Synopsis: In Christ’s letter to the church in Thyatira, he commends their love, faith, service, and growth, yet confronts them for tolerating destructive sin within their fellowship. Pressured by their culture and economic realities, they allowed false teaching and immorality to remain unchecked. Christ reminds them that his eyes of fire see all and that his covenant love refuses to ignore what corrupts his bride. Because he loves his church, he will not tolerate what is destroying her. He calls them to hold fast, confront sin with humility and courage, and persevere in hope, for those who overcome will receive Christ himself, the Morning Star.

Text: Revelation 2:18-29
Date: March 8, 2026

Introduction

Opening Illustration – Protecting What We Love: In High School I was a die hard soccer player. My senior year we were pretty good. We had a good shot at state that year. As the season was progressing, one major flaw kept happening. Our left defender could not and would not use his head to head a ball away. At first we joked about it. But it became a problem, because he kept letting the ball fly past him and it created huge opportunities good teams. At first we tolerated it, until we realized how big a problem it was. And then we couldn’t tolerate it any more. He needed to work on that. He needed to correct that flaw, because we loved the team and wanted to win.

Personal: As a Christian, we are on a team. It’s the Church. The local church that you belong to, is the sweetest team you’ll be apart of. And the challenge is that so often we tolerate all kinds of sin within the church, because we just don’t to address it. But ongoing sin, within the Church, is a huge vulnerability. When we tolerate ongoing sin, what it really shows is that we don’t love the Church with the fervency Christ loves the Church.

Context: Today we continue in our study of the Book of Revelation, and we consider Christ’s fourth of seven letters he wrote to seven different churches spread out across what is today modern-day Turkey. Each of the churches we have studied have had their own challenges and issues that needed to be confronted. Today, we study Christ’s Letter to the Church in Thyatira. And the big issue was that collectively, this church was tolerating that which they should not tolerate. And their toleration of that sinful situation was threatening the entire church.

Main Idea: Christ loves His church too much to tolerate what is destroying her.

Meaning & Application

AN INTRODUCTION & COMMENDATION

First, an introduction and commendation.

Revelation 2:18–19 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. “ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.”

Thyatira: Thyatira is a slightly different kind of town than the three cities we have already discussed. While Ephesus and Pergamum were rather large economic cities, Thyatira was a much smaller town. A modern equivalent might be something like a Naperville. Its on the map, but its not a major economic hub.

Guilds Explanation: Importantly for this letter, archaeology has learned about much this small town. The town was run largley by guilds. We today are meeting in a Union Hall. During the week, this building is the home to the Local 399 Union of Operating Engineers. Unions today are groups of people in a similar trade who come together for all kinds of different reasons, for training, for safety, for lobbying. Guilds, in Christ’s day, were the precursor to modern day unions. There was the wool workers guild, the bronzesmith guild, the silversmith guild, and so on. In fact, in the book of Acts we meet Lydia, a woman who ran a textile company, selling purple goods.

Acts 16:14 “One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods…”

Temple of Apollo: Herein lied the great challenge of being a Christian in the city of Thyatira. If you wanted to work in Thyatira, you had to join a guild. The problem was that the guild would often schedule evenings at the great Temple of Apollo which was situated in the heart of Thyatira. Apollo, in Greek Mythology, was the son of Zeus, and was therefore known as the “son of the gods.” At those festivals, the guild would do all the religious things that you do at the temple of Apollo. They would worship. They would eat food that was being offered to Apollo. And often, the evening would degenerate into debauchery and sexual perversion, all to gain favor from Apollo for the guild.

Don’t Participate: And so, if you are someone who sells wool in Thyatira, and your a Christian, and you refuse to go to the temple with your guild, you not only are a social outcast, but you have now angered Apollos, and that guild will not expect his blessing. And so the logical step for that guild, would to remove you, i.e. you lose your job. This must have been an impossibly difficult circumstance for these Christians. They might be able to eek a living, but without the blessing of the guilds, in that town, it was going to be rough go at it.

Description of Christ: I love the description of Christ in this letter.

Son of God: First, he is called the Son of God. This is theological language, describing Jesus Christ as the second person of the eternal Trinity who has become flesh. But it is also fighing language. Apollo may be known as the son of the gods, but Christ is the Son of God.

Fire & Bronze: And the image of “eyes like a flame of fire” and “feet like burnished bronze” would conjure images of the local guilds, where fire was used to melt and bend metals like bronze and silver. In his description, Christ says that “whatever truth and hope you place in the guild, I am greater.” But he is also laying an important groundwork. You cannot hide tolerated sin from eyes of fire. Christ says “I see all that takes place.”

Commendation: Before he provides a rebuke of their tolerating sin he commends them with six quick words of affirmation.

General Approval: They’re getting after their faith with diligence. They’re works of love towards one another and towards those in their life are noteworthy. They serve each other and exhibit patient endurance in difficult circumstances.

Sanctification: I particularly love the sixth and final phrase that their “latter works exceed the first.” This means that their faith is a growing faith. The term we use to describe growth in the Christian faith is sanctification. That word describes the ongoing maturity in the faith. They are not stalled out. They haven’t grown weary.

Personal: And at the end of this initial commendation, the Church should feel the reality that the very same one who loves them is also the one searches them. He knows and sees their life. He sees their difficulty in Thyatira. He sees their good work. Those eyes of fire don’t miss a thing. And he sees you Church. The very same one who loves you, and died for you on the cross, sees every moment of your life.

A CORRECTION

Second, Christ provides a correction to the Church, somewhere where they are falling short and need to change their ways.

Revelation 2:20 “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.”

Tolerate: Notice the keyword in that verse, “tolerate.” Christ is looking to the entire Church, and his words of conviction lie in the fact that they permit this Jezebel woman, to do her thing with seemingly very little consequence. They’re busy with their church life and world, but they tolerate her operating among the life of their church. Christ says this is a problem!

The Name Jezebel: Who is this Jezebel woman that is causing so many problems? Apparently she called herself a “prophetess”, someone who spoke the very words of God. Of course, she was a ‘false prophet.’ Jesus calls her Jezebel. Now that is likely not her actual name. But that is a metaphor for a very well known name of a woman in the Bible. Jezebel was married to King Ahab, who is often considered among the most wicked of the Kings of Israel. Jezebel was the source of most of his wickedness.

The Woman Jezebel: Her name has the word Baal (JezeBAAL). Her father was a man Ethball, King of the Sidonians, and they worshipped a false god known throughout the Old Testament as Baal.

Jezebel incited the people of Israel to worship Baal, a false god

She had installed 450 prophets who spoke for Baal.

Baal worship included human child sacrifice and gross sexual immorality.

The prophet Elijah feared Jezebel and ran for his life from her.

In short, “Jezebel” became a byword among the Israelites for “a woman of great evil.”

Jezebel’s Seductions: Thyatira has their own “Jezebel,” a woman of some prominence who is leading the Church in Thyatira into two sins that have already been discussed in our Revelation series.

Revelation 2:20 “teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.”

Reading between the lines, this false prophetwas trying to convince the Christians in Thyatira, that it was not a problem for them to participate in the guilds. After all, a Christian has to work. And there is no point making enemies of the entire guild system. Better to play along, play nice. “Go to the festivals. Eat the food. Participate in the debauchery and the sexual immorality. The great sin is to be so intolerant.” The Church was tolerating her doctrine, and they were tolerating her practice. Both of which were wrong.

The Problem: What is the problem here. Their toleration of Jezebel shows that they don’t love the Church enough. They don’t see the Church for what it is, in all of its glory with Christ as its head. They tolerate it because their love is deficient. But Christ loves his church too much to tolerate what is destroying her. Verses 21-23:

Revelation 2:21–23 “I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.”

Deep Things of Satan: I find it fascinating how Christ describes Jezebel’s teachings as “the deep things of Satan.” At the very least he means here that what this false prophetess was saying was Satan-inspired. That phrase is likely a use of sarcasm. Jezebel was likely claiming to know the “deep things of God.” But Christ says she is teaching “the deep things of Satan.”

Illutration – Parent Drugs: Again, when we read this as modern soft Christians, we tend to think “Man, bit of an overreaction. He’s going to kill her and her disciples. This is not an overreaction. If anything it is the opposite because Christ gave time to repent, time which she refused. This is covenantal love lived out. Imagine if you were a parent of a small child, and somebody came into your child’s life and started handing them something you knew would eventually destroy them. Somebody was giving them drugs lets say. Is it loving to tolerate that person? Is it loving to just let it be. No! In fact its unloving. Because you are a parent bound by covenantal love of your child, you will not tolerate that which will destroy your child. And because Christ loves his Church, with a fierce covenantal love, he will not tolerate what is destroying her.

Plead: Perhaps we can back up here for just a moment. It is amazing to me, that Christ offered Jezebel forgiveness and she refused. Let that sink for a moment. Jezebel chose to continue her wicked path, over receiving the overwhelming love of Christ. Don’t let that be you. Every person in this room is guilty of sin in one degree or another. We stand condemned before a holy God. Jezebel ultimately faced the justice of God, and so will we. But there is a short window of time, where grace is offered to you. This life goes by so quickly. Do not miss your window. Christ died on the cross, and rose from the grave to defeat sin, Satan, and death, and to offer you new life, if you will repent and believe in the name of Jesus Christ, the name that is above every name. Jezebel missed her window, don’t miss yours.

