Feeding the Lambs - Rolling Over

"I know your deeds—your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance—and your latter deeds are greater than your first."

Written by the Apostle John, 1st century

Revelation 2:19

[36th message of the New Believer Series]

In the last three messages of this series, we already read what the Lord have said to three different churches that was mentioned in the Book of Revelation (as revealed to and written by the Apostle John).

In the excerpt above, John is writing what the Lord is feeling about the believers in the first church in Thyatira (like the ones from the previous messages, this was a church back in the 1st century, in a place now located in modern day Turkey).

[These messages also have become a mini series of "He Who Has Ears"]

The passage above (directed towards the church in Thyatira) is an excerpt of the longest and the sternest message.

Cautious

This message will also be the longest expansion of any of the messages to those who have ears in the churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation. More importantly, this will be the most carefully written as I am deliberately being more careful than normal on this particular message and taking as much time as the Spirit leads. 

So the excerpt above is the first part of this message. The succeeding parts to it is as follows:

"But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols. Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling."

False Prophetess

So apparently the believers in this church even though they were doing what they were supposed to be doing, they were rolling over to one person, looking the other way and letting her get away with pushing a wrong teaching and a wrong deed (whether they know that these were wrong, we don't know, but it's hard to justify that they didn't know).

Now God being who He is, has given this person time to change her ways (also how long a time we do not know) but nonetheless she didn't want to change.

Warning

The verses following the passage above is a grave warning to this church and it goes like this:

"Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds. Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds."

Now we can see what the Lord is planning to do with this person who was and didn't want to stop "misleading" the believers of this church. And God is also including those she are misleading. And none of it are pretty.

The Rest of the Church

The following are the next verses:

"But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned the so-called deep things of Satan: I will place no further burden upon you."

So even though the rest of the believers in this church were being spared from this "coming" tribulation, they played a role in enabling this prophetess and allowed these abominations to happen.

When the message said 'no further burden', it would mean they already have gone through burdens.

[Jezebel is the name of the notorious wife of King Ahab of ancient Israel, whose deeds brought destruction on herself, her husband the king and his kingdom -- this is being repeated here]

This prophetess who was supposed to be receiving prophecies from the Spirit of God was actually listening instead to a counterfeit spirit, one who may be describing itself as the Holy Spirit but its teachings betray that. The teachings it is espousing are satanic in nature.

So here we could see that satan has entered into this church and has gained a foothold (deceiving and leading them into destruction) because the believers there were deceived and that the pastor (overseer) of this church along with those who were walking with the Holy Spirit, tolerated these satanic teachings and allowed them to happen (rolling over with the enemy of God, in a symbolic way they rolled over, giving up enough space to share their bed with the enemy who was doing and teaching things against God).

He Who Has Ears

There were a few more verses but like the previous messages, this passage again ends with:

"He (or she) who has an ear, let him (her) hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

As we've said this is the sternest of these 'He who has ears' messages and God really was serious about dealing with this person who was misleading the believers (both old and new believers) of this church.

Listen Up

The scary thing is that there will always be people like this who will mislead believers and this warning is as important in the 1st century as it is in the century we live in.

So let us not be unaware or oblivious to this and also let us be sensitive to what the Lord is trying to tell us in the Scriptures and through the gentle proddings of His Spirit.

If anyone is directly disrespecting the Spirit of God, then this prophet or this teacher is not of God. Yes let us open not just our ears so we can hear, but also open our eyes so we can see and open our minds so we can understand what is in play here.

The enemy has brought people into the church to deceive, and to cause believers to stumble in their walk with Christ. It will use anything and anyone to achieve this.

The New Believers Series

Church of the Lost Sheep 2012