The longest letter in Revelation is, ironically, written to the smallest and least known city. It lay on the road between Pergamum and Sardis, founded by the Greeks in Three Hundred BC. It was in a flat open valley and, being a gateway to Pergamum, often housed troops to defend that city.
Its main claim to fame, was the significant number of trade guilds based there, including wool and linen dyeing, garment-making, tanners, potters, bakers, slave dealers and brass workers. A trade guild is an association of traders, membership of which was essential for those wanting to pursue a trade. The problem for the believers in Thyatira, was that their meetings often involved acts of pagan worship and sexual immorality. As we know from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, avoiding involvement with these things was hard to do in wider society, without offending unbelievers. Jesus addressed an influence within the church, which He described as “seducing My servants” into these practices, promising to cut them off. He encouraged the saints in Thyatira to hold fast to what He had given them.
In Acts 16, we’re introduced to a woman named Lydia, whom Paul encountered in Philippi. Luke describes her as a ‘worshipper of God’, and she was one of the first to receive the gospel message in Philippi. It was in Lydia’s home where the church began. Luke tells us that she was from the city of Thyatira, and describes her as “a seller of purple goods”. Thyatira was also a significant centre for the wool trade in the ancient world, and Lydia was probably a seller of purple dyed fabrics. One the city’s specialties was the dying of cloth with a reddish purple dye, obtained from the madder root, later known as ‘Turkey red’. An inscription found at Philippi, honoured a purple dye dealer from Thyatira, who was a patron of a citizen in Philippi – who knows, maybe this was Lydia?
Thyatira - 'Traders of influence'
City Biographies
August 25, 2021 • Christopher Alton • Revelation
Named & Shamed
September 8, 2021 • Richard Jones, Mike Shuter
We review episodes 1 & 2 of Things That Make You Go Mmmm where we looked at Rewards & Riches and Insightful Imagery, and then look at a group and an individual who are Named & Shamed by Jesus Himself! As we look at these themes in the letters to the churches we can learn about what God wants for us and how we can live fully for Him.
To The One Who Conquers
August 22, 2021 • Mike Shuter
We've seen in the letters to the churches the opportunity for great eternal rewards for those who conquer and are faithful to the end. The question is how do we conquer? As we explore this we'll see the scriptures have great insights for us in what it means to conquer and be victorious in Christ
Laodicea - 'Lukewarm & Laidback'
August 25, 2021 • Christopher Alton • Revelation
Laodicea lay about forty miles east of Ephesus, near the banks of the river Lycus. There were at least six cities called Laodicea at the time, so it was often referred to as ‘Laodicea on the Lycus’. It was founded by Antiochus of Syria, around two hundred and fifty BC, and named after his wife Laodice. It became a rich and prosperous city, a centre of banking and finance, and famous for the soft black glossy wool from its sheep. It was so wealthy that when it was struck by an earthquake in AD 60, unlike many other cities, it needed no financial help from Rome to rebuild. The church in Laodicea must have been founded early on, probably while Paul was living at Ephesus, and most likely through the ministry of Epaphras, according to Paul’s letter to the nearby Colossians. Paul mentions Laodicea five times in this letter, including another letter he also wrote to its church, which has been lost to history. Sadly, it’s the only one of the seven churches about whom Jesus doesn’t have a good word to say. He tells them that they’ve become complacent in their comfortable lifestyle. Paul’s letter to the Colossians speaks of the struggle he had for the Laodiceans. He wanted them to ‘reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ’. Laodicea was a rich and prosperous city, and in such a place, it could be easy for the church to ignore its true spiritual riches. Perhaps even thirty years earlier, Paul had begun to see the rot set in at Laodicea? Jesus speaks about two further aspects of the church, which are reflected in the city of Laodicea. Firstly, the warm spring water. Laodicea had been cited on a strategic trade route, but not close to a water source. Its water arrived through several miles of an underground aqueduct, which meant it was lukewarm when it arrived. This contrasted with the hot springs at nearby Hierapolis, and the cold refreshing water at Colossae. For Jesus, the church was like the city’s water supply, lukewarm and sickly to the taste, and so neither use nor ornament! Secondly, Jesus refers to the ointment for which Laodicea had become famous. The city was a leading medical center for eye treatment in the ancient world. One of its most graduates produced a reference work which was still be used up to the Middle Ages. Laodicea’s ‘Phrygian Powder’ was exported throughout the world, to treat eye diseases. And with no small trace of irony, Jesus calls out the church for its spiritual blindness, offering them as a cure, His own salve to anoint their eyes.