Wrap Up: What is the correction here? They’re tolerating sin in the Church. Note, its not sin in the city. Of course there is sin in the city, its the city. The Church is being corrected for tolerating ongoing sin happening within the body of believers, and doing nothing about it.

AN EXHORTATION

Third, Christ gives an exhortation, an encouragement of what they should do next.

Revelation 2:24–25 “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, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come.”

Illustration – Hold Fast: The instructions are very simple. The Church just needs to do one thing, and one thing alone “Hold Fast onto Christ until he comes.” Be unwavering in our resolve to hold to Christ and nothing else. Be unwavering in our resolve to not let any impurity come into the Church. What does it mean to hold fast. Imagine a man whose ship has sunk. He knows help is coming eventually, but he is stranded on a rock. And as each wave comes upon him, the wave threatens to rip him from that rock, but he holds onto the rock with all his strength. Again and again the waves, and again and again he holds fast to the rock, waiting for aid to come. Christ is the rock of our salvation! To him we must cling! To him we must hold fast like our life depended on it, for it does.

How Do We Hold Fast: How do we hold fast? There are a lot of answers to that, but in the context of our conversation around “tolerating sin,” we hold fast to Christ by not tolerating sin. Christ has already shown us this example. The problem is of course that we have very deficient view of sin. We don’t realize that it is sin to tolerate sin. What are some ways today that we “tolerate” sin in our midst.

1 By Remaining Silent in the Face of Sin: First, we tolerate sin when we remain silent as sin occurs around us. You might remember Eli in the Old Testament, whose sons were committing gross and perverted sins with the women who came to make sacrifices at the temple. And Eli tolerated it. How? By staying silent.

1 Samuel 3:13 “And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.”

It is sin, to stay silent, when sin is happening around you. You become a party to the sin that you stayed silent on. Christ says we must learn to love the Church so much, that we confront sin biblically and humbly.

2 By Complying With Sin: Second, we are guilty of sin when consent or comply with sin, even in our hearts. If we consent to another person’s sin, we become a participant in their sin. Again, a good example here is the Apostle Paul who we are to “consented to the murder of Stephen”

Acts 22:20 “And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’”

If I can just draw one very quick and contemporary point of contact for us here. This has huge implications for modern day challenges in the workplace on transgender issues. Can a Christian use a pronoun that does not match a person’s biology? There is an entire group of Christians today saying, “We should show pronoun hospitality to gender transitioning people. It’s part of the way we love them.” But you don’t get that from scripture. Scripture says if you comply or approve of another’s sin, you are guilty of that sin. How unloving to foster sin in another person’s life! See the Christian doesn’t comply because we love the person.

3 By Assuming Sin Is Normal: Third, we tolerate sin when we have a heart and affections that allow that which God calls to be sin to become commonplace or expected. This is exactly what happened in Corinth, when there was deep sexual sin happening in the Corinthian Church and the Apostle Paul writes,

1 Corinthians 5:1–2 “And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn?…”

They accepted it the sin as part of the way it was. Their affections were not burning within them. If we love God, and our affections are stirred for his glory, then whenever we discover sin in ourselves or in others within the Church, we want to see that sin removed!

What Are We Tolerating: This makes me ask a very difficult question. What sins are we tolerating in our church today, that were Christ to show up and evaluate our Church, he would say similar to us, that he has this against us, “that we tolerate sin.”

Very Difficult: Let me offer us some practical counsel here. If Christ’s word to us today is that we are to love the Church so much that we refuse to tolerate that which might destroy us (namely sin), then the opposite tolerating sin is confronting sin. And as one who has probably done this more wrong that everybody in this room combined, I can tell you that confronting sin in the Church is very hard, with tons of pitfalls and ways for Satan to get his nasty head in.

Moral Police: One of the reasons it is so hard is that most of us just don’t want to be a bother to people, we don’t be the moral police. That’s not what this is a call to. There is a balance here. We are all sinful every day, in heart, in mind, in conversation, sometimes in action. It takes wisdom to find the right balance of knowing when confrontation is appopriate to come from you. Sometimes confrontation is appropriate, you’re just not the best person for it.

Hard Hearts: Second, most people are very resistant to confrontation about their sin. They don’t want to hear it, and they definitely don’t want to hear it from you. Christian, this is why “meekness” is such a virtue in Christianity. A meek heart is ready to receive feedback, to be corrected, by God and by others.

