Jesus’ Letter to His Assembly in Thyatira – Part 3
Part 1 is available at https://gospelherald.org/what-you-have-hold-fast-until-i-come-jesus-letter-to-thyatira /
The background in Part 1 helps us understand Jesus’ powerful words and imagery to His people assembled in Thyatira and their application in our lives today.
Part 2 is available at https://gospelherald.org/what-you-have-hold-fast-until-i-come/
4. Jesus’ Consequences
As a further gesture of His grace, though Jezebel won’t repent, Jesus extends the opportunity to repent to her followers in verse 22 in which He also explains His consequences for Jezebel’s disobedience: “‘Behold, I will throw her on a bed of (sickness), and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.’”
Jesus’ word for throw is the root of our word ball. He will throw her on a bed, the root of our word clinic. The word sickness or pestilence is not in the text in verse 22 or 23 thought some translators imply it. If we just take Jesus’ words at face value He is returning on Jezebel the same treatment by which she enticed her followers, a bed of adultery. The adultery of two people affects hundreds in their circles of life. So the adultery of Jezebel and her followers will lead to great tribulation. Notice that to avoid this outcome they must repent of her deeds. This means a return to doing the deeds of God at which the faithful in Thyatira were greater than at first.
In verse 23 Jesus adds another dire consequence: “‘And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.’”
We can understand Jezebel’s children not as physically young children but as adult believers in Christ who have been enticed by her false teaching into her idolatrous and sexually immoral lifestyle. Revelation gives us deeper understandings about death. In 1:18b we learn from Jesus who says, “‘I have the keys of death and of Hades.’” In 20:14 we learn that death and Hades will be “thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” As with Jesus’ sword of judgment the punishment of this death is final and eternal. The message is for all of God’s people.
Jesus also affirms that we reap what we sow and God will judge us on the basis of His grace and salvation in Jesus – and – on the basis of what we have done with His gift of His salvation once we have received it. This is consistent with what Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 3:8, “Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.”
5. Jesus’ Further Commendation
As He does for the Ephesians, following His conviction Jesus further commends the Thyatirans in verse 24, “‘But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them—I place no other burden on you.’”
Jesus identifies “the rest” in the plural, a group of faithful in Thyatira. They do not cling to Jezebel’s teachings nor do they know the so called deep things of Satan, the accuser. The allurement of deep hidden knowledge was a common enticement among the ancient mystery cults, the *Porto-gnostics, and Jewish mystics. They held out the illusory and elusive idea that God has deeper truths accessible only to true initiates willing to follow teachers who claim to be “in the know,” *gnosis being the root of our word knowledge.
Jesus places, literally throws, no further burden on them. Burden here is a heavy word. It is to “experience of something particularly oppressive…. a days work that proves exhausting,” like the workers in Jesus’ parable of the vineyard in Matthew 20:1–16 who have worked hard from the morning, have born the burden of the day and the scorching heat. The faithful in Thyatira have been and are working hard. Jesus will not add to their load. They are being responsible in carrying the load God expects them to do as Paul describes so well in Galatians 6:1–5, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load.”
He exhorts them with these encouraging words in verse 25, “‘Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.’” They have, in the present, virtues to which they should cling to with all their strength. The root of Jesus’ word for hold is to be strong, mighty, master, prevail, take hold or, persevere, hold fast. Remember what they have in Jesus. They are doing works that please God and they are increasing in doing good. They have sincere love for God, one another, and their neighbours. They have strong faith in Him and they are faithful in living daily in a pagan world. They are fully engaged in serving. They are persevering under pressure. They have a lively expectant hope of Jesus coming again to seal their salvation eternally.
6. Jesus’ Promises
Jesus gives the faithful and humble Thyatirans a double promise of immense scope beyond what He promises to the other assemblies: authority to rule over the nations and the Morning Star. In verses 26 and 27 He says, “‘He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.’”
Remember the joint but limited authority the Thyatiran’s shared in their guilds. Jesus is giving His faithful a share in His authority which is total and infinitely superior to that of the guilds. Jesus’ authority over the nations comes from His Father. He is engaging His people in His reign. We see this clearly in Matthew 28:18–20, “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
Remember that only to the Thyatirans does Jesus refer to Himself as the Son of God. We noticed His Sonship and rule over the nations is affirmed from long ago by the prophecy from the second Psalm of David (Luke 20:42 affirms David as the author of Psalm 2 even though this Psalm has no superscript). Notice the context here in Psalm 2 that reveals the nations in a state of rebellion against God and His delegation of power and authority over them to His Son:
1 Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The LORD scoffs at them.
5 Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,
6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
9 ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”
10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.
11 Worship the LORD with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.
12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
Thyatira is the least significant of the seven cities yet God’s people there will join Jesus in reigning over nations. The “rod of iron” (2:27 and Psalm 2:9) is reminiscent of God our Shepherd’s rod in Psalm 23 and a suitable instrument for people from the trades. The significance of the overcoming and victorious Thyatiran’s ruling over nations is amplified in light of the immense military and civic power the Romans held over their city and the world as the Thyatirans knew it. The emperors were often pictured on coins and in statues as holding the whole world in their hands or with a foot upon it. Jesus is LORD of all the nations on the earth. He triumphs and infinitely surpasses them.
In Revelation 1:6 we learn that Jesus’ people are “a kingdom of priests to His God and Father.” In chapters 5 and 20 He affirms this position of honour and service. Speaking of the people Jesus purchased with His blood, Revelation 5:19–10 records for us, “And they *sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.’” Revelation 20:6 further encourages Jesus’ people in saying, “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.’”
Jesus’ ultimate gift to His people is Himself. Revelation 22:16 and 2 Peter 1:9 affirm He is the “bright Morning Star”: “So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:9), “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star’” (Revelation 22:16).
The Romans revered the planet Venus as “the morning star” which appears in the east before sunrise. Julius Caesar worshiped Venus. She was ascribed deity as as the goddess of love and beauty. In fiction she lead the mythic hero Aeneas from Troy to found the city of Rome. She was known as Phosphorous the morning star in Greek mythology and also as Heosphorus, the “dawn bringer.”
Jesus, however, created the universe and set His countless stars in place. He holds them all together by the word of His power according to Colossians 1:17, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together,” and Hebrews 1:3, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” He is the eternally bright Morning Star who gives Himself for His people. The glory of His Father and He will light up their eternal lives in the new heavens and the new earth forever: “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22–23).
7. Jesus’ Final Words
29 “‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
From Jesus’ Commendations and Exhortations
19…25“‘I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance…. What you have, hold fast until I come…’”