1. Everyone within a four-acre area turned in their clothing to be decontaminated.

2. Each person was thoroughly examined to ensure that they had not inhaled or ingested any plutonium.

3. The processing plant and nearby research reactor were completely shut down.

4. Buildings were washed with strong detergent - and all the buildings’ roofs were resurfaced.

5. The surrounding lawn was dug up and the sod carried to a deep burial place a long distance away.

6. One hundred yards of the surface of a nearby asphalt road, were chiseled off.

7. To anchor the slightest speck of plutonium that might have remained, every building was totally repainted with a heavy-duty substance.

The total cost of this renovation and cleaning process in 1959 was $350,000! All for 1/50th of an ounce of plutonium...of danger that could not be tolerated.

Jesus talks to a church where a small amount of poison has a tremendous destructive impact. Listen to what Jesus needed to do to rid Thyatira of its danger, from Revelation 2:18-29. This is the longest of Jesus’ letters to the seven churches. It is written to the least important of the seven, as far as its location appears. So why the paradox? Why did Jesus feel the church at Thyatira was still important enough to be chastised and encouraged? Well, obviously from this reading, we learn that Thyatira was the most corrupt of the seven churches.

The city of Thyatira was not a great religious center, as are a few of our other cities we will visit and about which we will learn. However, it was a great commercial center, partly because the roads which passed through its valley brought half the world’s trade to her, and partly because it was a great center of the wool-dye industry. As it happens, Thyatira was the birthplace of Lydia. You may remember Lydia as the seller of purple cloth, who was the Apostle Paul’s first convert to Jesus Christ - in all of Europe (Acts 16:14).

Thyatira’s great commercial center also included a center of weavers, leather-workers, potters and bronze-workers. It has been said that Thyatira possessed more trade-guilds (sort of like unions today) than any other town her size in Asia. And here we have what would seem to be the danger which threatened the Church at Thyatira. You see, Trade guilds in these situations were part of the pagan cult. They were thought necessary to ensure unity of the separate guilds as a family. The members met for their type of worship, discussed trade matters, which was then followed with a business dinner. Now the food and wine served at these dinners would, no doubt, have been first offered to the pagan gods. These dinners began and ended with ritual orgies. I am glad that is not the draw for my husband Richard going to his union meetings. But seriously, the orgies included ritual fornication - that is sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other. It was believed this would effect better understanding between the members of the guild. It also ensured absolute mystery, and that the trade secrets be contained within the members of the guild. So the trade guilds were a powerful influence. With that influence, came pressure - even persecution - against the Christian believers who would not join a trade guild and participate in those events. To refuse to join one of these guilds meant committing business suicide...as well as spiritual compromise.

To add injury to insult, a great problem and threat to the Church at Thyatira arises from inside the Church. This threat centers around a woman whom Jesus calls Jezebel. That may not be her real name - but that is what Jesus calls her. Jesus loves nicknames - good ones, like for Peter - "The Rock" and bad ones like Jezebel.
Some background on the original Jezebel of over 900 years before this time is interesting and I think necessary. That first Jezebel was the daughter of the King of Sidon, a Phoenician, and the wife of Ahab, King of Israel (I Kings 16:31). Her people were successful merchant marines. Jezebel’s sin was that she brought with her to Israel her own pagan gods, including Baal. Jezebel insisted that the Israelites worship Baal, along with their own God, Jahweh. After all, she did not want to destroy Jahweh worship. She "simply" wanted to work out a co-existence between her god and the God of the Israelites.

This is when the prophet Elijah did battle with 480 of these false prophets of Baal up on Mount Carmel. The false prophets failed in their attempt to call down fire from their god Baal to consume a sacrificial bull on the altar. Then it was Elijah’s turn to call upon God. And did God send the requested fire from heaven. God’s fire consumed not only the sacrifice on the altar, but the wood fuel, the stones of the altar, the dust of the ground around it, and the water Elijah had poured over all of it. When Jezebel learned of the humiliation and defeat of Baal and his prophets, she attempted to have Elijah murdered. She did a few other nasty things and you can read about her in I Kings. That Jezebel was ruthless, godless, calculating, and power-mad. It has been said she was the most evil and loathsome woman of the Old Testament.

Now at Thyatira, at the end of the First Century, a new Jezebel emerges. While her name may or may not be Jezebel, but rather, the nickname Jesus gives her, her true character is indicated and is fully known to the people in this church. She is a true Jezebel in her character and actions. She is influential, domineering and obviously depraved. She promotes immorality and idolatry with a veneer that Jesus calls "deep things of Satan," that is, Satan’s attempt to make wrong seem right. What made this new Jezebel worse was that she is apparently a member of that Church at Thyatira. She is from inside the church and she teaches and models that it is alright to compromise one’s Godly standards with the world’s standards... in this case, in the interest of business and commercial prosperity. She promotes that it is alright to join the trade guilds and participate in all the wrong things they practice. She promotes compromise.
Now those who commit adultery with her are "those who follow her bad example and leading." These are the ones who toy with and play around with and think about accepting what she teaches. They are the people who are playing with plutonium and lie to themselves and others about its poisonous affect. And then Her children, that Jesus refers to, are those who have accepted her teachings and have yielded to her way of life, a compromise - the forbidden way.

