let's pray. Father God, We thank you for your word, and as we continue to dig into it, I pray that your anointing would rest upon me as I preach, that I would faithfully preach your word, and that your spirit would quicken it to our hearts, that your spirit would enable us to be not just hearers, but doers of your word. We love you, we continue to worship you during this time of preaching. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Well last week we looked at this very perplexing stronghold of the Jezebel spirit and we saw that this Jezebel stronghold is actually controlled by religious spirits that are very comfortable operating within a godly environment such as you see in verse 19. This was not a horrible church. In some ways it was better than Ephesus. We saw last week that Ephesus was pursuing after holiness, was very doctrinally pure, but that they lacked love, whereas the church of Thyatira had love in spades. and had a vibrant ministry, and had faith to expect great things from God, and had patience, and had a lot of good works. In fact, verse 19 says their good works or their ministries that they were exercising right now were greater than they had exercised earlier. So in many ways, it was a phenomenal church, and yet it tolerated the the Jezebel woman that was in their midst and we saw why. Initially it is extremely hard, demonic presence to pin down, to expose and to get rid of. And even when you can expose what is happening, the backlash that you get from Jezebel and from her devoted followers makes a lot of people just want to leave her alone. That's what the word tolerate in verse 20 means. It's not like that pastor liked what his wife was doing. No, he tolerated it. He endured it. The backlash he had no doubt experienced from his wife when he confronted her over her sins made it just not worthwhile confronting her again. And we saw that the Greek word for tolerate has another nuance in it. The word aphiemi means to leave it up to somebody else. He was hoping somebody else would deal with Jezebel, but he sure was not going to step up to the plate himself. And so there was a passivity in his leadership that shows an Ahab-like quality. And so we looked a little bit at the stronghold of Ahab. Ahab and Jezebel feed each other. They reinforce each other. And it often replaces true ministry and the power of the Spirit with an outward ministry that can be accomplished by the flesh alone. And I'll have to admit that there was much of my ministry in the early years of my ministry that was done in the power of the flesh. I didn't realize it at the time. But I was not operating in terms of the supernatural power that flows from Christ's throne. I was doing God's ministry. I was using his too. I was using the scriptures. It's not like I was in any way doctrinally deviant on that. But I was doing it in my own strength. And I'll explain a little bit later on what exactly that means. But first of all, let me quickly outline for you the characteristics that we looked at in depth. And you don't need to write these down because they're all laid out for you in last week's outline. But first of all, we saw that this is a woman who usually feels driven to control her environment and those who are around her. And then secondly, when she cannot do that, she undermines or goes on the attack. Third, she has a veil of self-deception that is so strong that even the most convincing arguments do not seem to faze her. Even the most gifted counselors out there, we saw in the case studies, are not able to help her. Nothing but the supernatural can break through this stronghold, and that's why it's called a stronghold. Okay, it's a demonic presence around her that requires the supernatural to break through. The fourth characteristic is an amazing ability to rationalize error and sin. The fifth characteristic is an amazing ability to win an argument, even though she is wrong. The sixth, usually though not always, it is a woman that this spirit, this demonic presence works through. There are cases where men have this spirit manifested in them. Seventh, it is usually a woman who has been deeply wounded in her childhood through abuse and through other things and she just cannot seem to shake those scars. We saw that it started off many times as inappropriate responses, coping mechanisms, so to speak, that are dealing with and trying to hide some of the hurts and the woundedness that she has experienced. And then the demonic takes advantage of those. Eighth, she's a natural leader. Ninth, she often exhibits an irrational jealousy that really does not make any sense. Tenth, she knows God's will for you. Now sometimes it is clairvoyant, occult even, but sometimes it's just manipulative. 11th, she needs Ahabs to affirm her gifts. Anywhere you find Jezebels, you're going to find Ahabs that are present. And usually the Jezebel and the Ahab will team up against an Elijah. Even if the Ahab doesn't feel comfortable doing so, sometimes resists that, they will team up in going after an Elijah. 12, it is a religious spirit that is quite comfortable working within a church. 13, she is narcissistic. The whole world revolves around her. 14, she plays the victim card, even though she is victimizing others. At the very time she's victimizing others, she is the victim. 