SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/4/2015
5:04 PM
My Worship Time
Focus:
The Church, City & Commendation
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
2:18a-19
Message of the
verses: “The Church in Thyatira” (Rev.
2:18a).
I believe that we have looked at Acts 19:10 when we dealt
with both Smyrna and Pergamum, in that neither of these churches was seen
earlier in the New Testament. It is
believed that when Paul spent much time in Ephesus that there were daughter
churches that sprang up from the church in Ephesus and this likely was the case
with Thyatira. “This took place for two
years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and
Greeks (Acts 19:10).” Now other than the
three times Thyatira is mentioned in the book of Revelation there is only one
other time that Thyatira is mentioned in the entire NT: “Ac 16:14 A woman named Lydia, from the city
of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and
the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” Paul was in Philippi, when Lydia came to know
the Lord as seen in Acts 16:14. It is
possible that Lydia had something to do with the beginnings of this church but
we don’t know for sure.
The City (Revelation 2:18b): “Thyatira.”
Pergamum was the city that was the furthest North of the
seven cities and then you go east and then southeast you get to Thyatira which
was around 40 miles away.
The
early history, before the Roman Empire saw the city of Thyatira being taken
over many different times because of the location that it was in as the area
was rather flat and not on top of a hill like Pergamum was, in fact early on there
was an outpost there to stop invaders from getting to Pergamum, but because of
its location it did little good.
When Rome took over Thyatira came benefited by the Roman
peace and began to grow. As far as
religions in Thyatira there was not many ‘gods’ they worshiped other than
Apollo, the sun god and we mentioned this in our first SD on Thyatira. Thyatira was famous for its guilds, which are
like our labor unions and there were many in this city. Thyatira was famous for wool and dyed goods,
especially purple goods which were dyed from the purple extracted from the madder
root. One of the many guilds was the one
that had to do with the garments, and these guilds each had their gods that
they worshiped and in order to be a member of these guilds one had to worship
their certain god, which of course that Christians could not do. John MacArthur writes “To hold a job or run a
business, it was necessary to be a member of a guild. Each guild had its patron deity, in whose
honor feasts were held—complete with meat sacrificed to idols and sexual
immorality. Christians faced the dilemma
of attending those feast or possibly losing their livelihood. How some in the Thyatira church were handling
the situation caused the Lord Jesus Christ great concern.”
The Commendation (Revelation 2:19): “’I know your deeds, and your love and faith
and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.”
As in the churches of Ephesus and Pergamum our Lord gave
commendation to those in this church. He
told them that He had not forgotten their righteous deeds and He would divide
them into four categories. On the note
about their good deeds and the Lord not forgetting them let us look at Hebrews
6:10 “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you
have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to
the saints.”
First we see that the believers in Thyatira were showing
love for God and for one another. We see
from this that Thyatira was strong where Ephesus was weak, and this is the
first of the seven churches to be commended for its love.
Second Christ commends them for their faith and MacArthur
writes “pistis (‘faith’) is better
translated ‘fidelity,’ or faithfulness.’
The true Christians in Thyatira were dependable, reliable, and
consistent (cf. v. 25). Faith and love
are frequently linked in the New Testament.”
My memory verses have been from 2 Peter 1:5-10 and verses
five through seven give a progression of qualities that believers are to
follow: “5 ¶ Now for this very reason also, applying all
diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence,
knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge,
self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance,
godliness, 7 and in your godliness,
brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.” We can see from this progression that out of
faith and love grows service and perseverance.
MacArthur writes “Those who love will express that love through meeting
the needs of others. Those who are
faithful will steadfastly preserver in faith.”
We see in this verse that they are growing in their walk
with the Lord as their loving service continued to grow stronger. “They were growing in grace, maturing in
their Christian lives, and advancing the cause of Christ (cf. 2 Peter
1:8). For that behavior they were to be
commended.” (John MacArthur.)
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I mentioned in
one of the first SD’s of this New Year that our “Seniors” Pastor challenged us
at the end of last year with a number of choices to do better in 2015, and the
one that I am focusing on is loving the Lord in a more biblical way, which is
what I can see that these believers were doing.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength and to better understand the love He has for me.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Peter 1:8-10.
8 For if these qualities
are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in
the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having
forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more
diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you
practice these things, you will never stumble.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “To keep the people from going
to Jerusalem to worship” (1 Kings 12:26-28).
Today’ Bible question: “For what was faith reckoned unto Abraham?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/4/2015 6:05 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment