The Seven Churches Of Asia 12

INTRO: We are dealing with the fourth of the seven churches the Lord had addressed in the book of Revelation. It is my view, as well as that of many others who hold to a pre-tribulational return of Christ, that these seven churches give us a prophetic overview of the entire church age. However, these letters first have their historical significance. They were meant for the readers of 2,000 years ago. Then they have a typical purpose. They typify a certain kind of church that may be in existence at any time in history. A church may be like the Ephesian church or the church of Smryna etc. And last, they have a personal purpose. Each believer needs to see what part of any of these churches speaks of his or her life. If there is wrong, it needs to be repented of. Where there are commendations, the believer can learn what he or she should be living like.
We are presently in the historical purpose of the letter to the Thyatiran church. We have looked at some of the history of the city of Thyatira and some of issues that were there. We saw that strategically, it was in a place any army that was headed for the capital city of Perrgamos would have to pass by. And so a band of soldiers was placed here to slow the advancing army down enough to give Perrgamos a chance to prepare and fortify itself against the invading army.