How: Let me make this very practical. Matthew 18 gives very specific instructions for how to confront somebody on sin. The instructions are simple. You go to them directly, you tell them their fault. If they have receive what you say you have won your brother. If they don’t receive it, the next time you go back you take with you one or two witnesses who can again lovingly confront the sin. Same rules apply, if they receive you, you’ve won your brother. If they don’t, then you appropriately elevate that to your elders, at which the Elders step in, as we have many times before, to try to understand, care for, and figure out how to move forward. Some rules with this apply.

Sin not Preference: First, when we confront, we must make sure we are confronting on sin (according to the Bible), and not preference or style or taste.

Private not Public: Second, we never confront publicly. This is always done in private, between you and the other person. We are not looking to shame a person. We are looking to love them into greater sanctification.

Ask Questions: Third, always lead with asking as many questions as you can. Don’t come in with a hammer, come in with a spirit to understand. I have incorrectly assumed many things in the past, simply because I did not ask enough questions. Sometimes those things that seem like very big sins, are actually more understandable when you have the broader context.

Splinter & Stick: Fourth, remember Christ’s teaching on the splinter and the beam in the eye. It is very easy to see the splinter in another person’s eye than to the see the beam in your own. We never approach as someone’s moral superior, it is always under the rubrik of sinner saved by grace loving on another sinner saved by grace.

Be Direct: Fifth, and finally. Be direct and get to the point. Sometimes in these conversations when I have been confronted, I have to then ask “So what are you trying to say?” You don’t have to sugar coat everything until you’re not saying anything at all. You don’t want to be a hammer, but you also don’t want to be a melted wax. Be direct.

Wrap Up: What is the larger exhortation here. This is how we “hold fast.” Because we love the Church, like Christ loves the Church, we cannot tolerate sin, but we confront appropriately to the glory of God.

A PROMISE

And Christ gives this beautiful promise at the end:

Revelation 2:26–29 “The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 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. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Keeps My Works: We are being introduced to a very important theme that will stick with us throughout Revelation, and that is Christian Perseverance. He who “keeps my works until the end.” Can you imagine how hard it must have been for these Thyatirans to not join the guild. They would lose their job, their livelihood. It would be a much more difficult life. It would be so much easier to just go to the festival. Christ says “Don’t give in. Keep my works.” Why? Because of the glory of what is awaiting you on the other side.

Two Promises: To that person two promises are made.

Authority Over Nations: First, is that they will have authority over the nations. This language is picking up on themes from Psalm 2:8-9. What Christ is saying here, is that in the end, when the dust settles, it is the Christian who will stand alongside Christ in his Kingdom. And the pagan nations and kingdoms that harass the Christians here, that persecute the Christians here, will faith the full wrath of God there. What precious hope this must have given the early Christian! They may lose down here, but that is not the end of the story.

Morning Star: But there is an even greater promise made. In verse 28 he says he will give us the “morning star.” What is this morning star in verse 28? Well, this same language will be used right towards the end of Revelation where we read this.

Revelation 22:16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

The greatest treasure we could ever have, is not the dominion we will have when Christ returns; it is Christ himself. He is the bright morning star. In Christ’s day, the planet Venus was known as the “morning star” because it was visible before the dawn. In fact many called the “Dawn bringer.” That is Christ. The darkness lasts for a while, but the bright morning star reminds us that the Sun is rising soon. The darkness is beginning to flee. To the Church at Thyatira who now would struggle greatly as Christians in their workplace, what a hope to hold fast to.

Conclusion

Illustration: Andrew Bonar: There was once a Scottish minister named Andrew Bonar, a wonderful man of God. He was instrumental in two separate revivals that happened in Scottland in the early 1800s. In his later years, when asked to tell a group of young ministers what the secret was of his life of devotion to Christ, he answered simply,

“I can only say to my young brethren that for forty years there has not been a day that I have not had access to the Mercy-Seat (of God).”

Here is a man who understood the gospel. Forgiven in Christ. Access to God through Christ’s blood.

His diary entry on Tuesday June 18, 1849 speaks about Christ as the morning star. And I will close us today by reading this entry.

“This morning early I had awakened and looked out. It was about four o’clock. The morning star was shining directly before our window in a bright sky. One part of the window was misty with frost; the other part clear, and through the clear part the star shone most beautifully. I thought of Christ’s words…’the bright Morning Star’… Christ is all this to me in this world till the day break. I fell asleep, and when I next awoke the sun was shining through my room. Shall it not be thus at the Resurrection?”