The One Who Knows (Revelation 2:1–7)

Since the beginning of time, the church has always faced all kinds of opposition, temptation, and suffering. We face the same opposition, temptation and suffering as our brothers and sisters did decades ago. Nothing has changed.

But God has graciously left books like Revelation for us to be informed, equipped, and encouraged. It’s a wonderful book to read through and find the same encouragements and warnings that our brothers and sisters received decades ago.

In this study, we will consider the first letter in Revelation—the letter to the church at Ephesus. We will look at vv. 1–3 under the main theme of “the one who knows.” It’s all about knowledge.

First, let me paint a picture of Ephesus. Ephesus was a challenging place for the church in three ways.

Politically, it was the most significant city in the Roman province of Asia. Picture China or Russia—domineering, big rule, big authority.

Commercially, it was a port city that helped trade and commerce flourish. People were coming in and out the whole time, new things arriving at the port to deceive and tempt. Think of Las Vegas.

Religiously, it housed one of the seven wonders of the ancient world—the temple dedicated to the Greek goddess of fertility, Artemis. You can read about that in Acts 19. Think of Thailand, with all kinds of promiscuity and idolatry happening.

Now if you take Russia, Thailand, and Las Vegas and lump them all together, you know the city of Ephesus, more or less. You can see the challenges the church faced. It brought more than enough challenges to the believers in Ephesus.

However, we see a beautiful, positive culture in this church and congregation. They fostered a culture of deepening their knowledge of the word and showed a commendable willingness to endure persecution. They suffered for the gospel.

The growth in knowledge equipped the believers to endure persecution. We might summarise it like this: Knowledge should be the fuel that drives how the believer lives. It’s not just head knowledge. It goes down to your heart, and then you know how to strive for holiness, as we’ll see later. It’ll help you strive to clear the church of certain sins. It’ll help you drive towards holiness, worshipping our God more.

Let us study three truths about knowledge from vv. 1–3, and we’ll see how they managed to survive in this hostile city.

Our text begins by ascribing “the words of” the letter to “him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands” (v. 1). This is a reference to Christ, as we see in chapter 1.

John opens by describing himself, and there’s a reason for that. The knowledge that we have, we can only find from the Word. Jesus is the centre—or should be the centre—of the church.

We learned previously about the stars and the lampstands and saw that John uses this imagery to focus on the gospel community, the people of God. He says that what follows are the words of the one who holds the faith community together. These are God’s words. Jesus, the Word, is bringing these commendations and critiques.

There are two encouragements from v. 1 that I want us to draw on. We must recognise both the authority of Christ and the love of Christ—and they go hand in hand.

It says that Jesus holds the stars, which means he’s in control. He has authority over the angel who brings this news, this letter, to the church. This means that the letter, or the news that the angel brings, comes from the authority of God himself. The message carries authority. He’s the supreme authority. He is the one who is over the church. He’s the keeper of the church. This is why this message can be trusted and obeyed.

Secondly, it says he walks amongst his church. Isn’t that a beautiful picture? The almighty creator, who has the supreme authority over all things, dwells in the midst of his believers, his children. Christ assures them of his presence, care, and protection. He knows them personally.

“John, I know what’s going on when you need to clear that package from the ship coming into the port. Sarah, I know what you’re going through when you need to do some tasks for the Roman ruler. I know.” Let that sink in.

It’s so easy to walk through the church doors on Sunday, take your normal seat, sit down, sing a few songs, hear the word preached, and forget that God is with us. He’s here. The Word is here. His authority is here. But he is here with us.

This must have been a huge, reassuring, encouraging message for this church—knowing that the almighty creator, who is in control of all things, is with us, dwells with us, knows us. The Almighty is with them. He is walking with them. He is supporting them. He is comforting them. He is guiding them.

Unfortunately, we know from the New Testament that these two encouragements did not prevent the church from fading away. Its leaders were not always faithful—and I say “always” because there were times when they were faithful, like we read now. But Paul warned them in Acts 20 that they needed to watch out. He warned the elders, saying there would be wolves among them. False teachers would infiltrate the church. Watch out. He warned them.

It seems like these concerns had materialised by the time Timothy took over the leadership. In 1 Timothy 6, Paul urged Timothy to teach sound doctrine (see vv. 2–3ff). And then he wrote in 2 Timothy 4, urging Timothy not to back down but to preach the word and watch his doctrine (see vv. 1–5).

This was a reminder for this church to stay in the knowledge of the word. And why? We need to be equipped with the word, just as they did. It was necessary. You need the word so that you can fight sin in the church. You need the word to identify false teaching.

How did this church make this turnaround? How did they navigate this path? Let’s look at what Jesus commends them for.

John rightly says that Jesus, the messenger with authority, is among them. They did this because Christ has all authority and is among them, so they grew in their knowledge.

Jesus continues, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false” (v. 2).

The saints in Ephesus worked hard. They laboured to keep the church holy and clean. Jesus commended them for this.

They could only do this because they knew the word. They knew what was being preached, so they could say, “Yes, that’s true,” or, “No, that’s not true.” They knew the word. They persevered in guarding the truth against these false teachers. They tested and exposed these false teachers.

I would go as far as to say they also tested false professions of faith, because as soon as an unbeliever becomes part of a church, and that unbeliever grows into being a leader, what are they going to teach? It starts with allowing them into the church. They prevented this by growing in their doctrine and what they believed. They grew in their knowledge of the truth. They held close their convictions and their doctrines to guard the church from these false confessions and teachers. They managed to guard and defend the truth as they grew in their knowledge.

