2018-05-20 – Revelation – Part Four

Kids church time – John 3:16-17

A ministry word of the Lord: Do not be anxious for anything but in everything with prayer and thanksgiving make your requests before God. (Phil 4:6)

To the angel of the church of Thyatira, His eyes are like blazing fire. (He sees everything.) His feet are like burnished bronze. (He can stand and not fall. This is unlike the statue of Nebuchadnezzar.) His feet are strong and he will not be shaken. He says He knows their deeds and He sees love, faith, service and perseverance. But there is something wrong. They tolerate Jezebel who calls herself a prophet.

This is a message for us today. If we have love and faith, we can stay on track. We need perseverance. The devil is a liar and he will use lies to keep us away from the truth.

Who was Jezebel. In I Kings she was a deceiver. She used her husband (Ahab) to conquer people. She came from a pagan town. Her god was Baal and she hired 450 prophets to work for her to worship Baal. Ahab was foolish and went along with her in everything. She proceeded to lead all of Israel into the worship of Baal. She tried to kill the prophets of God. She came up against Elijah and all of her prophets were killed that day.

In Revelation, Jezebel is a prophet who is leading Christians into sexual immorality and idol worship. As we know, God hates this.

We need to check our love. Are we loving the way we are supposed to? Are we holding on to our faith in God? Are we serving God the way that we should? Hold on and do not give up hope. Reject the evil. There are lies and liars everywhere. Keep your eyes on Jesus and you won’t lose your way.

Sardis looks like it is alive but God know it is dead. Wake Up! If you are dead, obviously you can’ wake yourself up. But Jesus can!

The church of Philadelphia is the other church about which Jesus only had good things to say. Philadelphia is a Greek word that means brotherly love. Jesus says He is the one who can open doors that no one can shut and close doors that no one can open.