Rev. Jared Buss
Pittsburgh New Church; May 12, 2024
Readings: Matthew 7:24-27 (children’s talk);
Revelation 2:18-29; Doctrine of Faith §36; Apocalypse Revealed §132
Today we continue our sermon series on the seven churches from the book of Revelation. Our focus today is on the fourth church, which is called Thyatira. All seven of these churches take their names from historical cities that were centers of the early Christian church. But in the spiritual sense of the Word, the seven churches symbolize everyone throughout the Christian world who is called to the Lord’s New Church (AR §§41, 68, 69, 88, 153). So they symbolize all of the different qualities or states of mind that will be found within the Lord’s church. In the descriptions of some of these churches we might recognize portraits of ourselves. Some of them might strike us as portraits of our neighbors. One way or another, all of the people described in the Lord’s letters to the churches are called to His kingdom.
In the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Church, in the book Apocalypse Revealed, we’re told that Thyatira symbolizes, “people who are governed by a faith arising from charity, and so are engaged in good works; and also … people who are governed by a faith divorced from charity, and so are engaged in evil works” (§124). What stands out right away is that Thyatira encompasses two really different kinds of people. The three churches that we’ve looked at in previous sermons have each symbolized a single, homogenous, mentality. Ephesus stands for people who value doctrine more than charity. Smyrna stands for people who value charity, but whose doctrine is false. Pergamos stands for people who want to do good, and have little time for doctrine. But in Thyatira you have people with charity, who do good works; and you have people with no charity, who do evil works. What they have in common is faith. Faith is the defining characteristic of this church. When we talk about Thyatira, we’re talking about people who place great value in faith.
With that in mind, let’s turn to the book of Revelation, to hear what the Lord says in His letter to the church of Thyatira. We read: [2:18-29].
The letter to Thyatira starts on a really good note. The Lord says, “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first” (v. 19). The people of Thyatira are praised for their love, service, faith and patience—if the Lord tells you that you’re doing all of those things well, that means you’re in good shape. The bit about Thyatira’s last works being more than her first means that her good works are increasing and improving. Her love and faith are more than they were at first. That’s another really good sign. Thyatira—or at least the good half of Thyatira—is alive and growing (AR §130).
Thyatira’s failing is that some of her people are under the influence of Jezebel. Jezebel was a queen of Israel. She was the wife of Ahab, and Ahab and Jezebel were infamously wicked rulers. In the first book of Kings we read, “But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up” (21:25). Of course, Jezebel was never literally present in Thyatira—by the time the book of Revelation was written, she had been dead for a thousand years. So it’s clear that she symbolizes some sort of spiritual force that sways the minds of the people of Thyatria. In the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Church, we’re told that she stands for faith that is divorced from charity (AR §132).
We’ll talk about why she has this symbolism in a little while. For now I want to paint a picture of Thyatira as a whole. Thyatira is defined by its faith, and you could say that the point of the letter to Thyatira is that faith can be a heavenly thing or a seductive and destructive thing—and that for this reason, we need to look closely when we encounter something that calls itself faith. Faith that is divorced from charity, or faith alone, is an evil queen that leads us into evil. But faith that is joined to charity is heavenly. In the light of heaven there’s no confusing the two, but we don’t always see in the light of heaven. It can be difficult for our eyes to see the difference between real faith and the faith that is called Jezebel.
This applies to the way we look at our fellow Christians: people who say that they believe in salvation by faith alone might be in a faith that is divorced from charity, but they might not be. They might be people who preach faith and do the works of charity. The Lord says “you will know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16).
But what we really need to pay attention to is the character of our own faith, and to the things that we might be hiding under the cloak of faith. We all know that someone who willfully does evil in the name of God, or in the name of faith, is not a genuinely faithful person. Nobody wants to be in faith that is divorced from charity—which is the same thing as faith that is joined to evil. No one choses to identify as a servant of Jezebel. But we could be under her influence anyway. It’s easy for God-fearing, church-going people to tell themselves that because they are God-fearing, church-going people, the evil they do doesn’t really carry any weight. “Yes, I lied when I did my taxes, but that doesn’t actually mean that I’m a liar and a thief.” “Yes, I spoke to that person with anger and with no self-restraint, but that doesn’t actually mean that I was motivated by selfishness or by cruelty. I’m a good person, because I’m a faithful person.” Something to bear in mind is that the faith called Jezebel presents itself to us as something legitimate. The historical Jezebel was the queen of Israel, which means that the evil she did was done in the name of the law, under a veneer of righteousness. A lot of the evil that happens in this world has a veneer of righteousness painted over it. When we reflect on our own behavior, we need to make an effort to look past the veneer.