15, she inverts the family order, and in doing so, she ends up producing more Jezebels, just like Jezebel produced her daughter Athaliah, who was just almost like a clone for her. So of the 30 or so characteristics that counselors talk about, those 15 are the strongest ones that just jump out of the text of 1st and 2nd Kings. And we saw that Revelation 2 reiterated some of those Old Testament characteristics, but it adds a few. Well, actually, what it's doing is it's making more clear some of the things that we already see in 1st and 2nd Kings. We saw that Ahab's are intimidated by her. And we saw that Elijah's are frustrated. by her, and she is frustrated by the Elijahs in their life. Furthermore, Jezebels use creative ways to disciple, mentor, or lead men through their teaching. I do want to clarify something that I said last week. I think I just threw it out that she was inverting the order by teaching men, but it's a specific kind of teaching. Somebody asked me afterwards, well, does that mean that women can't share information with their husbands and with others? And I said, oh no, there's all kinds of examples of women sharing information. In fact, if you've got a healthy relationship, there's going to be a rich interchange of ideas between husband and wife and between women and other men within the church. The word that's used here is a word that means to disciple. It's a much stronger word than sharing of information. And so it indicates that the way she's teaching is she's leading the men through the teaching. She's mentoring them. She's discipling the men through the teaching, and that's not appropriate. Men should disciple men. Women should be discipling women. Verse 20 shows that Jezebel deceives or gives misdirection. She also goes after Christ's servants, has antinomian tendencies, blurs the lines between godliness and idolatry. Verse 21 shows that she cannot see herself as wrong, almost can never be persuaded she's wrong. And verse 24, it's a demonic stronghold. She had experienced more of the depths of Satan, about as much of the depths of Satan as a believer could experience. So you can see why some counselors have advocated just giving up on such a woman. They say, don't even bother counseling her. There is nothing you're going to be able to do to change her. And yet what they are advocating in effect is to just tolerate her. There's nothing you're going to be able to do to change her. Just tolerate her, which is exactly what the leadership in Thyatira had been doing. That's what they're being rebuked for. is an ungodly toleration. That's not biblical. So here's the question. If it seems as hopeless as the many, many case studies that I have read, if it seems as hopeless as these counselors say that it is to bring Jezebel to repentance, what can be done? And there are just two points in today's sermon. This is a historic moment in time. Only two points in my sermon. And the first point is that we need to be convinced that Jesus is capable and he is motivated to deal with the Jezebels and the Ahabs that come into our lives. And the second point, is, well, first of all, he is not helpless and we need to be operating in terms of our union with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. What we're gonna be doing, we're gonna constantly be jumping back and forth between points one and two. They cannot be separated. But the second point is we must be convinced that we can be equipped to be Elijah's rather than Ahab's. And I do want you to notice that I didn't say you're gonna be able to solve all of Jezebel's problems. You might have wished that I could come up with some magic bullet. Did Elijah solve all of Jezebel's problems? No, he did not. I have seen cases of churches operating in the power and the giftings of the Holy Spirit who have brought, by God's grace, have brought Jezebels to repentance. And it's been a joyful moment. And the Jezebels, when they have their eyes open, cannot believe the way in which Satan had used them. So that's joyful. And the point that I want to make is you can still be victorious. You can still be walking in the power of Elijah, even when that does not happen. But it's so important to realize Elijah did not use carnal methods, carnal tools to deal with this problem. He was using weapons that were mighty in God for pulling down strongholds and tearing down every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God. And he was victorious even though he received a great deal of backlash. Well, with that as a background, let's take a look first of all at Christ's provision. Commentators point out that the reference to the Son of God in verse 18 comes from Psalm 2, and that verses 26 through 27 contain an extended quote and application of Psalm 2. And so Psalm 2 is very much in the background of what Jesus is saying to the church of Thyatira. And you'll remember from our introductory sermons, anytime that the book of Revelation quotes or alludes to the Old Testament, we need to understand the Old Testament background or we're going to misinterpret the passage. So that's what we're going to do right now. If you turn to Psalm 2, I'm going to give a little bit of background there. And Psalm 2 starts by mentioning the demonic conspiracies to overthrow Christ's law and His word. Now for a very interesting take on Psalm 2, very interesting exposition, I would encourage you to read Gary North's book, Conspiracy, a Biblical View. Very interesting. book on that that talks about the demonic presence behind the conspiracies that have happened down through history. That is the ultimate Jezebel spirit at work in politics and really it's a joint work of Jezebels and Ahabs working together. So Psalm 2 starts with the enormous damage that a political Jezebel can produce in a nation. But is God frustrated? No way. In fact, the attempts of man to overturn Christ's rule are so pitiful, God laughs at them. It's almost like it's puzzling, it's ridiculous that these people would have the audacity to try to dethrone God and dethrone the Lord Jesus Christ, wrest control from his hands. Verse 2. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. So just as the Jezebel in our passage is going to face Christ's wrath, the manipulative people in Psalm 2 will face God's displeasure, whether they are Jezebels or Ahabs. The Psalm goes on. