The people who feature in Revelation are sometimes given verbal titles and sometimes portrayed pictorially. In this letter to the leading elder/pastor/teacher ('angel', meaning messenger) of the church in Thyatira, the Lord Jesus Christ identifies Himself in both ways. Firstly He declares Himself to be the Son of God. Although the New Testament writers use this expression 40 times to refer to Jesus, this is the only occasion in which Jesus uses this Name to refer to Himself although He fully accepted the title when given it by demons (Mark 8:28), disciples (Mark 14:33), unbelieving Jews (John 19:7) and the Roman centurion (Matthew 27:54). The apostles were in no doubt that He is the Son of God (2 Corinthians 1:19), but in His earthly ministry He subjected Himself to God the Father (Matthew 11:27).

Secondly, Jesus describes His fire-blazing eyes and highly reflective bronze feet, the same as in Revelation 1:13-16, as belonging to ‘one like a son of man’. That name for Jesus, which He used repeatedly of Himself (78 times in the gospels), came from Daniel 7:13-14, in which He was appointed as cosmic king by the 'Ancient of Days' (God the Father in Daniel 7:9). But in Revelation some of the imagery of the 'son of man' is similar to Daniel's picture of the 'Ancient of Days'. There is no doubt that the son of man is the Son of God, as the angel said to Mary (Luke 1:32-35). His divine authority emphasised the importance of Christ's report of this church's ministry, and failure. This was like a fanfare of trumpets announcing that the king was about to speak about a matter of life and death.

The King of everything had seen this church and its leadership. He had seen their love and its expressions of sacrificial giving. He had seen their faith and its expressions of gospel focussed ministry. He had seen their hard work in doing what was good, and their perseverance, being more zealous in ministry than previously (2 Corinthians 11:23-29). In many ways they were a model church: a loving fellowship committed to serving one another and those in need, reaching out with the gospel and continuing despite difficulties. But none of that could make up for a major error in the church and its leadership (Revelation 2:20-23). In the same way that the Lord saw every devoted act of service, He also saw a fatal flaw in their church. He would reward each person according to what they had done (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Sometimes we may forget that the Lord Jesus who is the friend of sinners, is also God the Judge. We may love to see Him as son of man, a person like us (Hebrews 4:15-16), but forget He is the Son of God, a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). We enjoy His affirmation of our energetic labour, and can start believing that we are more saved by our works than by His grace. At that point we are at risk of embracing false teaching and steering a collision course against God. Please let the Lord assess you and your church through this letter to Thyatira. Accept His authority and be willing to let Him warn you, especially if you are in any kind of church leadership.