Glorifying Jesus – God Loves The Small

Revelation 2:18-29 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; 19 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. 20 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. 21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. 22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. 23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. 24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. 25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. 26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Thyatira was one of the smallest towns in the Roman Empire. Unlike Pergamos – an independent and self governed Roman Colony – Thyatira was considered unimportant. It was a small, throw away town that existed for one reason: it was a bumper, a buffer zone for more important places. It just didn’t matter to Rome, but it mattered to God, for God loves small things. God works with the humble, with those who love Him.

Proverbs 8:17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

I have heard people say “I prefer a small Church”.
Jesus prefers ANY Church of ANY size
That That Loves Him And honors God.

Jesus loves the small Church. His first Church had 12 disciples, of whom one was a devil. The eleven faithful went on to grow and become a church of 120, all praying together on the Day of Pentecost. That’s a small Church. Jesus loves a small Church, but Jesus also loves the large Church. Those 120 became 3000 before the day was over because the 120 honored the Son.

God blesses those who humbly follow Him.

Small Is Important To Jesus

Revelation 2:18-29 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God…

We have a tendency to think that SMALL means INSIGNIFICANT. That’s not true. Small is important to God. God says:

“This is the Word of the Lord to {His Servant}: Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord of hosts. Who are YOU, O great Mountain? Before {my Servant} you shall become a plain. Do not despise the day of small things … “ (Zechariah 4:6-7, 10 Author’s Paraphrase)

Jesus Christ addresses Thyatira. “I am the Son of God”. Who was Jesus? He is the Only Begotten Son of God. He was the King of Kings

Born in a manger amidst the stench and filth of animals.
Born in an unknown tiny place called Bethlehem.
Raised in a ridiculed small town named Nazareth.

Don’t you dare despise small things. The King of Heaven brought His Kingdom to this earth as a small baby. The largest man in this congregation was once a tiny baby held in a mother’s arms. Do not despise smallness. Thyatira was small, but Jesus was watching over it.

Revelation 2:18 These things saith the SON OF GOD, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;

Only here in Revelation is Jesus referred to as “Son of God”. He Jesus is watching little Thyatira – His eyes burn with passion! Oh how He loves His Church! His feet are like fine brass. He is with His Church and shall not be moved.

Jesus knows what it is like to be devalued. He was devalued by the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Sadduccees.

“By what AUTHORITY do You do these things, Jesus?”

What school did YOU go to? Which Rabbi APPROVED your words? How dare YOU question US? You are not of the Ruling Council. You are nothing, Jesus, Nothing! When some were told about Jesus they asked:

“Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

People thought Nazareth, and Bethelehem and Thyatira were unimportant, tiny places that did not matter. But Jesus was born into humanity in Bethlehem. He was raised to adulthood in Nazareth. Jesus looked at Thyatira with passion in His eyes. His feet were like fine brass, refined in fire. Jesus was not going to walk away from His people. He was with them. These were His people, people He had given His life for. Christ says to the world and the worldly:

Mark 9:19 … O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? …

but to His people He says:

Matthew 28:20 … lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Jesus stood with Thyatira, just as He stands with all the outcasts, the small, the devalued. The Bible says:

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (KJV) For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

Thyatira is not nothing because it is small. Jesus sees His people. He passionately died for us, and He passionately watches over us. He cannot be pushed away from His people. He tells Thyatira:

Revelation 2:19 I know thy works, and charity, and service^DIAKONIA, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

If you read what Jesus says to His Church you’ll see something very interesting. The Lord repeats Himself. He says “I know thy works …… and thy works, and the last to be more than the first”.

Though Thyatira Was Small She Was Growing In Works.
Every Church Should Be GROWING In WORKS.

Like the Church at Macedonia we studied last Wednesday this small Church was GROWING in its works. They were continually reaching out to do more things.