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. This is Jesus. He's king, he's ruling, he has all authority in heaven and on earth. And so Jezebel's who tried to seize authority illegitimately, they're no match for him. That much is clear. Verse seven, I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel." Now, we're not going to turn to Revelation right now, but it's very interesting when Jesus quotes that verse and he applies it to the Jezebel problem, he's going to be applying it to the church. Why would he do that? This is a political context here, and Revelation 2 is a church context. Why would he apply a political passage to a church context? Well, the reason is that the Jezebel spirit is at work in both places. These demons undermine and they control every institution of God from the family to the state. And if Christ has the power to overturn the work of Jezebels and Ahabs in the state, he certainly has the power to overturn their work in the family and in the church. And so Revelation 2 is not engaging in a misapplication of this passage. Far from it, the same principle is at work in both governments. And I'll also mention that when we get to Revelation 2, there is something that is even stranger. In Psalm 2 here, who's being addressed? It's the Lord Jesus Christ who is being addressed by these words. And yet when you get to Revelation chapter 2, Jesus applies the exact same words to overcomers. In other words, to those who are willing to live by faith, believers who see and understand their position with Christ in the heavenly places. So don't expect Christ to use his rod of iron if we're not willing to use it. He has chosen many times to use that rod of iron through us. So here's the point. The power is there. Christ's authority is there. The only question is, are we going to walk by faith? Are we going to step into that power? Now, in any case, We are called to use and smite the demons with that rod of iron, and it's the demons who are behind the flesh and blood people. But as long as the church fails to use it, we have untold power that lies unused. And we're gonna get to that verse in a little bit. I'm just trying to give you the Old Testament background. Psalm 2 goes on to say, verse 10, Now therefore be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. So he's calling them to repentance just as he called Jezebel to repentance. This is a shepherding function of Jesus. And in Revelation, we as overcomers are going to be called to have the same shepherding function, shepherding the nations. He's going to give us the authority to do that. But this Psalm says those are the only two options that are available. You're either shepherding them toward repentance and restoration or they are being smashed with the rod of iron. Verse 12, kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. If you choose this morning to be an Elijah who walks by faith, you're going to be incredibly blessed. If you choose this morning to be an Elijah who walks by faith, you're gonna have far more authority and power and resources than a Jezebel who illegitimately tries to gain those same things. So this psalm is quite clear that those who seek power independently of Christ and illegitimately will find it to be a curse, while those who lose their lives, they're not seeking anything for themselves, they're seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, have all of these things added to them, including true authority. So is Jesus able to handle Jezebel? Yes, the references to Psalm 2 make that clear. Let's turn back to Revelation 2, and let's look at some other hints that Jesus is fully capable of handling Jezebel. Verse 18, right in the middle of the verse there it says, these things says the Son of God who has the eyes like a flame of fire and the feet like fine brass. Now when we looked at that exact phrase in chapter one, we saw that it was a reference to Daniel. Daniel describes this divine being, like a man, who has these burning eyes that can see right through everything. And this is the answer to our inabilities. You may not be able to uncover the lies that caused Jezebel to create havoc in the church. You may be frustrated that there was such a stronghold around her. You cannot see through her defenses. You can't disarm her. You can't get to the bottom of things in your counseling. When trying to expose a Jezebel, you are up against one frustrating diversion after another that makes her extremely frustrating. And you want to just throw up your hands and give up like the leadership of Thyatira did. Well, that's exactly what the demonic spirit of Jezebel wants you to do. He wants you to act like an Ahab who gives a pretense of leading, and Jezebel gave a pretense of submitting, but they were both involved in overturning God's social order. So rather than giving up, look by faith to the one who has the burning eyes who can see right through all of the shields and the strongholds and the high things that Jezebel has erected to hide her innermost insecurities. Remember we saw last week that that the whole reason she even started erecting these coping mechanisms was to deal and cope with those insecurities. And then the demons have taken them to such a high degree that she can't see straight and the counselors can't see straight. But do we have access to one who can? Yes. We have access to the Lord Jesus Christ, and if we're walking in union with Him by the power of the Spirit, He will give those insights to His servants. Well, the same divine man and Daniel had feet like fine brass. Now, feet were the image of dominion. Anywhere in the Bible you have those symbols of feet, it's dominion, it's leadership. And unlike the counterfeit image in Daniel that, remember at the feet, it was made up of clay and iron. Well, clay and iron don't fit together very well and they can break apart. So unlike that, Jesus has feet of fine brass, which means that his dominion is unbreakable. His dominion is unshakable. In other words, when you get to the end of your rope in maintaining leadership, start depending on the Christ, whose leadership you're supposed to be reflecting right from the beginning anyway, right? You're supposed to be operating in His authority, not your own. And too many pastors and business leaders and politicians depend upon their own strength and gifts. And when Jezebels come around too strong for them to handle, they resort to Ahab's attempts to put out fires and to develop coalitions and to pit one person against another person and to manipulate behind the scenes. and to take advantage of factions and insecurities and things like this, and do anything that he can to try to desperately stay in control. And some other men, instead of doing that, they lash out in anger