The Seven Churches of Revelation Pt. 8 by Chris White

Remains of Ancient Church in Thyatira

 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.  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.  I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.”

                                                                                                                                           --Rev. 2:19-21

Pliny the Elder, a Roman governor and historian living in Asia Minor during the early Christian era, wrote that the city of Thyatira was Inhonora Civitas or a city lacking any greatness.  In America we might call Thyatira a “wide spot in the road” or “Podunk U.S.A”.  We should all take comfort in the fact that Jesus has concern for all places, not just the important cities.   Thyatira is famous in the New Testament because one of its leading citizens named Lydia was on a business trip to Philippi and became one of St. Paul’s first converts when he preached the gospel there.  Lydia was known as a dyer of purple cloth which was quite desirable.  The purple dye came from the madder root which is a local plant in Thyatira.  This small town used so much water in the dying of fabrics that the Romans built them an aqueduct just to supplement their local river.  In the letter to Thyatira a direct rebuke is made by the Lord to an unnamed prophetess who is called Jezebel.  Jezebel in the Old Testament was not a prophetess, but was guilty of spending her wealth and energy convincing Israel to leave God and follow after Baal.  Apparently the Church of Thyatira was listening to this prophetess whose teaching included the freedom to join the local labor guilds.  It was as true in ancient times as it is today: if you want to succeed in business sometimes you have to go along to get along.  The first century Christians often faced a dilemma if they were in business.  You needed to be in a labor guild, but labor guilds sponsored community feasts dedicated to pagan gods and goddesses with sacrifices.  After the meal was over temple prostitutes were often brought in to help the participants properly celebrate.  Eating meat sacrificed to idols was often a much greater sin than eating food that has been defiled by idolatry.  The message to the church of Thyatira is that if they continue to heed and tolerate this kind of sin in the church, the Lord will chastise them with illness that the rest of the Body of Christ might be fearful about compromising with the world.  When the church teaches and acts like the world, like the world, it will come under the judgment of God.

With you on the Journey,

Chris

The Seven Churches of Revelation Pt. 3 by Chris White

The traditional burial spot of John the Apostle in Ephesus

 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.  I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet  saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”  --Revelation 1:9-10

The apostle John received the message of Jesus while he was in exile on Patmos, a small island off the coast of Asia Minor.  John the Apostle lived in Ephesus and was well-known member of the Christian community having been one of the Lord Jesus’ inner circle.  The Roman emperor Domitian had John under “relegation” (as the Romans called it) at Patmos because he was a considered a trouble-maker.  John’s transgression was most likely his lack of enthusiasm for the temple Domitian was building in Ephesus that his genius might be recognized and worshipped by the people.  But God is never one to waste an opportunity to turn something meant for evil for the good and so instead of John’s ministry being diminished in any way by the exile, the Lord increased it by giving him additional revelation and the charge to disseminate it among the churches.  Procophorus was an able-bodied assistant sent to help John during his exile as he was in advanced age.  This was a common practice with the early church and apparently readily permitted within the Roman world.  It is commonly believed that Procophorus wrote the letters down on parchment and then delivered them to the pastors since he himself was not a prisoner.  The seven churches from Ephesus to Laodicea are all close together on a circuitous road that makes its way inland from the Mediterranean coast.  Someone just walking on foot could have easily completed the task within a couple of weeks.

When John eventually returned to Ephesus at the end of his relegation he is believed to have lived possibly another 15 years and died around 110 years old.  In the last years of his life he wanted to live in a hut on the Ayasaluk hill.  The tradition of the Greek Church is he knew his death was imminent and so called his disciples to come and dig his grave and when it was finished he left his hut, layed down in the grave and dismissed his spirit.

John the apostle died far from the place he started in Galilee as a young man following Jesus.  On the other hand, John ended his life closest to the last place he heard the Lord speak to him.  Sometimes our Lord requires us to make our home far from our birthplace in order to serve him.  But when Jesus calls us to ‘go into all the world’, we never go anywhere he can’t find us or beyond his ability to speak with us.  Wherever we are called to serve, Jesus is always there ahead of us which means even a bleak and lonely island can be a table set for us in the wilderness to enjoy his company.

With you on the Journey,

Pastor Chris

The Seven Churches of Revelation Pt. 2 by Chris White

The Book of Life has its basis in Roman Civic Culture

Jesus’ letters to the Seven Churches are found in the book of Revelation chapters 1-3.  They begin with a blessing (1:3) that is not included in any other book of the Bible: if you read this book aloud and heed the warnings you hear, you will be blessed by the Lord.  The original recipients of these letters were pastors of local congregations and therefore the Lord Jesus was expressing his desire that these be read and pondered by the congregations as they gathered together.  Today’s Christian tends to struggle with regularly attending church meetings or to even see any special purpose for the assembly of the saints.  But the Lord wants all of us gathered because there are things he wants to say to us exclusively as a congregation not just as individuals.  If we absent ourselves from church gatherings, we miss a real blessing.  One of the repeated phrases in the letters is “I know your works”.  The Lord is keenly aware of the health of all of his churches.  He knows our contributions and our compromises even better than we do.  There are many people within and without the church who make all sorts of assessments about the state of the church in America today.  But quite frankly, the only voice of commendation or criticism that really matters is that of the Lord Jesus Himself.  He is the head and we as believers are his body.  As we go through these letters, let’s attune our minds to what the Lord of the church is telling us and move in that direction that we might receive the blessing he has promised.

Your fellow traveler in the Journey,

 Chris