One of the greatest dangers to face any Church is COMFORT and SELFISHNESS. A Church can become apathetic, settled in its ways and in its traditions. This is what destroyed Judaism. When Jesus came He challenged their traditions. Jesus came rocking the boat, and wants His people to keep reaching out, to keep telling, to keep doing. To be a brighter and brighter lighthouse, not a fishbowl or a clubhouse. Thyatira worked for the Lord, and were working more and more every day for the Lord. Their works were not just works for works sake, but works in charity (love for others).

The word “SERVICE” is the Greek DIAKONIA which means “Ministry”. They were sharing the Gospel, showing their love for Christ and God’s Kingdom. They had “faith” in what they were doing, which is good, because the Bible tells us:

Hebrews 11:6 ^(KJV) But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Furthermore they were “patient”, the Greek HUPOMONE, a word that means “to rest in hope and not in hopelessness. To look upward. To trust in God”. So many Churches fail because they lose hope, but Thyatira – though small – had hope. And that’s a good thing!

The Problem With Smallness Is When We Devalue Ourselves

It looks as if Jesus is going to do nothing but praise Thyatira until we read verse 20:

Revelation 2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest (allow) 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.

What is going on here? Thyatira is a great Church, working for the Lord. Jesus is commending the Church, praising them for their works. But now He notes that Jezebel is among them. Who is Jezebel? Jezebel is the wife of King Ahab, one of the most wicked Kings Israel ever knew. A wicked King, he married a wicked Queen. Jezebel was like liquid poison. The Bible tells us that:

Jezebel cut off the Prophets of the LORD (1 Kings 18:4)

That means SHE HAD THEM KILLED. Jezebel hated God. She ran off or murdered anyone who stood up for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Scripture. Jezebel brought in BAAL WORSHIP, and ordained priests to spread their false teaching throughout the land. Had not faithful Obadiah hid 100 prophets in two caves, giving them food and water, the Faith of Abraham would have been wiped out of Israel. The Prophet Elijah stood against the 450 Prophets of BAAL on Mount Carmel, and wiped them all out by the Word of God.

Jezebel was wholly evil.

Jezebel demanded that the Israelites worship a false god, sacrificing their children to this evil. Jezebel would eventually be killed, and tossed from the wall of the palace. She was eaten by dogs (2 Kings 9:35-36), and they could find no more of her but her skull, her hands, and her feet. She died a grisley death.

But the spirit of Jezebel lives on, sometimes afflicting the Church of Christ. Jezebel was in the Church at Thyatira. Jesus said:

The spirit of Jezebel teaches and seduces. It leads to fornication, or sexual sin. The spirit of Jezebel teaches idolatry rather than glory to God. How can these things get in Christ’s Church?

Jezebel comes in when the small Church devalues itself.
The Church tolerates that which it should not have tolerated.
The spirit of Jezebel is infused through many local Churches today.

There are many who profess Christ today who are pro-choice on abortion. What does God have to say on this? When does life begin? What does the Scripture say? Many do not ask, nor care. They have tolerated Jezebel in order to increase to roll of the Church.

There are many who profess Christ today who are pro-sexual sin. They endorse homosexual and heterosexual sins. They do not agree with Jesus Himself Who said:

“Have you not read that at the beginning of creation God made them male and female? For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Mark 10:6; Matthew 19:4)

The majority of America has gone the way of progressivism, believing that all lines between the sexes are to be blurred and wiped out. This is Jezebel. Many Churches are becoming or have become more tolerant of that which God has said NO. Jezebel teaches Christ’s servants to commit fornication – sexual sin – and to fall into idolatry.

There are many who profess Christ today who believe there are many ways to God outside of Christ. This is idolatry. Just a few days ago megaChurch pastor Michael A. Walrond Jr said:

“Saying you’re going to hell if you don’t believe in Jesus is insanity.”

He leads the more than 10,000 member First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem. He went on to say:

“There was a time when you would see people in the pulpit say, ‘well, if you don’t believe in Jesus you going to Hell. That’s insanity in many ways because that is not what Jesus even believes. And so the key is you believe in God. And whatever your path is to God I celebrate that. Personally I celebrate that.”