because they are not leading in the authority of Christ. They're leading through the same demonic spirit of control and power. And when that control and power is undermined, they lash out. Well, that's not going to, it's going to be counterproductive. It's not going to be helpful. True authority does not force. True Christianity is not a power religion. It stands in the authority of Christ. It operates in a chain of command from Christ. It can speak authoritatively and leave the results in God's hand for God to change. And True authority is confident in Christ's truth to convince, Christ's power to change, and Christ's spiritual weapons to overcome. True authority does not get petty and manipulative and frustrated when people disobey. It just patiently, confidently, perseveringly continues to speak in Christ's authority, trusting His grace to make the change. So the moment you get really, really angry when people disobey your authority, Or the moment you begin to mope and sulk like Ahab did, you know that you are operating in terms of fleshly control rather than in terms of Christ's spiritual authority. The two approaches to leadership are worlds apart. And the point is that when we are united to the one whose eyes see through the defenses of Jezebel, God gives wisdom and insight and words of knowledge and words of wisdom. and the spirit of counsel to be able to pierce through the defenses as well. And when I have depended upon God's supernatural resources, God has broken through impervious walls that would otherwise be impossible to break through. See, the biggest mistake I made in my early ministry was to think that I could take on strongholds, any strongholds, through truth alone. I was very confident in God's truth. I still am. Okay, I love the truth of God's word, but I would get frustrated with people when I would bring clearly laid out truth and it wouldn't faze them. And so I would strengthen my arguments and strengthen the scriptures and write bigger and longer papers. And they still were impervious to the truth that I was bringing. And you see what was happening is I was using God's tools. I was depending on the truth of the scripture, but I was not wrestling in spiritual warfare the way God wanted me to wrestle. The truth must be wielded by the Holy Spirit and we must minister by the Holy Spirit who alone can take the things of Christ and work them through us. And we can only do that by faith. So I think you can see I'm jumping back and forth between points one and two. So in one sense, they're just one point, right? Can I claim to have only a one point sermon this morning? Back to point one. Is Christ capable and motivated to deal with Jezebels? Yes, everything in the Daniel passage that we looked at in chapter one shows he is capable of exercising true authority and dominion. The question is, are we overcomers who are willing to walk in that victory by faith? Now let me quickly pull out a few other threads in the passage that shows Christ's ability to deal with the problems in Thyatira. Verse 21. This verse shows Jesus giving opportunities for repentance to Jezebel. Now we aren't told whether Jezebel actually repented after the disciplines were inflicted upon her, but the text seems to very clearly indicate this was Christ's goal. And if Jesus has repentance as a goal, we should not exclude it as a possibility. The moment we throw up our hands and say, I'm not even going to mess with it, this is hopeless, we're not walking by faith. We're saying, you know, I and myself cannot do it. Well, yeah, that's a good place to come to. But to throw up our hands is to fail to live by faith. What we cannot do, Jesus can do. Now we don't know whether in His sovereignty He will do it or will not do it. That's immaterial. He can. And in this case, that seems to be his goal. Verse 21, I even gave her time so that she might repent, but she does not want to repent of her fornication. And then in verse 22, he speaks of affliction that he will bring upon Jezebel and her devotees, quote, unless they repent of her works. So if repentance is a goal, it is obviously achievable should Christ grant the grace of repentance. Verse 22 shows Jesus using sickness to get her attention. And once again, bring her to repentance. Same verse shows Jesus bringing sickness and the tribulation of persecution in order to bring Jezebel's supporters to their knees and hopefully bring them to repentance. And I want us to just think about that sickness, tribulation, and death. If there is not repentance and if there is continued rebellion, these are godly options to ask for. Paul asked the Corinthians, What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of gentleness? So Paul was implying that he was going to wield Christ's rod of iron against the church if they did not repent. He was not going to engage in ungodly tolerance. He was going to see this spiritual warfare through one way or the other, through repentance and restoration or through smashing. And did the people in Corinth experience some of the smashing of Christ's rod? Yes, they did. Paul told them in 1 Corinthians 11, if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But they refused to judge themselves. And because Paul had already said that he had been engaging in spiritual warfare, Christ's rod of iron had brought sickness and affliction and even death. Paul said, for this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. And they hadn't even been excommunicated yet, okay? This was just spiritual warfare. Now, speaking of excommunication, it's very common for people to just think, ah, that's such a ridiculous thing to engage in anymore. People do not take that seriously at all. They don't think it's powerful. And yet Paul says that church discipline is mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Mighty in God. The very next phrase in that same sentence in 2 Corinthians 10, 5 through 6, which is a very popular phrase, almost always they take out the last phrase of that sentence, which deals with church discipline. Church discipline is mighty in God. I think there's a reason why the modern church has been unable