Series: “To the Angel of the Church at Tomoka:
Christ’s Message for His Church Today”
#4 “Sin: Just the Nose of the Camel”
James 1:14-15 and Revelation 2:18-29 (NIV)
By John Gill ~ February 2, 2025
Today we reach the midpoint of our sermon series (the fourth of seven). The premise of this series is that Christ’s message to these seven ancient churches of Asia Minor might have application for us today. Over the past three Sundays, we have found this premise to be true: 1) From the church at Ephesus we heard the warning – don’t let your passion for Christ fade, but instead remember your first love. 2) From the Smyrna Church we are urged to remain faithful, no matter what. 3) And from the congregation at Pergamum we are told to be constantly on guard against false teaching within the church. We have discovered that, far from being dusty old writings that have no bearing on us in the 21st century, these letters could just as well have been addressed to us today!
Thyatira was different in many ways from the other cities we have looked at. It was the least important of all the seven cities – yet it received the longest letter! Unlike the other cities, Thyatira was not powerful or influential in any way. Common folk settled there. It was considered a working man’s town, made up of craftsmen and merchants. In fact, Thyatira had more trade guilds than any other city of the ancient world – including weavers, leatherworkers, potters, and bronze workers. Just ordinary folks trying to eek out an honest living – a secular town, not too interested in religion – people content to live and let live. So, the city of Thyatira was rather unique.
The church at Thyatira was different from the others, as well. Because Thyatira was not a center of power or pagan worship, there was no overt persecution of the followers of Christ. According to the text, the church there appears to be healthy and prospering. Christ commends them in glowing terms. He says: “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.” Not only is this church known for doing good works, but those works are increasing! Wouldn’t it be great if every United Methodist Church could make that claim? Everything in that church was going well – right? Wrong.
In spite of all appearances, danger lurks! What is that danger? SIN has infiltrated the church! Do you remember those trade guilds? They were something like belonging to a union, today. In Thyatira, to make a living at your craft, you had to belong. But, in order to belong, you had to participate in the feasts in the community that were dedicated to the worship of pagan gods, and engage in all kinds of debauchery – things Christians shouldn’t be doing (and many believers refused to do).
However, there was a faction within the church that was led by a false teacher whom the heavenly Christ refers to as “that woman Jezebel.” Apparently, she encouraged the Christians to go ahead and take part in the events sponsored by the guilds. So some followers of Jesus were actually attending pagan feasts, worshipping pagan gods, and engaging in cultic sexual acts – all with the blessing of a church leader!
This woman in question probably wasn’t actually named “Jezebel.” It seems that, here, Christ is drawing a parallel with the most despised woman in the entire Bible, Jezebel, the pagan wife of Ahab, the King of Israel (a story we find in First Kings). That original Jezebel not only introduced the worship of the god Baal into Israel, but she tried to stamp out the worship of Israel’s God, Yahweh. She was deceptive, a murderer, and a blasphemer. And she almost succeeded – but she met her match in the courageous Prophet Elijah – in a dramatic showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel.) Israel had let down her guard, and sin got a foothold.
The church at Thyatira appeared healthy. But they had allowed a Jezebel in their midst, and the people were too blind to see the sin that was growing like a cancer, threatening the very life of the church.
I think this letter speaks to today by teaching us several important lessons:
1) First, that God takes sin seriously!
The Heavenly Christ promises severe punishment on “Jezebel and her children.” Even though the church might overlook sin, God does not (or more correctly, God cannot overlook sin). In First Peter (1:15-16) we read this: “He who called you is holy, be holy in all your conduct: for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” God created moral order and has called us to adhere to it. When that order is violated by sin, it is an affront to God, and results in consequences of pain and suffering.
That may sound harsh and cruel, but it is not. God does it for our own good. It is BECAUSE of God’s love for us that he can’t let our sins go without consequences.
As a parent of three children (and now grandfather of one), I have gained a better understanding of God’s discipline. All children push the limits of the rules established by their parents; all children break the rules from time-to-time; all children occasionally disobey. And, sometimes when they do, they put themselves in real danger because rules are there for their protection and well-being. Now, which would be the more loving thing – to let children do whatever they want even if that might result in them harming themselves or others, or to discipline them? Of course, there are appropriate and inappropriate ways to discipline. But yes, punishment CAN actually be a sign of love! As our Heavenly Parent, God takes our sin seriously, and holds us accountable - for our own good! So God takes sin seriously.
2) The second lesson from the text is this: God may take our sin seriously, but we do not!
It seems that the Christians at Thyatira didn’t see what Jezebel was doing as being “sin.” They tended to downplay sin, and so do we. How? We downplay sin in at least four ways:
Maybe we just don’t recognize sin as sin. We’ve become so accustomed to sin, that we are blinded to it.
There was a book that came out some years ago that many churches in decline read – a book with the intriguing title, “The Frog in the Kettle.” That phrase was based on a scientific experiment that showed how easy it is to become so complacent that we put our very safety at risk. In that experiment, a frog was placed in a pot of hot water, the frog immediately hopped out to save himself. But then they put the frog in a pot of water at room temperature, and the frog made himself right at home. Little by little they raised the temperature of the water. The frog didn’t move a muscle, even as he was boiled alive.
Paul warned about the dangers to Christians of becoming so accustomed to the ways of the world that they lose their spiritual lives. In Romans (12:2) he wrote, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”
Another problem we have in recognizing sin is that we have convinced ourselves that small sins don’t really count.
We say, “I’m basically a good person, God wouldn’t hold my little sins against me.” Think again! Even small sins are dangerous because they can be our undoing.
I’m sure you are familiar with the mythic Greek hero, Achilles. He was a warrior with a perfect body, but he had one fatal flaw – his heel. Sin is our Achilles Heal. You see, it only takes one sin to separate us from God. As the scriptures make clear, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Small sins count.
Maybe the problem is that we fail to see how our small sins can grow into large sins.
There is a wonderful story from the Arab world. A man was riding his camel across the barren desert. He stopped at night and pitched his little tent, one just big enough for him to lie down. As the temperature dropped, the camel got cold. So, he asked his master if he could stick his nose inside the tent-flap to try to get warm, and the kindly man said yes. Then the man went to sleep. As the night progressed, more and more of the camel’s body wriggled into the tent (first the nose, then the neck – next the front leg, the body, and finally the tail) – until the camel was inside the tent, and the man had been pushed out!
Sin can sneak up on us like that! James 1:14-15 warns this: “One is tempted by one’s own desire,… then, when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.” Yes, we don’t take sin as seriously as God does.
Maybe we think that if we hide our sin, it will just go away.
Well, you might be able to hide it from others, but you can’t hide from God. If you’ll recall, Adam and Eve tried that trick after they had sinned – they hid themselves among the bushes of the Garden of Eden to try to avoid God – but God sought them out and exposed their sin. In our text, we see that Christ is described as having “eyes of flame,” “searching minds and hearts,” with “feet of burnished bronze”- symbols that mean Jesus brings judgment on our sins.
So, the first two lessons we need to learn are that 1) God takes sin seriously, and therefore, 2) so should we.
3) The third thing we need to learn from Thyatira is that we had better stop ignoring sin, because sin brings death.
The sins of the Old Testament Queen Jezebel ultimately brought about her death – and it was a horrible death, indeed – thrown out of a window and then eaten by dogs. The New Testament also warns that sin has serious consequences. Paul writes (Romans 6:23) “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” Because any sin separates us from God, sin that is not covered by Christ, will ultimately lead to spiritual death. This letter to Thyatira makes that vividly clear.
So this letter is a “shot across the bow,” warning us of the dangers of sin infiltrating our lives or our church. But there is Good News! Our text tells us that Christ is angry, not so much at our sin, as our unwillingness to repent. As harsh as this letter is, it contains two messages of very good news we need to hear! And I want to leave these two words of hope with you, in closing:
The first good news is that God has provided a means of forgiveness!
As I said, because God loves us, he cannot let sin go unaccounted for. But also because of God’s love, he has made a way for us to be forgiven! We cannot erase our sins – only God can… and, the good news is, that God did! John 1:29 says it this way, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” Our sins can be forgiven!
But, to receive forgiveness, we must do two things:
- BELIEVE in Jesus as our savior: (John 3:16) “For God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life;” and,
- CONFESS our sins, and ask forgiveness through his blood: (1 John 1:8 – 2:2) “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves… If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
So the first good news is that God has provided forgiveness to cancel our sin. The second good news is that God has chosen to delay the Day of Judgment.
Judgment is coming, to be sure, but God has delayed that day – why? So that we have as many chances as possible to repent. Just as a good parent bends over backwards to give a wayward child plenty of opportunities to confess what he or she has done, so God postpones the punishment we deserve, hoping it can be avoided.
As Peter writes (2 Peter 3:9): “The Lord is not slow about his promise (to return),…but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”
Like the believers in Thyatira, you and I don’t really face many threats from the outside – yes, threats are increasing, but for most of us, the real threat is from within us. Like them, we may appear to be model Christians, and our church may seem to be a vital congregation busy doing many good things. But looks can be deceiving. It may be that, unseen by others, every one of us has a fatal flaw – some sin that we have become so comfortable with that, like the frog in the kettle, we ignore at our own peril; a sin that is our Achilles heel threatening to be our undoing; a sin that, like the nose of the camel, has pushed into the tent of our life, and is little by little taking our life over, becoming an unwelcome guest.
That, my sisters and brothers, is the challenge we hear from this letter to the church at Thyatira! So, here is what the Holy Spirit is saying to us through this text:
Do you have any sin that you need to repent of? – something that is eating away at your conscience – a burden you have carried for too long? Is there any “small” sin which has its grip on you – a vice that has gotten out of hand? Is there something in your life that you have been trying to hide from others – and especially, from God?
If so, this passage tells us what we must do: - recognize our sin as being sin, - repent of that sin, by confessing it and asking God’s forgiveness, - and finally, - root-out that sin from our lives.
Then, we will hear God say to us as he said to the people of Judah who, like the church at Thyatira had also allowed sin to infiltrate their lives. God says
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
God wants to heal our lives. And he will – but only if we will kick the camel out of our tent.
© 2025 by John B. Gill, III