The Seven Churches of Revelation, addressed in the opening chapters, serve as both literal and metaphorical entities. These churches—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea—were actual congregations in Asia Minor, present-day Turkey.

The imagery of the star and sun, both symbols of Jesus, are fulfilled in the rapture of the church and return of the Lord Jesus to this world. Jesus appears first as the morning star to His true church.

John writes specifically to the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29. Interestingly enough, although the church at Thyatira was located in the smallest city of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation, John’s letter to the Thyatiran church is the longest of the seven letters.

In Revelation 2:18-29 Jesus sends His message to the church of Thyatira. Thyatira was a wealthy town on the Lycus River in the Roman province of Asia (modern-day Turkey). The message was from the Lord Jesus Christ through an angel (or “messenger”): “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write . . .”

2:18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of God here, asserts plainly His deity, and therefore His authority.