1. Introduction:
After losing the first love in Ephesus, the test of persecution in Smyrna, the development of false teachers at Pergamum, Thyatira we reach a peak with the evils that can corrupt a church. Because at Thyatira, shows John, this is not primarily in the members of the Church lies the evil that corrupts, but in his head, in the instances that are responsible for providing him the teaching that it is to follow the governing bodies that give any Church line it must follow.
The Bible tells us how to avoid such a deviation. It teaches us the necessity of vigilance and mutual correction: 1 Cor 14.30, as the need for verification in the Scriptures to see if the education provided conforms to the Word: Acts 17.11
Analysis of the letter of John, dictated by Jesus, the Son of God, the church of Thyatira!
2. Thyatira: City
is in the book of Acts that for the first time we find mention of Thyatira. While Paul is in Asia and it is prevented, says Luke, the Holy Spirit to preach the Word, he received a night vision of a Macedonian who calls for help. Realizing that God called him to leave Asia to reach Europe, Paul arrives with his team at Philippi a Greek city. On the Sabbath, he goes to a river where a group of women to whom he preaches the Gospel. Acts 16.14-15 said after
Two specific details, about what we are considering this morning deserve our attention: the first is Lydia's occupation, which is believed to be the first convert in Europe: it was seller of purple. The second is the city where it came from: Thyatira. These two details, which we must retain for the future, we do not accidentally given in the Bible. They are indicative of the activity at the time when Luke writes, was the fame of Thyatira: the factory of a fabric of a shade so particular, the purple, it was with her that it sewed across the Roman empire clothing that dressed the princes, kings and the highest dignitaries of the empire.
3. Thyatira: The Church:
a. the Son of God
is as the Son of God, a reminder in a way that only he is qualified mediator between God and men that Jesus presents himself to the Church of Thyatira. This recall is not trivial. There is no doubt focus on input a serious problem encountered in Thyatira: the shadow cast on Christ a woman who calls herself a prophetess, who claims no doubt, in the name of God, inspired word to make a par with that of Christ to His servants! We shall see just now, through the name under which John calls it, Jezebel, who is this woman, what are its characteristics and its salient features.
Whatever the title or capacity owned by a man in the Church of Jesus Christ, he never should have authority or glory as they do in the shade Christ. Angels: Rev. 22.8 to 9, as the apostles: Acts 14.11-14 have refused.
b. I know:
If the Church of Thyatira a huge problem at the head, the Lord who looks in her eyes of fire can do things in perspective between what is and remains positive and good in this church and this is totally wrong.
If the instruction given in this Church by those who run it is a big problem, notes that the Lord is, however, in this church many strengths: they are the numerous works conducted there: v 19. This is perhaps a point that, for our part, we too sometimes tend to overlook. Faith, says Jacques indeed, is not all things of the heart and mind. It is to be credible, be translated into concrete commitments and actions: Jac 2.14 to 17. If we are justified before God by faith, Thyatira reminds us that what justifies our faith before men, it is our Oeuvre. One aspect of true Christianity, despite the errors it is infested, Thyatira has kept!
c. Jezebel:
However, despite all the positive that may exist in this church, is in her womb and her head a big problem. This problem, a person is presented to us in two ways:
- 1 is the identity under which John is that it is compared: Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab history, One of the most famous queens of Israel's history
- the second is the role that is given that person: prophetess, and carries the message of the Word of God.
Analysis!
4. Jezebel, the false prophet of the Church of Thyatira:
Jezebel being the person to whom Jean compares the false prophetess, that seduces and deceives the servants and members of the Church of Thyatira is to her that we now turn to understanding who she is and what danger it represents for the people of God.
a. Origin: 1 Kings 16.29-31
The first thing you notice when its origins is that if Jezebel gained access to the kingdom to Israel by birth and by nature she does not legitimate part. Jezebel is not Jewish origin, but Sidonian. With regard to the Word and God's will, it has no legitimate right to direct and govern the people of God!
