I’m working on my garden. It’s that time. It’s not much: a few herbs here, some tomatoes in pots, there. All the more reason, that I’m spending more time this year with soil prep—composting, to be exact. I want rich soil, minus sneaky weed seeds that can slip into the dirt. The right environment, free from contaminants, is important especially if you’re growing a small garden and …a small church, or any church for that matter. That’s why a pastor I heard about used a clever “show and tell” to make this point to this congregation so they would get it.
He took four cans and put a worm in each can. He put a worm in the first can full of whiskey; he put a worm in the second can full of cigarette smoke; he put a worm in the third can full of chocolate. He put a worm in the fourth can full of rich dirt. Then he preached on love. At the end of the sermon, he opened up the cans to show the congregation. The worm in the whiskey can was dead: the worm in the cigarette smoke was dead; the worm in the chocolate was dead. But the worm in the good soil was alive.
Then, he asked the congregation what did they learned. Marge, the cranky, hard living elderly woman who always sat in the back, raised her hand. “I learned that if you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won’t get worms. She missed it.
Without the right environment, compromise—like weeds—can crop in and choke a church like the Church at Thyatira.
“Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?” Innocent children sing. Wiser adults ask a more serious question: How does the church grow? How will God judge the growing, yet, compromising church?
That is the question facing Thyatira in Rev. 2:18-27, one of the seven churches in Asia, Christ evaluated. There were weeds in Thyatira’s Garden.
As we march toward Easter, we continue our Lenten Church Series: Lent—it’s not what you give up, but what you gain. Thyatira is the fourth church we have looked within and looked forward to see what they needed to give up so that they would gain something better in return. We’ll see in Thyatira, the right environment of a growing church; the weeds of a compromising church, and the possible blooms of a repenting church. Don’t miss it like Marge. It’s not worms, but the weeds that will ruin the garden.
First, keep growing in the right environment, Christian virtues that make you the Church Christ is looking to pick from. Thyatira, like a garden with the right environment, was growing in Christian virtues. We see that in verse 19:
I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. Revelation 2:19
Every gardener has expectations. I plant tomatoes this spring. I expect tomatoes this summer. Christ is no different. He expects organic Christian virtues—free from contaminates—from his Christian church. And Christ, described with eyes like flaming fire in verse 18, saw four virtues growing in Thyatira’s Garden.
First, there was love in their garden. Unlike Ephesus who had lost their loving feeling—it was gone, gone, gone—Thyatira was practicing a practical love. Christ saw agape—God’s preferred love—the doable love of 1 Corinthians 13: a love that is patient; kind; does not envy; does not boast; is not rude; is not selfish; is not easily angered; a love that does not keep score. God saw love in Thyatira’s deeds.
Second, there was faith in Thyatira’s Garden. Thyatira was the smallest church, but Christ, with laser-fire eyes, saw their mountain-moving faith as they faced the same monumental persecutions that the other six churches faced that come with being a Christian church in a pagan land. Christ makes it clear in Mathew 17:20, that it’s not the size of your faith that matters; it’s the object: “…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.” Thyatira’s faith was in Jesus.
Third, there was service in their garden. Christ saw they were living out their Christian liberty, not as an opportunity for the flesh, but to serve others through love according to Galatians 5:13 that we saw last week in admonishing the Pergamum Church. We don’t know the specifics of their service. But it was enough for Christ to see. And He sees your service, as well: collecting food stuffs for the homeless.
Fourth, there was perseverance in their garden. Christ saw a “faint not” quality in their faith. They did not grow weary in their “well-doing”, according to Galatians 6:9., “for in due season they will reap if they faint not” from their garden work. Church, God doesn’t reward “seasonal’ Christians, but “due season” believers who stay until it’s their time, even to the end like Polycarp and Antipas—martyrs who were faithful even unto death. God sees your perseverance.
These virtues: love, faith, service and perseverance were not just present, they were growing in Thyatira’s Garden. With laser-laser eyes, he saw a moving forward church deepening, whose “deeds of late are greater than at first”. Notice Christ did not say “your membership rolls are greater or your square footage is greater.” Growth is not about membership, but maturity in what Peter describes as “…growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” according to II Peter 3:18. It’s not how wide, but how deep you are planted when floods come.
Church, as you look within yourself this Lenten season, ask, “How does your garden grow?”, not “With silver bells and cockle shells and Pretty maids all dressed in a row,” as the nursery rhyme goes. Christ is looking for more than ornaments, but organic, living, growing, Christian virtues worth the picking.
Second, keep out the compromises that can choke out Christian virtues of a growing garden. Thyatira let compromise, like a poisonous weed, invade their garden. We see that in verses 20 and 21:
But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21 'And I gave her time to repent; and she does not want to repent of her immorality.