to deal with Jezebels is because they've been unwilling to use the spiritual tools that God has given to the church One of which is church discipline. They're using carnal tools and that could be easily demonstrated Now what Paul and John are doing may not seem nice and it's certainly not part of the precious moments Christianity that is out there But it is biblical to engage in church Discipline as a tool to bring people out of their strongholds and the goal of even excommunication It's not to get rid of people The goal of excommunication is to bring repentance and restoration. And sometimes God even uses Satan to do the dirty work for him. In 1 Corinthians 5, verse 5, Paul says, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. We Christians tend to be so focused on hoped for change that we end up with the ungodly tolerance of Thyatira. We keep hoping and waiting and hoping and waiting, and in the meantime, there's a lot of collateral damage that's unnecessarily happening. Now, I wanna comment just a bit more on Christ bringing affliction, sickness, and death. If this is Christ's modus operandi, we should not be shy about asking God to turn heaven and earth upside down to bring Jezebels to repentance. When was the last time you heard a pastor pray Lord, I want you to bless these people who are destroying this church. I want you to bless them with sickness, bless them with disaster, bless them with financial ruin, bless them with any discipline that will bring them to repentance because I want their spiritual security. I want their spiritual prosperity. I want them to be close to you, so Lord, bless them with disaster. When was the last time you heard a pastor pray like that? Paul did. I think it's a very biblical prayer. And I again will confess, and the elders will probably tell you, I'm just too nice. And I think I have not had the mind of Christ because I have thought this is just not biblical to pray against somebody within the church of Jesus Christ. I've not had the mind of Christ. And yet, as I've studied this passage, it's just opened up to me. I see these kinds of things happening all through the Old and New Testaments. And I have repented, and I have said to the Lord, Lord, from now on, I am committed, when I'm dealing with Ahab's and Jezebel's, if they, I wanna shepherd them with your rod, but if they are continually going to be in rebellion and unrepentant, I will pray exactly what you have called me to pray. And as we move through this and we see how we're to wield the rod of iron in exactly the way that Christ does, wow, it makes such a difference in how you think about, shepherding the flock. Now, I'm gonna do it out of love for their souls, but I've come to realize this is so important. There can be no peace treaty between Jesus and Satan, and certainly when there is a stronghold that is present. Those who are overcomers must be committed to joining with Jesus in spiritual warfare against stronghold. Now, what are some of the other disasters that Jesus will bring rather than let a Jezebel continue to ruin a church with her stronghold activities. We'll take a look at verse 23. And I will execute her children, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your works. Wow. This is Jesus, meek and mild? I mean, I don't think you want to cross swords with this Jesus, okay? This isn't the kind of precious moments Jesus that Jezebels and Ahabs like to portray him as, but this is the real Jesus who does not put up with the overthrow of his realm or of his chain of command. And we'll see more of his work in the next verses, but I want us to jump quickly to our role. We must be convinced that we can be equipped to be Elijah's rather than Ahab's. And I want you to notice that Jesus doesn't tell the leaders and the rest of the churches here, the rest of the people in the church, to try harder. They've been working their tails off. That'd be very discouraging. Say, man, you need to try harder. What's wrong with you? You need to work harder. No, he is not going to put any greater burden on them to work harder. Instead he points them in the opposite direction, laying hold of Christ's work and His provision. Look at verse 24. Now to the rest of you who are in Thyatira I say, to as many as do not hold this teaching, those who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I am not putting any other burden on you. Notice he says, I'm not putting any other burden on you. Indeed, in verses 26 through 27, he's going to point out, you can't do it in your own strength anyway. This is all about Jesus. It's all about faith, laying hold of what he is doing. This is about sitting with Christ in the heavenlies. So what are the steps to the spiritual warfare? Verse 25 says, just hold fast what you have until I come. Now, I do not like that translation, and I'm going to go through it word by word in the Greek and give you my translation of this. The word translated just is the Greek word plain, plain, and means in contrast. It is an incredibly strong contrast. This is the only place it actually occurs, but if you look it up in a dictionary, it is an incredibly strong contrast. It has nothing to do with the meaning of just. It's in contrast to what I've just sang, where I'm gonna put no greater burden upon you, and then people translate it as if, oh, here's another burden I'm gonna place upon you. I think that many translations completely miss the strength of that Greek word plain. The next two words in the Greek are what you own or what you possess. The next Greek word is krateo, which means to seize or to grab or to lay hold of or to possess something that's not currently under your possession or under your control. And I believe it's possessing our possessions, it's taking from Christ what he has already given to us. So putting the words together so far, Jesus is calling upon us to possess our possessions, and then the last phrase says, until whenever I shall come. So you could translate the two clauses this way. I'm not putting any other burden on you. In contrast, lay hold of whatever your possessions are until I come. And what are our