The Two Beasts
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Good afternoon! I hope that everyone is doing well today. Today we are going to be looking at Revelation chapter thirteen. And this chapter is still a part of that interlude between the seven trumpets and the seven bowls that are still to come. And so in this interlude God is describing to us in vivid terms the reality that the spiritual warfare that we saw last week portrayed is now spilling over into the very real physical realm here on earth. We are now beginning to see the events that will characterize the last days of the end times. That final period of Great judgment. We are going to see three primary features that characterize this period. We are going to see the pouring out of Gods judgment through the bowls of wrath, we are going to also see a civilization called Babylon that is meant to represent those who rebel against God. And then finally we are going to see the final persecution of the Church at the hands of her greatest enemy Satan. And here in chapter thirteen we are going to read about the appearance of the antichrist and the beginning of his persecution of the church.
At this point in our story the persecution of the church should be no surprise. We have been prepped for this all along and particularly in the last chapter. In the last chapter we were presented with this picture of a great spiritual battle between Satan and the angels of God. And here now in chapter thirteen the reality of the battle is going to be found here on earth and so martyrdom should be expected at this point in our story. Even though at some time in the future of the church martyrdom is coming we rest in the hope and promise that Jesus is already victorious. The war has already been won. And so Satan may attack but he does so as a defeated foe.
So Let’s take a look at our passage. We first read in verse one.
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
This is the first beast that we are to see arise. This beast was actually already introduced in chapter eleven when we spoke of the two witnesses and it is this beast that would eventually bring about their deaths. This verse is directly related to Daniel chapter seven. In Daniel seven we read about four beasts who come up from out of the sea. In Daniel seven the four beasts represent a succession of four earthly kingdoms. Those kingdoms could not arise from out of the oceans though could they. Right? They arose from the people of this earth. And I believe that is what the reference to the sea is. We see a similar reference in Isaiah chapter fifty-seven verse twenty (Isaiah 57:20). There the wicked are described like raging waters. And so we shouldn’t expect mythical beasts to arise forth from the oceans. But rather two men will arise from out of a people who are raging against God Almighty. And here in verse one we have the description of the first of these two men. Look I will probably refer to these two individuals as men. They could be women for all I know. But, it is simply the language that my mind grabs for. So it is likely what I will say this morning. But recognize we are never given their actual gender within the scriptures.
Interestingly enough unlike most all of these visions where I place so little value in all of the details of the beasts and such this one is a bit different. And I do so for a few reasons. One of these is that I find little value when we have come to some sort of conclusion on what these details actually represent. Look. We will not need these details to determine whether or not we have entered into the last days. There will be no doubt. Second, when looking at these visions there is often times very little agreement on what they actually stand for. Ahhh.. But not true for this beast. Which I find simply extraordinary. So, I will share with you what nearly everyone believes these details represent. The ten crowned horns represent ten worldly leaders. These leaders play absolutely no part in our story. That’s why I say these details carry so little value often times. But, I believe that we can say that these ten leaders will be of significant assistance to the rise to power of the first beast.
The seven heads represents the fullness of its power. Most tend to see the early roman empire as being reflected by the seven heads. Which, I have no problem with, however I will say that it is really difficult to connect seven successive emperors with the seven heads. If not impossible. Again I don’t have a problem with most of these historical connections in that they foreshadow something much greater that is still yet to come. This first beast is the end times Antichrist who can be seen at work in some of the past emperors of Rome as well as in many of the more recent totalitarian states today as well.
Finally this beast is said to carry a blasphemous name upon its heads. Real quick. He is going to claim to be divine. That’s what this means. Jesus was eventually accused of blasphemy because he declared that he would sit at the right hand of the Father and he did so before the sanhedrin. He made a very clear claim to be divine. Everyone present knew that was what Jesus had done. That is what blasphemy ultimately is. It is the declaration that one is divine. It is for this reason that Jesus was crucified. And so this beast is going to bear some name or title declaring him to be divine.
Verse two gives further description of the beast and it reads.
And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.
This beast combines some of the representations that are found in Daniel seven concerning the first three beasts that Daniel saw. And so what we should see is that this new and final beast here is a concentration of power that has never been seen before. But this is not merely political or military power that we are seeing concentrated in this single individual. This individual has become the embodiment of satanic evil. We see here that this beasts power and authority comes from the dragon or satan himself.
Then in verse three we read.
One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.
So, first a question. What is a mortal wound? If anyone takes a mortal wound that means that wound has killed the individual. But here is the important part of this it only seemed to have a mortal wound. And so it is going to appear as though this beast dies and then miraculously comes back to life. Of course any who were to witness such an event would be amazed and that is exactly what will happen. The whole earth will marvel at what has happened and they will follow the beast for the miracle that has occurred.
Then in in verse four we read.
And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
The goal of the beast, this person of immense power, their goal is not simply power as we think of it. The goal of the beast is to capture the hearts, the minds, and the loyalties of men and to cause them to worship them. And because the beast walks in the power and authority of the dragon it is really the dragon that is being worshiped.
The spiritual war that we are constantly engaged in whether we realize it or not is the very struggle for every sole around us every day. That is what we need to see here in this verse.
Then in verse five we read.
And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.
So he isn’t all of a sudden granted a new mouth nor is this saying that he didn’t have a mouth and now somehow does. Right. That just doesn’t make sense. This is speaking of the words that he speaks and the power and source of the words that are given to him. He is given the power to speak in ways that will entrance the hearts and minds of mankind and those words. And the beast will seek to sway men from the one true God and to the worship of the dragon.
This idea continues in verse six.
It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
And so this individual is given the power to speak words that will seek to sway mens loyalty from God to the dragon. And the source of these claims to replace God most High will most likely surround his apparent resurrection from the dead. And so he will declare himself to be divine.
Then in verse seven we read.
Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation,
And so we now see the primary enemy for the beast. It is the people of God. And so he will bring about great persecution against the people of God with the goal of swaying people from worshipping God most High. And we know from Daniel seven that many saints are going to be conquered, which is a fairly polite way of saying they will be murdered by the beast for their faith in Jesus.
The power of the beast is going to extend over all of mankind here on earth. And as a result this persecution is not something that only affects certain regions like we see today. He is going to execute a worldwide persecution against the church.
Then in verse eight we read.
and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
The Lambs book of life. It contains all those who will come to faith in Christ Jesus. Those names were recorded from before the beginning of time as we know it. Before Genesis one occurred those names were recorded. And all who are not recorded in the Lambs book of life will worship the beast. Whether they realize they do or not is not relevant. Every one who walks this earth is a worshipper of either the Lamb or the Serpent. There are no spectators in this war. Sides have already been chosen.
In verse nine John concludes the vision of the first beast and he writes.
rev 13:9
If anyone has an ear, let him hear:
Our responsibility is to speak the truth of Jesus to everyone that we can. This is our responsibility to help them hear that they are in danger. A danger that goes beyond what any might imagine. And that they need to turn to Jesus and find salvation. Our responsibility is to speak so that they might hear.
Then in verse 10 we read.
If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.
Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
Whenever the gospel goes forth in great power there has always been persecution close behind. That is why it is said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the gospel. One day the saints will have to stand firm in the faith knowing that death may be the end result. This world may act like your friend, but deep down, if they truly knew that your heart was owned by Christ. They truly hate you.
Listen, I have heard multiple people at work state that they simply hate all christians. And then I let them know that I am one. In that moment they simply try to explain it away, “You’re just different Garey. Not you of course.” But deep down they just spoke the truth. They truly hate Christians. It is not simply a dislike. It is hatred that many of my coworkers have towards you and I simply because we “identify” as Christian.
Then our passage shifts to the second beast that is to rise to power and in verse eleven we read.
Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.
This second beast has two horns like a lamb. He is going to try to become a substitute Christ. That is what an antichrist is in the end. However his words find their source in the dragon, that great serpent. We know from future chapters that this beast is going to represent some false religion that is going to come about during the end times. In future chapters he is going to be referred to as the false prophet. So, the first beast is going to gain power over the civil affairs of this world. And the second beast is going to gain power over the religious life of this world.
Then in verse twelve we read.
It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.
And of course as a good religious leader it will direct worship. It will direct worship towards the first false messiah. But why should expect anything less from this false prophet.
And then we read in verse thirteen and the first part of fourteen. Verse markings aren’t great in this section. It’s not a big deal just remember some dude put those there and well sometimes they didn’t get them right. No big deal. Let’s read the passage.
Revelation 13:13–14 (ESV)
It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth
The point of this isn’t that this false prophet simply represents some false religion, but that he comes clothed in actual satanic power. He will be given the power to reign down fire from the heavens. And it is through these false miracles that he is going to deceive people into worshiping the beast. I am not calling them false because they don’t actually happen. But rather because they are intended to deceive and their source is from the ultimate false prophet.
Then in the rest of verse fourteen and fifteen we read.
Revelation 13:14–15 (ESV)
telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
And so the false prophet is going to direct mankind to create a statue, an idol to be worshiped. Then when the statue is completed it is going to begin to speak. And listen, that in and of itself will cause many to come before this statue and bow down in worship and praise. And any who chose not to. Well, then the idol will command that those individuals be put to death.
Then in verse sixteen we start to get in to that part that everyone is so amazed by and we read.
Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,
In chapter seven God sealed his people in order to protect them from the divine wrath that was to come upon the world. And as we have seen Satan likes to imitate God for some reason. And so in like fashion he is going to mark those who chose to follow the beast. This mark at least the word used for mark during the time that John wrote the book of revelation would have referred to a branding like for animals. Is that what is in mind? I don’t actually believe so. Every other mark that is similar to this one is symbolic of something else. And I actually believe that is what we have here. God is presenting a spiritual reality with a physical truth. Similar to when he speaks in the book of Ephesians to Christians being sealed (that’s our word here) by the Holy Spirit. Here’s the thing I need everyone here today to hear clearly. This satanic mark, whatever it might be, occurs at some point in the second half of the great tribulation. So, no there is nothing today that anyone is doing that constitutes the taking of the mark of the beast. And here’s the second part of this one. If you ever hear a pastor say that this or that is the mark of the beast. Flee from them as quickly as possible. They are false prophets declaring that the end times have come. Listen, the Bible records an event in which Paul throws two men out of the church for doing such a thing. They declared that the second resurrection had come and that the end times were present. We need to be very careful and we need to guard ourselves, the church, and one another from such statements.
In verse seventeen we get more information concerning the mark and we read.
so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.
All that we can say at this point is that the mark serves two roles. It is both a sign of ones religious affiliation no different than wearing a cross necklace. But it is also meant as a means of economic trade. This is done so as to gain greater control over the lives of this world and it will serve as a compelling argument for people to take the mark of the beast.
Then in verse eighteen we read.
This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
So what the heck is this? There is a system of using numbers as representations for words. It is called gematria. It is quite ancient. Here is the difficult part of this. John was writing to a predominately Greek audience. And this is not something that the Greeks practiced. Similar to us today. And so it made little sense. For instance using the Greek alphabet in this method the name Jesus in Greek yields the number 888. Is this helpful to any of us. Absolutely not.
Given that we know the number 666 then we should be able to reverse this and find it’s reference and then the name of the subject in mind. Right? Not so easy though. Some have suggest that the name for Nero, Neron Kaisar, in greek is representative of 666. Except that it isn’t. It’s actually 1005. The closest we can come is the latin word Empire. Which actually is representative of 666. Latin was used during this time period so it is possible. And so if we combine the idea that 6 represents the idea of something that is imperfect. It is the imperfect Kingdom. Not exactly helpful is it? Here’s the struggle. All of this is prophesy concerning a future situation, and so, as of yet, no one has been able to figure out the full meaning of this number. But at some point in the future its full meaning will come to light and its meaning will be made plain by God when the time comes.
Amen
So What?
So What?
So I have a couple of points that I want to make this morning. And they are perhaps both a bit related to each other, but still different. I think at least.
The first of these is the subtle nature of an antichrist.
Antichrist and Subterfuge
Antichrist and Subterfuge
During the rise of Hitler there were Christians who saw connections between the second beast and Hitlers ministry of propaganda. And I believe that they were correct in seeing those connections. The scriptures are clear that only the Father knows the time and date that Jesus will return. And listen that means Satan knows this truth as well. AS a result he must always have an antichrist in waiting, someone ready to go at a moments notice. We don’t typically think like this. But this is one of the reasons that we often times say that there are almost always multiple individuals who are functioning as antichrists at any point in history. And these antichrists are going to offer subtle means by which they can and will influence the church to stray from Christ. We have seen it throughout much of the church in America today.
On one extreme we have the nearly complete rejection of almost every biblical moral. Biblical morality is something that is being rejected by so many within the church today. This side of the church is actually ordaining men and women who are living in open sin. And their reasoning. Well God is a god of love and so this is no longer sin. I am not sure how you can possibly come to that conclusion but it is the conclusion that they use in order to excuse open sin within the congregation.
We don’t have to like the guide posts that the bible sets for how we should live life together. But we do need to follow those guide posts. And in time you will find that those guide posts were set there by a loving father for your good. This is what love looks like. It doesn’t simply let you do whatever you want it lovingly corrects at times.
On the other extreme we have men and women who stand before the church and decry the liberal church for its lack of biblical understanding, but then try to seek to replace the worship of God with the worship of miracles. I have listened to some of these individuals so as to learn more about what specifically they are stating. I have heard them say that an angel of light had come to them and told them to no longer preach Jesus but to preach the power of the Spirit through miraculous signs and wonders. This should be for nearly every Christians obvious heresy. But so many Christians are lead astray from the truth of the scripture and they are lead to accept a false gospel.
Two very different sides of the same coin. Satan has throughout history sought ways to infiltrate the church and through subtle simple small moves of doctrine move the church away from the one true God. We need to constantly be on guard against this subtlety.
In our passage Satan offers a counterfeit messiah. He will always seek to imitate the work of God. The best place to do that is right square in the middle of the church. So often I have heard church people say that Satan is going to use the Catholic church to bring about this final beast. But I have given you two examples of Satan winning battles within the church from the protestant side of the faith. We must never lose sight of the fact that Satan doesn’t see the lines that we see. He sees one God, one faith, and one church. And all of it is His enemy.
All of us need to be on constant guard for the subtle lies that Satan is always trying to convince us to embrace.
Next I want to discuss the temptation to compromise within our own lives.
Compromise
Compromise
In our passage we see Satan use economic means to tempt the church to comprise their faith. In Revelation chapter two we read a very similar reality for the church in Thyatira. In fact today there are many professions if not all since the introduction of DEI that require Christians to choose between economic success and reflecting biblical values. The economic compromises that were not uncommon among the early churches are still common in our society today. Just more subtle in their approach.
And these compromises that we may feel forced to make are not only being experienced in our jobs. They are experienced every time our lives are required to cross paths with the world in which we live. Which is just about all the time.
None of this is much different from any of us for instance telling people what they want to hear about themselves rather than telling them God’s message. We are so afraid of either losing friends or even losing our jobs perhaps that the church has become silent in its proclamation of the Gospel here in America. Now listen I’m not saying that we just go out there like a bull in a china shop and confront everyone possible with their sin. That is simply insensitive. We do need to be strategic and find sensitive ways in which to declare Jesus to the lost.
If as I have suggested that the mark is a symbolic reality more than a physical reality then this passage is much more of a warning against comprising our faith before the world than it is meant to satisfy our own curiosity about end-times events.
And I may be wrong this may be an actual brand that people will be required to take. And those that take the mark will show themselves to be the slaves of the beast. I’m sure all the while being convinced that the mark brings true freedom. The beast is going to settle for nothing less than complete servitude from this world.
We can see clearly that during the end times there is no room for a divided allegiance. You are either for Christ or for the Beast. There can be no middle ground. However, that truth is just as true today as it will be then. The consequences may be different but the requirement is not.
Every culture of the past that stood with Satan has fallen. And so will every empire that oppresses the people of God in the future. The future does not belong to the Babylons of this world. It belongs to the faithful whose home is the New Jerusalem that is still yet to come.
Amen.
Amen.
Prayer.
Benediction.
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.