The Beast

INTRODUCTION

On October 6th, 1536, one of the most important people in your life died. His name was William Tyndale and by God’s grace, he is the reason you are holding an English Bible in your hand tonight.

When he died, they publicly strangled him and then burned his body.

By “they,” I mean the government of England. They had him captured and eventually killed in modern-day Belgium.

It was considered heresy by the church of England for the Bible to be translated into English, but Tyndale believed that every plow-boy in the fields should have his own Bible to read and study.

And so he left England in his early 30’s and he went to Germany, seeking a place to translate the New Testament into English.

When he completed it, it was banned in England, but that only made people desire it all the more.

The authorities in England sent a spy that befriended Tyndale in Belgium and then turned him in—just like Judas did to Jesus.

Tyndale spent over a year in prison, writing and doing more translation work.

But on October 6th, 1536, Tyndale’s time came. He had to pay for the crime of giving his life to translating God’s Word for the English-speaking world.

As they tightened the rope around his neck, his final words were a prayer— “Lord, open the eyes of the King of England.”

About ten years later, the King of England authorized the English translation of the Bible.

When the King James Bible was published in 1611, scholars say 75% of the KJV Old Testament was based on Tyndale’s translation. 80% of the New Testament was.

What that means is that William Tyndale gave his life so that eventually, all of us English speakers could have Bibles.

And that is why I say, one of the most important people in your life died on October 6th, 1536.

Now—what does that have to do with Revelation 13? Everything.

Because Revelation 13:1-10 is about the English government persecuting and martyring our brother, William Tyndale.

It isn’t just about that. It is about that and so much more.

Revelation 13 shows us the spiritual reality behind any state-sponsored violence that has been done to the church over the last 2000 years.

More than that, it shows us how that state-sponsored persecution will continue on, until the end, when Christ returns and every throne will bow down and the kingdoms of the this world, will become the Kingdoms of the Son.

REVIEW

We haven’t been in Revelation together for about a month, so just a brief overview of where we are.

We have seen that there are seven cycles in Revelation showing us the same sequence of events from different perspectives.

In Cycle 1, we had seven churches showing us how things would be for the church until Christ returns.

In Cycle 2, we had the seven seals showing us how things will be in the world until the Lord returns.

In Cycle 3, we saw history from a different perspective through the seven trumpets.

We are now in Cycle 4. We see the story of redemption and the church and the end being told in terms of an epic battle.

We have the Dragon who rebelled against God and took a third of the angels with him.

This is Satan, the Destroyer. The King over the bottomless pit.

You have the Woman—representing the people of God.

The Old Testament people of God, “church under the Law,” gives birth to the Messiah in the sense that He comes from the line of Abraham.

Satan, the Dragon was waiting there to eat the child as He is born, but before he can, the Child lives, dies, resurrects and ascends into heaven.

Since the Dragon couldn’t kill the Child, he now hunts the Woman in the wilderness.

He hunts the New Testament Church—the Church under grace.

He seeks to kill us, but God is with us, nourishing us until the time when Christ returns.

But the last thing we saw was this ominous picture of the Dragon seething on the shore of the sea.

Revelation 12:17 ESV

Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

He stands gazing into the sea.

What will come out of it? We are about to find out in Revelation 13...

In this chapter, we are introduced to two awful enemies of God and His church—the First and Second Beast.

Tonight we deal with the first. We will deal with the second on May 3rd.

Revelation 13:1–10 ESV

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. 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. 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. 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?” And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 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 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. If anyone has an ear, let him hear: 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.

THE COUNTERFEIT MESSIAH (v. 1-4)

The Dragon summons a beast from the sea.

We have already seen this beast very briefly. He was mentioned so quickly and moved on from in chapter 11, that you might have forgotten about him.

Revelation 11:7 ESV

And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,

This is that same beast. No reason to think it is not.

It is the beast that kills the witnesses that represent church in Revelation 11...

He is described as coming out of the sea.

Don’t think of the ocean on a Monday morning of vacation when it is 74 degrees outside and the seagulls are singing and you are so happy you are not at work.

Think of a a dark, cold, stormy water.

One that is uninviting and looks like it is just asking for someone to test it and lose their lives.

Think of chaos and danger.

This is what the sea represents, which is probably why the “sea is no more,” when the new heaven and new earth come in Revelation 21...

He has ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on the horns and blasphemous names written on each head.

John says the beast that he sees is like a leopard, its feet are like a bear’s and its mouth is like a lion’s mouth.

Now, we would have to say that the description of the beast is meant to take us back to Daniel 7. You will see that clearly once I read it.

Daniel 7:1–8 ESV

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

So Daniel’s first beast is like a lion

His second beast is like a bear

The third beast is like a leopard

And the fourth beast has iron teeth and ten horns.

Typically, we have understood Daniel’s beasts to represent the future Gentile kingdoms that would oppress Israel

The Chaldeans (lion), the Medes and Persians (bear), the various versions of the Greek empire (leopard) and then Rome (fourth beast).

The beast coming out of the sea in Revelation 13 seems to have aspects of all four beasts included in its description.

That would tell us that it is worse than all of those beasts in Daniel because it is like a mutant hybrid of all of them combined.

And it would also tell us that if those beasts represent governments and state powers, then this beast does as well.

In fact, that is made clear in Revelation 17 when the ten horns are interpreted as kings.

Revelation 17:12 ESV

And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.

So then, what we have is the Dragon—desperate to destroy the Woman, calling on this Beast to assist him.

This is Satan, wanting to hunt God’s people down in the wilderness of this world, and kill them—and he is calling on the governments of the world to help him in his cause.

This was certainly occuring during in Asia Minor.

The churches there were being persecuted by the Roman Empire because they would not worship the emperor as a god.

But is has happened in every century of the church.

From the Apostles to Tyndale to whatever happens tomorrow—the church has been under siege from the state.

But there is more to it than that. It is actually more evil than Satan simply calling up the ruling powers from the sea and sicking them on the church.

In the process, he is hoping to deceive the world into putting their trust in this beast.

The beast stands as a counterfeit Messiah. In fact—that is our first teaching point tonight:

1. The Beast is a counterfeit Messiah (v. 1-4).

Let’s think about what we are seeing in this text.

We have The Dragon standing on the shore.

He is a scary monster.

We then have him bringing the Beast from the sea.

The Beast is a scary monster.

Revelation 12:3 ESV

And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.

So the Dragon has seven heads.

The Beast coming up out of the sea has seven heads.

The Dragon has ten horns. Who else does?

The Beast—he has ten horns.

The Dragon has crowns on his heads.

The Beast has crowns on his horns.

Do you see what is happening here?

The Beast is in the image of the Dragon.

The Dragon stands on the shore of the sea, hovering over the face of the water, much like the Spirit of God at creation in Genesis 1:2...

And just like God made man in His image, the Dragon makes the Beast in his image.

The Lord used imitation to glorify Himself. He made man in His image and it was authentically good.

Adam showed off God’s character.

The Dragon used imitation to try and glorify himself as well. He brings forth the beast in his image and makes him seem good, but it is deceptive.

The Beast is evil—just like the Dragon.

The Beast shows off the Dragon’s character.

But we know that God has not put forth just one Adam. There are two.

There is the man of dust and there is the Man of Heaven.

There is the First Adam who sinned and brought death to all men.

Then there is the Second Adam, who was obedient and died that all who believe will have life.

The First Adam is not glorious. The Second Adam is glorious.

So while Satan mimics God creating in His image, it is not the First Adam he wants the Beast to replace. It is the Second Adam.

He sees the Father glorifying Himself through His Son and like Pharaoh’s magicians trying to counterfeit the works of Moses, Satan tries to counterfeit the work of God in Christ.

The Dragon wants to steal glory from the Second Adam, Jesus Christ and give it to the Beast.

The Father saves through His Lamb.