possessions? Well, Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We got a vast bank account up there. And he says, I don't want you scraping by here on earth in your own fleshly resources. I've given you incredible resources in Christ. I want you to possess your possessions. See, we're not only blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. And so we need to keep writing checks on that bank account and say, Lord, for today, I need healing. For today, I need these finances. For today, I need wisdom. And I thank you that you have said in your word that anytime we need wisdom you will grant it. And so I'm signing this check on this bank account in Jesus name. And he's good for his name. Anytime that's in Jesus name, it's consistent with his name, he'll give it. On his bank account, he's good for his name. So we have authority in Jesus. We have resources in Jesus. We have everything we need in Jesus. Well, with that more literal translation, there is a smooth transition into verses 26 through 27. I'm not putting any other burden on you. In contrast, lay hold of whatever your possessions are until I come. And as for the one who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, I will give him authority over the nations, and he will shepherd them with a rod of iron. They will be smashed like clay pots just as I received from my father, and I will give him the morning star." Now, this is really astounding when you think about it. And I'm going to tease it apart a little bit here. We've already seen in a previous sermon that overcomers are those who live by faith. Okay, whatever, 1 John, this same apostle says, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. So he's already defined overcomers as those who live by faith, not by sight. You cannot be an overcomer without faith. But Hebrews 11 says that those who live by faith have the astounding ability to face persecution with joy and with victory, to face death with victory and confidence. And if God wills to be like those in verses 33 through 34 of Hebrews 11, of whom it says, who by faith subdued kingdoms. worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, et cetera. See, faith never looks at ourselves. Faith is always looking to God's provision through Christ. And so the next phrase in verse 26 says, and keeps my works until the end. Keeps means to keep in custody But it's not something that's ours. It's Christ's works. Christ has chosen to work through his people, through his overcomers. And by the way, not all believers are overcomers. We overcome sometimes, sometimes we don't overcome. It's when we're living by faith that we are overcomers. So Christ is working through those who possess their possessions and who keep in custody Christ's activities. So what should the members of the church or elders do when they see a Jezebel creating fires? Or what should Christian politicians do? Let me just make a side comment here that many Christian politicians play the same game that the pagans do. They're either Ahab's or they are Jezebel's. And they are selling out their position in Christ, the authority that they have in Christ. They are not living as one who is in a chain of command from Christ when they're in politics. They secularize everything. You think Christ is going to honor that? No way, no way. They're operating in their own authority. Instead of acting that way, here's what should happen. First of all, they should offer up a quick prayer that Christ would give them the wisdom needed. And James says, if you ask in faith, He'll give it. Every time, He'll give it. And then ask Jesus to keep you from responding like an Ahab and being part of the problem. Then ask for His angelic protection from the demons who are at work in this stronghold. And then by faith, ask him to use the scriptures that you're going to speak, not in your own strength, but to use them supernaturally to pierce through the defenses that are keeping them from the knowledge of Christ and to bring repentance. Then stand up to Ahab and Jezebel in the authority of Christ, like Ahab did, using the scriptures. Make sure you do not sympathize with Jezebel or enable her or in any way tolerate her undermining of the chain of authority. That is to undermine Christ. But by faith, take your position as one who is seated with Christ in the heavenlies and begin to pray against the demonic in faith. That's coming into agreement with Christ's authority. Smash the demonic that is at work. Now, initially the church will shepherd with the rod of Christ rather than smashing with the rod of Christ, but eventually smashing is a part of it. So, back to verses 26 through 27. Jesus quotes from Psalm 2, the passage that says, Jesus will shepherd the nations, will smash those that are rebellious with his rod of iron. But what is astounding about the quote is that Jesus applies the entirety of that passage to ordinary members of the church who are overcomers. In other words, those who are living by faith. It is the overcomer who is given authority over the nations just as Jesus received that authority from the Father. That's astounding. It is the overcomer who shepherds the nations or who smashes them to death just as Jesus received from the Father. That's astounding. And when does this expansion of a believer's authority over the demonic strongholds begin? Not in some future millennium. You know, Satan won't even be around then. He'll be bound in the pit. Instead, the terminus is the end. of what the various churches had already several times been said to be enduring right now. Okay, the end of the Great Tribulation. You'll remember that the Great Tribulation went from 62 to June of 66 A.D. when Nero died, and that is quite different from the Great Wrath, which went from 66 to 73 A.D. That was against unbelieving Israel. The Great Tribulation was against believers. So, they've been undergoing fiery tribulation, and He said, those who endure, this is a testing ground, those who endure through this great tribulation, He's going to make them, enable them to use this rod of iron successfully against the nations. Wow! This is an incredible promise. Did that