This is Jezebel. Jesus said:

John 14:6 (KJV) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

And John wrote 1 John 5:11-12 (KJV) And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

An “all beliefs are ways to God” platform is not of the Scripture, but it is Jezebel. How does Jezebel get in a Church?

When The Small Church Chooses Human Methods
To Grow It May Move To Jezebel.

Years ago when Rick Warren and his book “The Purpose Driven Life” came out there was a push in Southern Baptist Life to do a “Forty Days of Purpose” campaign. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that Rick Warren is Jezebel, and I enjoyed reading the Purpose Driven Life. I try to live my life on purpose for Christ. But I didn’t feel led to lead our congregation to a “Forty Days” program. The Lord told me to just keep on preaching the Word – and I did. But I had a dear friend who bought into the “Forty Days” Purpose Driven program. He wanted his small Church to go from 50 to 500 or more. I prayed with my brother Jim that it would happen. We prayed together every week. At the end of Forty Days his Church had not grown, but actually decreased in size. Here’s what I want you all to understand.

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. (Psalm 127)

Jesus must build the Church. The Holy Spirit must save the people. There is no magic elixer or Jack and the Bean Stalk magic beans that will grow anything. Many Churches in order to grow have tolerated Jezebel and her Children. What did Jesus say of this?

Revelation 2:21-22 And I gave her {Jezebel} space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. 22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

The way to get on the dark side of Jesus is to tolerate Jezebel. Jezeus promised TRIBULATION to those who laid down with Jezebel. Jesus promised a LOSS of followers if Jezebel was allowed in the house. He said:

Revelation 2:23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

Toleration of Jezebel – not standing up with God as Elijah did – is what leads to the most horrendous evil. Elijah told the nation in Jezebel’s heyday:

1 Kings 18:21 ^(HCSB) … Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow him.” But the people didn’t answer him a word.

You can’t ride the fence. Riding the fence, Germany murdered 9 million people in concentration camps. Riding the fence our government – funded by Planned Parenthood – aborted 327,653 babies in 2013 and received 8 million tax dollars. Of these were 18,000 very late term abortions, children who screamed and cried as they were killed.

The Church of Jesus Christ needs to be like Elijah, like Joshua who said:

Joshua 24:14-15^(HCSB) “Therefore, fear the LORD and worship Him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship Yahweh. 15 But if it doesn’t please you to worship Yahweh, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.”

We need to lovingly stand up against Jezebel. We need to resist a redefinition of marriage and morality. We need to shine the light of Christ and His Gospel to whoever will hear.

We Will Conquer The World In Christ

Revelation 2:24-26 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this DOCTRINE, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. 25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. 26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, TO HIM WILL I GIVE POWER OVER THE NATIONS:

The Church that stands strong with Jesus in love and love of life will have power over the nations. That Church will rule. It will change society. It will make a difference.

Revelation 2:27-29 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

The power of evil and darkness is broken when righteousness stands up and says NO! Jesus says “I will give him the MORNING STAR”. What is “the Morning Star”?

Dr. Thomas Constable writes:

“John identified the “morning star” (v. 28) elsewhere as Jesus Christ Himself (22:16). The morning star (usually the planet Venus) appears in the night sky, just before the dawning of a new day. From Babylonian to Roman times, the ancients regarded the morning star as a symbol of sovereignty and, in Roman times, victory.

Jesus Christ will guide faithful believers in the future, as the new day of His rule dawns (cf. Titus 2:13; Dan. 12:3). “The gift of the morning star must refer to the fact that the exalted Christ shares his messianic status with the believer who conquers.”

“To ‘grant the morning-star’ . . . means . . . to make the dawn of salvation or of life eternal shine on him after his dark afflictions.”

Christ stands with His people – but we must stand with Him.

May God touch your hearts with His Word.