Jezebel is primarily the result of the sin of Ahab Deut 7.1 to 3. It is a usrpatrice.
b. His true religion
If Jezebel had actually converted to the God of Israel, we could at a pinch she could accept, marriage, access to royalty. But it is not! Instead of adhering to the God of Israel, Jezebel, instead, will do anything to import into the country that made the cult in his. 1 Kings 18.19 recounts and every day 450 prophets of Baal (the great Canaanite god called the Lord) and 400 prophets of Asherah (known as the Queen of Heaven) ate every day at his table)
c) His character
If Ahab, Jezebel's husband, appears as a soft man, immature, easily manipulated, his wife, it appears as a woman cruel, ruthless, unscrupulous in respect of anyone who opposes it. 3 examples:
- the case of Naboth of Jizréeel: 1 Kings 21.1 to 10
- the testimony of the Prophet Obadiah: 1 Kings 18.7 to 13
- his hatred of Elijah, the prophet of God: 1 Kings 19.1-2
All biblical stories relating to Jezebel are unanimous: there is nothing to expect good , just, right on the part of Jezebel. "There was nobody," said Bible, who is sold by which displeased the Lord like Ahab's Jezebel his wife incited him there: 1 Kings 21.25 . Jezebel does not serve God, but the devil is said to Jesus, liar and murderer from the beginning: John 8.44. The time is the time of Jezebel where the error completely dominated the people of God and when the true believers who had remained persecution, to make their culkte to God, to live in hiding.
d) Its purpose:
survivor 12 years after the death of Ahab, killed in combat, Jezebel will ultimately be judged by God through the King Jehu who overthrow of his throne. She will know, according to the prophecy of Elijah, a shameful and ignominious end: 2 Kings 9.30 to 37.
5. The message of the Son Jezebel of God and the Church of Thyatira
The portrait drawn of Jezebel, back to the Apocalypse to hear now, which is the heart of the letter that John wrote, the message that the Lord address to the Church in Thyatira about Jezebel, the false prophet raging in his breast
a. the long patience of God to his sterile connection:
v 21: The first thing that God is noted that the patience he has turned to her, hoping that, as Manasseh, one of the most wicked kings of Israel: 2 Chr 33.11-20, she repents. It will not happen: the Jezebel of Thyatira not repent. She did not return to his claims, nor from his mistakes!
b. the solemn warning of God
v 22-23: Jezebel unwilling to make amends, God warned that particular trial and terrible as that which befell the first Jezebel, will hit, not only her but all who have made a covenant with her to join her. This ruling will be such it will be like that of Ananias and Sapphira in the early Church, an event that will mark all other churches and the need to remind them the fear of God and the rejection of any compromise.
Called the prostitute already here, it may well be that the trial of the Jezebel of Thyatira is as icelui the prostitute woman sitting on the beast described in Revelation 17.1 to 6.15 to 18 woman dressed in purple in Thyatira ...
c. Message to those in Thyatira who remain faithful to God
V 24: Jezebel being judged, the Lord who discerns all things, which is for the rest, within it, has not adopted the teaching of the false prophet. "It does not," he said, other than Him burdens remain attached to Him and His Word until He comes. See here how great is the understanding of God to those who, locked in a misleading, however, remain attached to Him!
6. Conclusion: Word to the winner
Let's do all round characteristics of the Church of Thyatira:
- which houses within it a competition to Christ and his word
- Influenced heavily by the works
- Who is headed to teach a Jezebel
both queen and prophetess
Queen illegitimate pagan origin
who worships a false God and the Queen's eye
who persecutes and kills the true servants of God
which has long been the subject of God's patience
who will not repent
seeking to spread to other churches by their mistakes through alliances
to be judged and destroyed at the end Times
Who makes you spontaneously think this church: the Catholic Church. Her Jezebel: the Papacy!
color purple: the dignitaries of the Catholic Church
competition to Christ and His Word: the Pope and the tradition
a church that is emphasis on good works: positive
the papacy and Jezebel: commonalities
The pope is king (pope) and prophet (Vicar of Christ)
The institution of the papacy has its roots in paganism
Catholic worship is marked by a strong idolatry: the queen of heaven, a false christ
The papacy has been for centuries persecutor of true believers, committed to Christ and His Word which had to live in hiding
The Papacy says infallible and therefore refuses to return from his mistakes
The papacy has been the purpose of the long patience of God
The papacy sought to build alliances with all religions
It will be judged harshly and suddenly with all those who made a covenant with her and her prostitutes were
We can not complete the study without meeting the promise that God is the victor out of this Church: v 26-27. What the Catholic Church (meaning universal) has always sought to have its alliances and compromise, God will give, by grace one day, to His saints with Him to share the universal royalty!
Bless God for His Word lights!
Quotes from St. Augustine, considered the father of the Catholic Church "will take this from us our papers and all our books, and that the Book of God alone advances. Someone asked me there: Why? Because I do not want it proves anything by human documents, but the oracles of God. Do not think like the Catholic bishops if they think something that is contrary to the canonical Scriptures of God! "
I am coming soon!