happen? Yes, God answered those prayers spectacularly in the first century. As a result of those prayers, Nero died in June of 68. The empire fell apart into three parts with wars, famine, and conflict destroying millions in nations all over the world. The nations were being smashed with the rod of iron. The church's chief persecutor, Israel, was also brought under judgment. But the interesting thing about the breaking of these clay pots around the world is that they were redemptive judgments. The rod was still a tool of shepherding the nations. It either shepherded to repentance or brought to destruction, and those two happened simultaneously. Now, were there any Christians who were shepherded into salvation? Yes, there were. Malta became 100% Christian within just a few years, I think less than a decade of when this epistle was written. There were various tribes that were becoming Christian, some of which became almost entirely Christian shortly after 70 AD. You look at Armenia that became a Christian nation. Yes, there was persecution and martyrdoms that led up to that. By the time of Constantine's conversion. Prior to Constantine's conversion, upwards, secular historians think, upwards of 50% of the empire had become Christian. This is astounding as you see these first century saints who had the faith to handle this rod of iron that Christ had given to them. They were moving forward the kingdom as overcomers living and dying victoriously and victoriously advancing either repentance or judgment. And really this authority makes perfect sense because we are so united to Jesus The scripture says quite clearly that when Jesus died, we are said to have died. When Jesus was buried, we were said to have been buried. When Jesus rose from the dead, we were said to have triumphed over death. When Jesus ascended upwards in the sky, victoriously over every principality and power, we were said to have ascended with Him in triumph over every principality and power. When Jesus sat at the right hand of the Father and was given all authority over all of the nations, What does Ephesians say? It says, we're seated together with Jesus Christ in the heavenly places. I mean, when you begin to meditate upon the incredible privilege that we have, it is breathtaking. It is absolutely breathtaking. There is no need to be frustrated with Jezebel because when we walk in our union with Jesus, demons are no match for him. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. walking in light of his union with Jesus enabled Paul to live above the conflicts in the church. Not ignoring them, but living above them. It enabled him to deal with them even though it meant backlash. It enabled him to discipline even if he was criticized for it. For the motive for Paul was not success or peace or affirmation by others. His motive was the Father's glory, the advancement of Christ's kingdom, and God's well done. And if he had that, he was victorious. This is why he says in 2 Corinthians 2 14. Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. Now there's one little piece of this puzzle that still is puzzling for some people. It seems so contrary to the actual experience of Elijah. Elijah was in the crosshairs of Jezebel and his ministry was dashed to the ground and he ended up depressed and discouraged. We call this leadership backlash. Initially Elijah failed. God rebuked him and restored him to his victory but initially he ran And he wanted to die. Lord, kill me. I'm done with this. He just wanted to give up. What he was doing there was operating in the flesh and taking a victim mentality. That is a fleshly response. It's not a response that honors Christ. The other fleshly response is to get so angry you go on the attack. and you try to defend your rights and you try to fight for your reputation, but Christ's response through us is to submit to the Father, whatever His providences might be, and realize God's authority, Christ's authority, and victory that He is producing for you, in you, and through you into the lives of others. It's really not about us, it's about His Kingdom. In fact, Jesus said, whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it, Matthew 16, 25. And sometimes losing your life means losing your dreams. losing your pride, losing your reputation if Christ will reign supreme. That should be our goal. And I think it's so important to realize that victory for Jesus does not always mean the kind of victory that you might hope for. Jezebel sometimes appeared to win over Elijah's And from the world's perspective, it may have looked like, you know, Elijah, let me give you some advice. Just do what Ahab does and you'll get along just fine. It might have looked like that would be the better thing for him to do. We might rather that Jezebel repent. And by God's grace, that sometimes happens. Praise the Lord. We might rather, if she doesn't repent, that she gets exposed and her influence is no longer there. And by God's sovereign power and grace, that sometimes does happen. but victory might take other routes. God may intend victory to be manifested in the leadership's own heart and in their own growth. For example, leadership backlash often produces an integrity check that causes the leader to be tested on whether he will live by faith or whether he's going to live by sight. Or it might be a word check to test whether the leader is really going to be following through on what he knows God's word says he should do, or whether he's going to follow his own desires. And there's many other testings of character that these people, Ahab's and Jezebel's, can produce in our lives. And we come out victoriously, even though they seem like they're unscathed. Why? Because we have submitted to God's disciplines in our own life. We're growing. And so there is inward victory that the Lord can achieve, but victory often does indeed take exactly the pathway that this verse speaks to, that the rebels are either shepherded into repentance or smashed. And the fact that Jesus uses a political verse to apply to the church shows me that the Jezebel spirit is at work in politics just as surely as it is at work in the church. Christ's servants should get used to looking at life as Christ sees it. And when nations, let's apply this to nations, when nations refuse to repent, they maintain their independence from Him. They throw off the bonds of Christ. It is blasphemy to say, God bless America. It is blasphemy. Why would we pray God's blessing upon those who hate Christ? No. What we should say is, Lord, scatter, shatter this clay pot, make it flinders, so that every stronghold, every idol in this nation that has exalted itself against the knowledge of you is broken down and your grace and your knowledge reigns supreme in this nation. We need to look at life as Christ looks at life. And I think too many Christians, when they're involved in politics, all they care about is some politician getting in there who's going to make them a little bit more comfortable. A little bit less of big government, a little bit less of that. No, follow God's Word. Part of following God's Word may mean that we are going to receive discomfort and God's smashing rod is going to come down and we may receive persecution and things may start falling totally apart in this nation. So be it if Christ is exalted. So be it. But shepherding may mean leading civic officers to Christ and teaching them the ropes of God's Word just like the church of the first three centuries did. I'm just blown away when I read some of these early church fathers like Athanasius who had incredible faith, incredible faith to take on the demonic strongholds of their time. It's totally different than the approach that you see with modern people. You begin to realize that they were totally sold out to Christ, to using his, not carnal weapons, but his spiritual weapons, and they saw incredible results, including Rome itself crumbling to the gospel. But you know, long before that, Elijah-like Christians were operating in every level of business, science, military, federal office, local civic office, every other area of life. This is before Constantine even became Christian. This was under the heat of incredible persecution. Athanasius said, wherever the gospel goes in faith, demons tremble, strongholds are falling. He said, the gospel is always going forth victoriously. Read Athanasius sometime. Unbelievable. Unbelievable faith that they had. If the church would have an ounce of the faith that Athanasius had, I think America would be turned upside down within a decade. Anyway. He realized that the kingdom was still in the dawn of its existence, but he still had that kind of a faith. The promise in verse 28, I will give him the morning star, is a symbol of the dark times just before the dawn breaks. Before you see any rays of the sun, you see the morning star in the darkness signaling that dawn is about to happen. So it's still pitch black. You see that morning star, you say, okay, dawn's about to happen. The church had been going through the darkness of the Great Tribulation from 62 through 68 A.D. This was written in 66 A.D., but 70 A.D. was a major turning point. So everything prior to that, prior to 70 A.D. would be the darkest time when the morning star shone, and everything after 70 A.D. would be the beginning light as dawn begins to break. And as history progresses, the light of his kingdom keeps growing. and shining brighter. Now the last admonition Jesus gives is in verse 29. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To listen to Jesus' words is the same thing as listening to the Spirit's words. To walk in Christ's power is the same thing as to walk in the Spirit's power. And really, it's a Trinitarian walk our whole lives. God calls us to be overcomers, and we do that as we pray to the Father in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. We do that as we live to the Father's glory by the indwelling Christ through the gifts and anointings of the Spirit. But this letter to Thyatira is simply another reminder that the whole Christian life is a call to live in the supernatural. Sermon on the Mount calls us to do such impossible things. Only God can get the glory when we're able to do them. So last week we looked at the problem, today we looked at the solution. And the solution is a God-centered, a God-resourced, and a God-empowered walk. May each of us sit in the authority that we have as those who are bound with Jesus, seated with Jesus in the heavenlies. Amen. Father God, When we look at scriptures like this, we see how far short we frequently fall of that. I confess my sins, says a pastor, failing to always walk in the anointing and in the authority that flows from your throne. but help us to grow our whole lives so that we are people of the book, people of faith, people who show forth our sonship, our union with You, people who show forth the anointing of Your Holy Spirit. We long for Your Holy Spirit to come upon us, O Lord. and to come upon the church of Jesus Christ and to bring revival. And so, Father, we pray that you would smash any demonic strongholds in our lives that we maybe don't even recognize. Smash the demonic off from us and enable us, Father, to minister with clear minds, clear hearts, who depend upon you and who walk in your spirit. We pray, Father, that you would smash the Jezebel and the Ahab spirit in churches all across this nation. Father, it is such a pervasive spirit and stronghold in this nation, not just in the churches, but in families, in the homeschool movement. We see it in politics. And we pray, Father, that Christians would have the eyes of their understanding opened up so that they would not succumb and do the same things that the world does. Please, Father, open up the heart and the minds of the church of Jesus Christ so that we can once again be a church militant walking in Your Spirit to Your glory. And it is Your glory that we want to see lifted up. It is Your Son's kingdom that we want to see exalted and advanced. It's not about us, Lord. We realize that. It's about you and your kingdom. So help us to pursue first your kingdom and your righteousness so that all of these things can be added to us. And we pray it in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.