There’s something special that I’d like us to appreciate here. Jesus commends the church not only for their labour in gaining knowledge, but for their patient endurance.

Brothers and sisters, I learn daily from our word—the word that God left for us. It’s not a quick fix. It’s a daily grind of reading, studying, meditating on, and praying the word of God. That’s how you gain knowledge to defend. It’s an act of ongoing endurance. He commends them for keeping on with growing in their knowledge—not growing weary, not stopping.

And it’s no different for us. We must patiently grow in our knowledge of Jesus and let that instruct us about what he expects of the church. We need to know Christ and what he expects of us to carry on.

They could only manage to do this by looking to Christ, the ultimate authority, and really focusing on the fact that he is with us. When I read my Bible, when I gather with the church, I focus on Jesus.

Jesus himself is the perfect example of this. I can just imagine the Ephesian church coming together and recognising their need to grow. If Jesus increased in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52), how much more must his people do it. I you are a followed of Jesus, you need to increase in your knowledge.

And then we use this knowledge to keep Christ’s bride pure. Church, we should not grow tired of learning truth. We should not grow tired of keeping fast to what Jesus stands for. He is a holy God. His bride should be holy. And we need to strive for that by knowing Scripture and knowing who Jesus is.

We will know who the false teachers and false confessors are. Matthew 7:20 says, “They will be known by their fruit.” But you need to know the fruit to see their fruit. And then, as soon as you hear or see this lack of fruit, you need to go and engage—come alongside patiently and help the truth to come out.

I fear too many believers run to the world. They almost have these two categories: a church life and a secular life. If they need advice in church life, they consult the Bible. But for my work and friends and studies, they consult secular philosophies.

Brothers and sisters, Christianity is a philosophy. Jesus gives us the philosophy to guide our lives by. The word is sufficient for everything. And we need to guide our lives according to the word.

Family, we too should hear this warning about false converts who can come in and destroy this church. We should hear the call to the same task of growing in our knowledge of the sound word of God, renewing our minds and not conforming to the world. We should keep a close watch on ourselves and our teaching or doctrine, to save ourselves and our hearers. We should strive to walk in Christ and grow in our unity of faith and knowledge of Christ. We need to let the word dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our hearts.

Family, can we say that we know truth so that we can defend the truth? This is why the Ephesian church also received another commendation. Christ’s authority, love, and dwelling presence led them to want to know him more, growing in their knowledge. And this knowledge and conviction led to a life of endurance.

Jesus continues: “I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary” (v. 3). Because Christ has all authority and is among them, they can grow in their knowledge and therefore endure their suffering.

The saints in Ephesus patiently endured suffering for Jesus’ name, for the gospel’s sake. They gained the knowledge of the gospel, and that same knowledge helped them to defend it but also patiently endure the suffering and trials that this knowledge brought. They were dedicated to the truth of Jesus, and for that they were suffering. But that same knowledge that brought the suffering helped them to overcome the suffering.

Isn’t that beautiful? It’s the same thing—growing your knowledge. And it’s going to bring suffering. But that same knowledge will help you overcome the suffering. So simple, isn’t it? Not always.

Jesus commends them for not only standing patiently for truth but enduring the suffering that this truth is bringing. They have been enduring patiently in the face of pressure from outside and inside the church, for the glory of Christ’s name.

How often do we just wish our trials would go away? “Lord, I can’t stand this pain anymore. Just take it away from me. I cannot stand this boss who sabotages me. Take him away.” I’m not saying I haven’t prayed those prayers many times. I’m not saying you shouldn’t. But we are so quick to jump to that instead of saying, “Lord, help me to endure patiently. Help me, so that you can, through this suffering, through this trial, reveal more of yourself. And through that, I’m blessed.”

Can we say that we are patient in our sufferings?

Jesus recognised that, in this vibrant, cosmopolitan city, the Ephesian church had not compromised their faith. And it’s because they built on the knowledge, knowing that Christ was in the midst of them and he has all authority. It’s beautiful how it just builds on this. This leads to a hard life, but a life that endures. And Jesus says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. I commend you for that.” It’s beautiful.

How were they able to stand firm and endure suffering for their faith? They knew the one who knew them. They knew Jesus, and they knew that he knows them. They knew Jesus and that he had experienced the same suffering—even more so.

Hebrews 12:3–4 says, “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.” Why endure? So that we would not grow faint-hearted. Jesus endured the ultimate suffering so that we would not grow faint-hearted. Jesus endured hostility till death—even hostility from his Father—so that we don’t have to endure that hostility from the Father. He endured it so his people, those whom he saved, can find comfort in suffering.

Family, we need to grow in this knowledge and let that change the way we look at trials. This glorious knowledge of Christ being the ultimate authority, Christ being in the midst of us, us growing in our knowledge—all of that should help us to change our lives in the way we live for him, enduring the trials, enduring the suffering that brings glory to our God.

We as believers are called to suffer for the sake of the gospel. We will face trials and opposition. And that should not surprise us. Matthew 10:24 says that a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. Christ is our master. If he endured it, if he faced it, so will we. But he has already conquered. Praise the Lord for that, and that gives us courage to endure.

We are still facing the same opposition as they did back then—perhaps less. We need these truths just as much as the believers back then. Thankfully, we have the same encouragement.

When we grow in our knowledge of the word, knowing that Jesus holds all authority and is walking with us, keeping God’s bride pure becomes easier. When we know truth, we will be involved in each other’s lives, helping one another grow. We then use the knowledge to endure the suffering the gospel brings. And we can rejoice, for we know that Jesus knows us.

AMEN