DIAGNOSIS OF THE THYATIRA CHURCH

The Diagnosis of the Church

This is twofold. There is both commendation and condemnation.

"I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first." "Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." "And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not."



The Commendation of the Church

"I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first."

Progressive Church
"I know thy works."

Devoted Church

"And thy love."

What Ephesus lost, this church has.

Faithful Church

"And faith."

This church was reaching out to appropriate the things God offered.

Ministering Church

"And service."

Word for deacon. It was pious in all practical effort to help people.

Persistent Church

"And thy patience."

Against great odds the church moved ahead with eye on the goal.

Amazingly progressive

"And the last be more than the first."

There was an ever increasing zeal.

The Condemnation of the Church

"Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." "And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not."
One word will cover it all, namely, Jezebelianism. But there are six things to be noted.

The Woman Jezebel

They are tolerating this woman, an enemy of the church, of Christ, and of God.

In the Old Testament, Jezebel was the Phoenician wife of Ahab (1 Kings 16:31). She was the daughter of Eth-Baal, king of Sidon, a priest of Astarte who murdered his predecessor, Pheles, in order to seize the throne. Jezebel followed in steps of her father. She tried to exterminate the prophets of Jehovah (1 Kings 18:13) and to introduce the grossly impure worship of Astarte. She was a persecutor, murderess, thief, liar, and hypocrite.
"And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him."
"Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD, how I hid an hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?"
There may have been such a woman in Thyatira, but it is more likely certain things are personified. Still there may have been such a woman.

The False Prophetess

Since the Old Testament Jezebel was a prophetess, it is likely perhaps that this stands for some such woman in the New Testament church. There were such prophetesses in the early church. Most commentators favor the idea that these are merely Jezebelian practices.

The Teaching of Jezebel

This was a doctrine which joined the indulgence of the flesh with the pieties of worship.

Seduction to Fornication

This was part of the worship. Men were led to believe that sexual intercourse with vestal virgins was a holy act of worship. But they were deceived, as the word seduce means.

Eating Things Offered to Idols

This also was a part of the worship. When sacrifice should have been done and such pagan worship disap­pear, she dragged them back into it again.

Confirmed in Sin

"And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not."

While opportunity was given for Jezebel to repent, she turned her back upon it. This was true in the Old Testament; it was true in Thyatira; and it was true in Catholicism.

The reformers cried out against the sins of Catholicism: Savonarola, Wycliffe, Cranmer, Knox, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc. But it was no use. And to this day the Roman system is unchanged.