That weed was a woman within the church—like Jezebel—who influenced the church to compromise. Here is some important background.
She was not the first Jezebel, but very much like the first. Jezebel-1 is found in 1Kings 16. Her name “Jezebel” means “chaste”, but she was far from it. A foreigner, she married weak King Ahab of Israel, persuaded him to introduce Baal worship. She had a man killed to take his garden and give it to her weak and whiney husband. She had most of God’s prophets killed at her command. She was a bad weed.
So was the second Jezebel (not her real name) of Thyatira. It is believed this woman was an influential business woman. She promoted membership in trade guilds—unions if you will—that Thyatira was known for. The problem was that these guilds participated in pagan rituals and sexual immorality as part of their meetings. The dilemma then, was this: be a virtuous Christian or be a successful business man and a participant in the immorality of the guilds to do business. To put it in a more graphic picture: Jezebel encouraged the deacons to meet at the strip club to conduct business. To make a living, you had to “make it rain”. Get the picture?
It is believed that this pro-guild Jezebel was none other than Lydia of Philippi fame—a founding member of that church—who was a very successful dealer of purple cloth and dyes that Thyatira was also known for. She moved back to Thyatira from Philippi and moved her business ethics into the church culture. Make a buck by any means necessary. In doing so, she influenced on the church to compromise holiness for a heafty, albeit tainted, profit and lost statement.
Despite given opportunity to repent, she would not relent in her mafia-like strong arm tactics. So Christ, whose laser-focused eyes would not turn a blind eye to Jezebel’s poisonous, and all who followed her, warned there will be harsh judgment. We see that in verses 22, 23.
Revelation 2:22-23 22 'Behold, I will cast her upon a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. 23 'And I will kill her children with pestilence; and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
Like the first Jezebel who had her judgement day when she fell from a tower and dogs ate her remains, the Thyatira woman will have her day. Her and all those in hiding in her weeds will reap what they sow.
Church, many a compromise in the church has roots in free enterprise where “free” means free to behave like the world for the “money, money, money, money, dollar ‘y’all.” God has called the church “to be ye holy as I am holy”, not “be ye profitable as I am profitable.” Look within. Address your compromise. It may not be profit. It might be pride, or passion or poker. Whatever it is, repent. Weed it out. The cost is too high for the loss of your bloom. Weeds will choke a garden.
Finally, for the Church who holds on to virtue, you can look forward to the promises of better blooms. We see two promises of blooms who holds on to virtue. We see that in verses 25-28:
25 'Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. 26 'And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations… 28 and I will give him the morning star. Revelation 2:25,26,28
First, Christ promises a future shared authority to rule over great inheritance in the New Heaven and New earth according to Psalms. 2:8,9. Nothing will be denied you all you have to do is ask.
You won’t have to belong to a guild who calls the shots. As co-regents with Christ, you won’t be low man on the totem pole as Thyatira was among the seven churches of Asia Minor. Your bloom will rule in the Garden and the Garden to come. You will set the rules based on your virtues of love, faith, service and perseverance. You won’t be bored, sitting on a cloud, strumming a harp. You will be busy serving the new heavens and new earth absent of weeds.
Second, Christ promises the church who holds on, a shared glory as bright as the morning star. As Christ is the “bright and morning star” of Revelations 22, you will be a star, brighter than any sun. You are already His lampstand—a beacon to the world. But some day you will be fully revelation and glory.
Until then, be the brightest bloom in the garden so that when the world sees you, reveal Christ. Be the light that sits on a hill that cannot be hid under a bed. When the world sees you struggle, yet overcome, you shine as a beacon for other who suffers, who want to be overcomers as well. Be the star that you are now. Hold on and bloom.
As we march toward Easter, continue to look within and look forward through the lens of Christ Lenten Churches, look within, like Thyatira, and see your Christian virtues and grow in them. Keep growing. Nurture that environment. Also look even deeper within your garden for weeds of compromise that choke out virtue. Repent and weed out. Then, look forward to blooms of a Lenten Church: the ultimate authority to serve and glory to shine.
Until then, maybe we’d be wise to listen to Marge, as well. So, drink, smoke and eat chocolate. It’s not worms, but the weeds that can ruin the garden. But when you trust the Great Gardener and all His handy work, you won’t have to be like “Mary, Mary, who was quite contrary" regarding “how did her garden did grow.” We can be assured, the Garden beyond God’s first Eden, will be an awesome wonder. That's why I sing:
"Oh Lord, my God, When I, in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, how great Thou art, how great Thou art."
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