As you can tell most of this is a letter of warning and criticism. Most of the other churches were being attacked by false Jews, pagan worshipers, or perhaps they were growing complacent in their own Christianity. But here, Thyatira is the worst kind of church. It tolerates the attack and the attacker from the inside. The poison has worked its way to the center. This was like taking the choicest, shiniest, reddest apple from the bowl. Then biting into it and finding not only a soft brown interior, but a worm. Or worse, half a worm.
Pastor and writer, Ray Stedman, observes, "Wherever there are domineering, power-seeking "church bosses" like Thyatira’s Jezebel; wherever Christians begin to accommodate themselves to the moral laxity and impurity of the surrounding society; wherever Christians slip into the idolatrous mind set of allowing ambition, self-gratification, and pride to remove God from the throne of their lives; wherever church structure becomes more important than Christian love, service, faith, and perseverance — at that point — that church, regardless of its denomination or its history, has become Thyatiran in character. The Lord will repay that church according to its deeds (God’s Final Word, pg 63)."

So what is the repayment or punishment of the deeds of church at Thyatira? Bear in mind that whatever the exact nature of the judgment, it is so strong and vivid and it is announced beforehand by Christ. So that when it does occur, not just Thyatira, but "all the churches" will know that Jesus is the one who searches hearts and minds, because they, too, (we, too) will read the same letter and hear of the outcome. It is important to note that Christ’s punishment is for three different parties, each distinct. This is where Jesus plays hardball.

The first party, of course, is Jezebel. Jezebel will be punished. The "bed of suffering" that this instigator will be thrown upon is not a pleasant one. It is one of anguish, perhaps even a physical infirmity. This bed of suffering is seen as an inducement to recognize the sin and to repent of it. Jesus even says He has given her a chance to repent of her sin. What a contrast to all the times Jesus raised people from their beds of sufferings and gave them new, renewed life in Him. You see, not all suffering is a result of sin. Granted, there are those who must finally look up - from their bed - whatever their bed! They must finally look up to recognize God - is God.

The second group to be punished includes those "who commit adultery with her." This is the group that has chosen to follow; to turn from God’s ways, to practice the corrupt ideas and acts that Jezebel teaches. These will be punished with "great tribulation" - that is, a crushing trials or suffering- unless they repent of her ways, at once; immediately! Remember, Jezebel is not attacked and condemned by Jesus because she is a woman and a prophetess; but rather because of her teachings - her heresy - her ways that are forbidden.

The third group to receive judgment from Jesus is directed against Jezebel’s children. This is not a reference to her physical children, rather those who are her "spiritual" children - her devoted followers. They have absorbed her teaching, live it out, and now are teaching others to do the same. Their punishment is that they will be killed - that is, die a horrible death.

This is shock treatment through words from Jesus. It may seem at first glance that the result of tolerance of sinfulness and idolatry is a bit heavy-handed. Is it a bit heavy-handed to keep that 1/50th of an ounce of poison at bay? However, that heavy-handedness is necessary to keep the record straight. It is something like what would happen if a youthful offender, who has broken the law but because of the circumstances of age would normally not be sentenced by the court to an adult prison.

But imagine if that same youthful offender were taken into a state prison like the California State Penitentiary at San Quentin and left in that environment for a few days to observe for himself the terrifying loneliness, constant physical danger, and brutalization that really takes over the human soul in a maximum security prison. He is shocked by the caustic and destructive end that awaits a life of crime. Though such a warning is heavy-handed and harsh, the goal is to produce a shock reaction for his benefit and in his best interests. An this heavy-handed shock treatment was for the ultimate benefit of all the churches.

And yet, through all this, there is still Good News. Amazingly, there is still hope. Hope that they might be spared God’s final judgment. Hope, because the Lord is gracious and always leaves the door of repentance and forgiveness open. Christ was giving the church at Thyatira and all churches today a chance of purification through judgment and discipline. A pure church is a strong church. The more aware we are of our weaknesses and hidden areas of sin, the more alert we become to sin’s contaminating power in our lives. We are better able to arm ourselves against temptation and to guard ourselves against becoming conformed to the dying world around us.

And remember from the reading, Jesus tells us and the faithful at the church at Thyatira, that He knows of their works. He is specific in this. It is interesting to note that His words go in pairs. Love leads to service. If we love God, we will serve His people. We just will not be able to help ourselves. Service is the visible sign, the outward expression, of a heart full of love.
Faith leads to perseverance. If we have faith, we will persevere. We understand more and more that God is in control of all the circumstances of life and things will always work out for God’s good purpose. When we have faith, we keep at our work. We do not quit! We do not compromise God’s standards.

It is like Jesus is saying: "If you claim to have Christian love in your heart, you can only prove it by showing that you have Christian service in your life. If you claim to have Christian faith in your soul, you can only prove that by living a life which triumphantly overcomes the world." It has been said that is the way churches grow: People are always attracted by the reality of Christian love, the heartfelt compassion of Christian service, the stirring hope of Christian faith, the challenging example of Christian perseverance. People who stand outside the church and see such qualities being lived out in the name of Jesus are like hungry children standing outside the window of an ice cream shop with their noses pressed against the glass. They earnestly desire what they see inside.
What do those standing outside our windows see? My prayer is that what is seen is more than busy people and the bustling activity of our many fine programs and events. But also people doing what Jesus tells us to do. We are to hold on to our moral standards. We are not to tolerate what is intolerable. Jesus is aware it is difficult to live for Him in a worldly and corrupt church. But we are to remain faithful to Him. God wants to be able to give us the crown He has planned for us. Jesus tells us to listen to what He says, and grow in that knowledge. And we are to be stronger in our love and faith and that which comes from them. We are to be stronger than when we first began. God hates neutrality. God does not share His glory. God wants and deserves our total faithfulness.