AS 7 IGREJAS DO APOCALIPSE | Igreja de Tiatira | Estudo Bíblico | Lamartine Posella

Hello, my dear people! How are you? Today I will bring another message, the fifth message of the series.

The series on the churches in Revelation. In today's message, I will talk about the church in Thyatira, Let's read together the word of God. Revelation chapter 2:18-29, but before that, if you haven't subscribed to my channel, please do so, give a thumbs up, share the message, so that more people can be blessed by it.

Amen? So let's go! “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead.

Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come. ’ To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations — that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’— just as I have received authority from my Father.

I will also give that one the morning star. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. " As I have been saying in the other messages, the seven churches are, in first place seven local churches, that existed in seven specific cities from Asia Minor, current Turkey, but they also represent a prophetic time that goes from the church's birth in Pentecost, until the rapture, but all seven letters also have promises for Christ's church in general, so we can look to this letter, to the seven letters in a way that understands that they refer to the 1st century, refer gradually to the development of the history of the church, but also refer to all of us as Christians.

Let's begin by the city of Thyatira. It was 58km southeast from Pergamum. It was likely founded by Alexander the Great around 300 BC.

That city ended up developing to be a great manufacturing center. They had leather tanners, pot factories, weaving, coloring and paint factories, and clothing factories, all of this in that city. Lydia, Paul's first convert in Europe was native to that city.

She converted with Paul in Europe, though she was from the city of Thyatira, as per Acts 16:14. Nowadays the city of Thyatira still exists as a city. It's not only ruins, and it has a population of approximately 25.

000 people. How does Jesus the counselor presents himself talking to the church in Thyatira in chapter 2 of Revelation, verse 18? "These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

" Jesus says, in the first place, that He is the son of God, and therefore has the authority to address the church. In the second place, says that His eyes are like blazing fire, and in the scriptures that feature is always concerning the fact that He sees everything, that He knows everything, and that there's no use in trying to hide from Jesus because He has eyes like blazing fire and can scan all the things in your heart, the intentions, reasons, and all else, and says that He is the one whose feet are like burnished bronze. Bronze is a metal that to be forged has to go through the fire, so burnished bronze talks about bronze that people could even see their reflection on it.

Mirrors were made of bronze, but this talks about a righteous walk, a behavior that Jesus always had. So that's how Jesus presents himself to that church, and therefore what he will advise and reprimand has to do also with what He knows, and His righteousness and holiness while He lived on Earth. Jesus has five compliments to the city of Thyatira.

First He talks about the good works, and He says: "you are now doing more than you did at first. " So differently from Ephesus, from the church in Ephesus, that Jesus said, "you have forsaken the love you had first, go back and do what you did first", here He is saying, your later works are better than the earlier ones and are even more abundant. He compliments them on their love because they were people who truly loved, He compliments them on their service, and the word for service here is diakonian, the word of origin for deacon that we have today.

That person who served in the church. He compliments their faith, and He compliments the church's patience. So he says clearly that it was a church with many qualities, but he also brings one condemnation, in chapter 2 verse 20 He says, "Nevertheless, I have this against you:" That "nevertheless" means, despite everything good that you do, "I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet.

By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. " Well, Jezebel was a queen, a Phoenician princess who married King Ahab, we're talking about 850 BC, in the days of Elijah and she destroyed Israel, she took God's people to worship idols, the prophets of Baal, she was a shrine prostitute, and therefore she practiced prostitution with all the priests from her time, in other words, she was a woman sent by hell. It's obvious that the Jezebel to which the Lord refers to is not that Jezebel, but Jezebel's spirit that was acting on that church, meaning, there was in fact, in the time of Thyatira a prophetess, a false prophetess, a woman that in her behavior took the people, taught idolatry, and even prostitution.

Here we can't be sure if the prostitution to which Jesus refers to is physical prostitution, immorality, or if it's spiritual prostitution, also known as idolatry. Anyway, they were tolerating it. They were an active, operational church, that does God's work, it's a church with faith, works, patience in the face of persecution, but they tolerated the Jezebel's spirit, so certainly we're talking about immorality, idolatry, or simply idolatry, which in the eyes of God is seen as spiritual prostitution.

What is the punishment that Jesus declares and decrees to that woman? He says, "So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways" So there was likely a specific judgment for that woman in the 1st-century church, but regarding the spiritual prostitution and the Christian church represented here by Thyatira, which began to allow heresies, idolatry, spiritual prostitution, here the Lord is also making a promise of judgment. He says that there would be illness, and He also says that her children, who were also followers, will suffer spiritual death, He's not just talking about physical death but spiritual.

So He says that this church would serve as an example to other churches, meaning that the judgment Jesus brought on those who were committing idolatry and learning the wrong teachings from Jezebel's spirit, and He says, "Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds," hence why the blazing fire eyes, "and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. " What is Jesus' advice for that church after a warning? It's in chapter 2, verses 24 and 25 He says, "Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets," and here the word means the deep doctrines and teachings of Satan, of the spirit of deceit, so He's saying, to you who are not like her, who haven't followed her path, He says, "‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.

’" So it's obvious that in that church's time, where there was idolatry, the doctrines of deceit, the teachings of this Jezebel spirit, that likely refers to spiritual prostitution, which is idolatry, but can also mean the prostitution of those leaders who had an appearance, but in reality, they were truly prostituting their bodies, Jesus tells them, "Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come. ’" So here it's clear that this word is not only for the church in the 1st century, Why? Because they should hold on to what they had, their doctrine, faith, perseverance, until Jesus comes.

So we have 3 applications, the first is for the local church, the second for a church - I will explain later which period this church represents - but it's also for the church in our time. All of us who live now can use that because He's sayin "until I come", so this is regarding the church that will be present and alive during the rapture. That's Jesus' advice for a church that faces heresy, faces lies, deceit, and today we have so much of that.

In our days there are so many new doctrines, people who are straying from the word and preaching the lie and God's word is, hold on to what you have and do not go astray, stay separate from the influence of Jezebel's spirit. What is the challenge Jesus gives to the church in verses 27 and 28? "To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations-- that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’— just as I have received authority from my Father.

I will also give that one the morning star. " Once again here you notice that victory for the one who stands firm on the Lord is that one day they will rule the nations with Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter that those believers died, on the rapture day, they will rise and enter the millennium conducting with Christ, ruling the nations with authority and with an iron scepter.

What a great challenge! Stand firmly until the end, because those who win and are faithful until the end, will rule the nations with me. Isn't this beautiful?

And he even promises, He says, just as I have received from my father the authority, you will have it. And He says "I will also give that one the morning star. " So Jesus says, the same authority that I have received from the Father to rule over nations, I will transfer it to you.

You will rule with me the nations. Amen? Glory to God!

The authority of Jesus will one day be complete, absolute, presential when He will be ruling the world in the millennium and all faithful Christians will be together with Him ruling the nations with an iron scepter, and when He talks about the morning star, "I will also give that one the morning star. " do not forget my dear ones, the morning star is the last star to disappear when the sun rises and the first one to show up when the sun goes down. That star is actually the planet Venus, but it shines like a star and here it's a clear reference that the testimony, the effulgence, the shine of those who were faithful would be the first to shine in a world of darkness and the last to disappear when the sun of justice comes.

Isn't that beautiful? That's Jesus' promise to the church in Thyatira. In the seventh place, I would like to tell you about which prophetic period this church in Thyatira represents.

This period goes from the year 590 AD until 1517 AD. Which period is that? It's the Middle Ages period, which goes until The Reformation in 1517 AD with Martin Luther.

Well, the name Thyatira means continuous sacrifice, and prophetically this church represents the Roman church. The church of Rome. The Catholic church.

Which was always marked by many social works. Which had a heart, had a love for people, which worked for the people. There are many extraordinary people who in that time, in which the world was still in darkness regarding knowledge of the word of God, but there were men and women who were faithful, who loved God, who loved the church, who did God's work, however, that was the church that allowed that outside of the scriptures, the church itself had the authority to establish doctrines, many of which were against the word of God.

So I believe that this refers to Jezebel's spirit because that's exactly what Jezebel did. The Jezebel from Elijah's time, she brought the doctrines, paganism, Baal's cult, and the people from Israel started to waver between two gods, started to believe that the one who brought prospetiry was Baal and not Yaweh, not the Lord, so it was during that time that many of the doctrines from the Catholic church that persists today, but has no Biblical backing, many of those are against the Bible itself entered and those faithful believers, although there were very much faithful to God, they tolerated that and it ended up corrupting the church's theology. I want to say that this period was the one in which the papacy was officialy born, although Catholics affirm that Peter was the first pope, actually it didn't happen, The term itself, Bishop of Rome, which is the given term to the pope, didn't exist in the beginning, during the church's first years, but Leo I, who was a man that lived from 440 AD until 461 AD, was a predecessor of the future popes, and was the first Bishop of Rome, he gained popularity for saving twice the city of Rome, first from the hand of Attila the Hun, and later from Gaiseric the Vandal.

So although he wasn't officially considered a pope, he was a predecessor because he was called Bishop of Rome. Officially the first pope, the first Bishop of Rome to become a pope was Gregory I, who lived for a long time, from 590 AD until 694 AD, so he lived 104 years. He was the first pope recognized by all people and he consolidated Christianism after the fall of Rome to the Barbarians in 476 AD, and this was a man faithful to God, he was a great man, Pope Gregory.

A few men who were really faithful to God at that time. John Wycliffe, who lived between 1320 to 1384 AD. He was the first man to translate the whole Bible to English.

He belongs to that time. Jonh Hus, who was a preacher that feared God, a man who believed more in the scriptures than in the power of the church, in the tradition of the church. That man lived between 1369 and 1415 AD.

The interesting thing is that John Hus was killed in a public square, they put him at a stake and when he was starting to burn he released a prophesy saying - his nickname was the goose, John Hus, look him up - and he said you can kill the goose but in one hundred years a swan will be born that you won't be able to kill and he will transform the church. He died in 1415. 100 years later in 1517, so 102 years later Martin Luther made The Reformation and he was the swan to whom John Hus referred to.

It's interesting that Martin Luther was so brave. Some people even told him, "are you trying to get killed? It's like you're confronting the church, are you trying to die?

" and some say that in fact, he wanted to die for Jesus, but through his whole life he couldn't be killed because John Hus' prophecy was upon his life, "In a hundred years a swan will be born - or a swan will come, a swan will rise - that no one will be able to kill" and the Reformation of Martin Luther spreaded through all Europe and no one could kill him, because he was under a prophetic word of a faithful man, John Hus, who preached the word in a time of heresies, preached the truth saying, the word of God is the only truth that should be our rule of faith and the practice of our theology and of our life. Beautiful, right? So also William Tyndale, who lived between 1484 and 1536 AD, he was the first to publish the New Testament in English.

All those men belonged to the Catholic church. Many Christians say, "no, the Catholic church, the Romanism has nothing good" No, those men were men of God, raised up by God inside of that church, the Roman church, and made a difference. Lastly, I would like to mention Erasmus, who was born in 1466 and died in 1536 AD and was a great scholar of the New Testament in Greek, with deep studies, he came before the Reformation, survived the Reformation time and continued teaching the Bible and bringing extraordinary truths, beautiful biblical truths.

How about we who live at this time? We must be careful with new doctrines, with people who bring doctrines that push us away from the Bible, people who prefer to believe in their experiences than in the word of God. I learned while I was in the seminary at Word of Life that if it's not in the Bible, it's not true.

Even if it looks like, it's not true, even if I had an experience, it's not true, because my experience cannot establish a doctrine, what can establish the doctrine of God's word is the word itself. Amen? People, we're in the fourth church.

Fifth message. We're bringing extremely rich content, Enriching contents. I would like to ask that all of you who were blessed by this word to share, tell people to not miss it.

These words have been transforming and I'm sure that many more people wll be blessed. I love you all. Thank you so much because you're helping me to take this word to the whole world.

Literally to the whole world, not just to Brazil, but to the whole world. Thank you so much. God bless you.

I love you all so much. Sending love to your heart.