But anyone who has any familiarity with the teachings of the New Church is well aware that divorcing faith from charity is a problem. The Heavenly Doctrine makes this point over and over and over. Because of this, people who are familiar with the teachings of the New Church might be good at rejecting Jezebel—and they might be inclined to go too far in the opposite direction. They might be inclined to hold faith too lightly, because they might be under the impression that whenever we treat faith like it’s important, that’s separating faith from charity. But that doesn’t actually follow. Faith in the Lord really matters. Why else would the Lord tell us in so many different places in the Gospel that we can be healed if we believe in Him, or that we will be saved if we believe in Him? Our next reading is from the Heavenly Doctrine, from the book Doctrine of Faith: [§36].
Believing in the Lord brings about conjunction with the Lord, and that conjunction is what makes salvation possible. In other words, the Lord is the one who saves us: the Lord is the one who delivers us from evil, and causes us to be born again. We can’t possibly do these things on our own. We didn’t “make” ourselves be born, and we can’t “make” ourselves be born again. We need the Lord. And faith is the recognition of that truth. Faith is the recognition that we need our God. And more than that, faith is the recognition that if we go to Him, we will be okay. Without Him we’re lost, but if He is present in our lives, He will lead us to joy. So the reading said that “to believe in Him is to be confident that He will save” (Faith §36).
Faith is important because it’s what impels us to look up and call out to the one person in all the universe that we need the most. But of course, faith in God that stays tucked away in a corner of our heads is really just a mockery of faith. Believing something means nothing if we don’t act on that belief. How can we claim to believe in God if we don’t live as He says to live? He says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). So the reading from the Doctrine of Faith says that believing in the Lord also means living rightly (§36). The church of Thyatira is praised for its faith in God—and also for its love, its service, and its patience (Rev. 2:19). Because real faith is inseparable from those things.
Earlier we heard the parable of the man who builds his house on the rock. In the Psalms we read that the Lord is our Rock (e.g. 62:6). So building on the rock must symbolize believing in Him. In the teachings of the New Church we’re told that the rock stands for the Lord’s Divine truth (AE §§411.11, 644.24). So building on the rock must symbolize believing in His truth. And it does. But He says, “whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt. 7:24). The Lord is the Rock; to build on the rock is to believe in Him. But we can’t build on the Rock unless we also do as He says. Then—and only then—are we safe from the storms of hell.
With this description of real faith fresh in our minds, we’re going to go back to what the Word says about Jezebel, and look at why she symbolizes the thing she does. We read: [AR §132].
Jezebel symbolizes faith that is divorced from charity. It’s easy to get the impression that faith becomes divorced from charity when we fail to do charitable things. To a certain extent that’s true. But according to the passage that we just read, Jezebel doesn’t symbolize faith divorced from charity because of the nice things that she failed to do, or because of the false things that she taught people. She symbolizes faith that is divorced from charity because she did evil things.
Everyone who is trying to follow the Lord will sometimes fail to be who they want to be. Everyone who is trying to follow the Lord will sometimes feel that they don’t love their neighbor the way they should. That gap between where we are and where our faith says we should be isn’t what makes us servants of Jezebel. Jezebel symbolizes a voice within us that gives us permission to overlook our own evils. The historical Jezebel served Baal, and the reading says that to serve Baal is, “to serve lusts of every kind… by giving no thought to any evil lust or any sin” (AR §132). Faith is a powerful thing, and for that reason, evil likes to co-opt it and use it as a shield. Faith is never the problem; there’s no such thing as too much faith. We need the Lord, and to know it and call out to Him is a blessed thing. But evil likes to use faith as a cloak. If we want to escape from Jezebel, the question to ask is, “What bad things am I doing, and giving myself permission to ignore?”
In His letter to Thyatira, the Lord urges those who follow Jezebel to repent (Rev. 2: 22). But to the rest in Thyatira—those who do not have Jezebel’s doctrine—He says something different: “Hold fast what you have till I come” (vv. 24, 25). If we live our faith, and shun evils as sins in the name of God, then faith in God is all we need. All we need to do is hold on to Him. The Lord says, “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations… and I will give him the morning star” (Rev. 2:26, 28).
Amen.