The Dragon deceives through his Beast.

The Father will bring all things under His control through the reign of His glorious Son.

The Dragon seeks to control all things through his mutant Beast.

When we get together in two weeks, we will see the Second Beast. The enemy’s religious helper. The False Prophet.

The False Prophet seeks to bring attention to the Beast, the same way the Holy Spirit brings attention to Christ, the Son.

Do you see how Satan, the Dragon, is attempting to create a counterfeit Trinity to steal away worship and authority from the Triune God?

The Dragon offers up false promises to counterfeit the real promises of the Father.

The Dragon offers up a false son to counterfeit the true Son of the Father.

And the Dragon offers up a false prophet with false signs and wonders to counterfeit the true Spirit with His true signs and wonders.

If you look at verse 3, you really see this business about the Beast being a false Messiah.

The beast seems to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound is healed and whole earth marvels at this and follows the beast.

While we can look at governments throughout history and see their beast-like attitude and actions toward the church, the immediate government in view in Revelation 13 is the Roman Empire.

When the Asia Minor Christians heard this, they absolutely would have looked at Caesar’s throne and said, “That’s the beast.”

So with that in mind, here in Revelation 13, we have the beast wounded, but the mortal wound is healed.

This would refer to how the Roman Empire would take bumps and bruises on the battlefield and they would have leaders die, but the Empire would go on.

And the people in the empire marvel at it and follow the beast because they think— “The Beast will never die!”

Again—you see the counterfeit. They trust in the beast because of his supposed mortal wound that he has recovered from.

This is a counterfeit of the work of Christ where is wounded and dies and rises again. It is a counterfeit of the One people should actually trust in.

So since the Beast seems invincible, they worship the beast.

But in doing that, they worship the Dragon because the beast operates in the Dragon’s authority.

They say, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

This is a blatant mockery of the praise that is offered up after the exodus from slavery in Egypt in Exodus 15:11

Exodus 15:11 ESV

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

So to be clear here, the plot of the Dragon is to gain worship and control for himself through the beast, which represents the governments and nations and states of the world.

And he did this through the Roman government during the first few hundred years of the church.

In the early 60’s, Nero blamed the Christians for the fire in the city and that resulted in heavy persecution

That continued on in the rest of the first century because the Roman Imperial Cult demanded that the emperors be worshipped as gods and when the Christians would not do this, they were tortured and killed.

The worst of it came in the early 300’s when Diocletan and Galerius killed thousands of Christians and destroyed churches in an effort to remove Christianity from the Empire

And he has been doing it for the last 2000 years.

In the 1550’s, Bloody Mary was killing Protestants left and right in England. She killed hundreds including, Thomas Cranmer, who wrote the Book of Common Prayer.

Cranmer had initially recanted his Protestant beliefs, but then he went back on it and stood his ground.

When they were burning him alive, he asked them to burn his right hand first because that was the one he had used to previously sign the recantations of his Protestant beliefs.

And he is doing it now.

The Chinese government has been cracking down on religious groups and organizations in recent years, with a particular focus on Christianity.

The government has implemented a series of regulations and policies aimed at restricting the practice of religion and controlling religious communities.

Churches that are not registered with the government are considered illegal, and their members are often harassed, arrested, or imprisoned.

The government has targeted "underground" churches and "house churches" that are not affiliated with the state-sanctioned religious organizations, which are closely monitored and controlled by the government.

Reports have emerged of Christians being subjected to surveillance, harassment, and detention, with some facing lengthy prison sentences or forced labor.

The government has also been accused of destroying churches, removing crosses from buildings, and confiscating religious materials such as Bibles.

The Chinese government maintains that it is committed to protecting religious freedom and that any restrictions on religious practice are aimed at maintaining social stability and preventing extremism.

In America, the Beast will reach out and swipe a paw at Christians now and then, but we know nothing of suffering at the hands of government the way our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world do.

We know nothing of Cranmer and Tyndale getting publicly killed for their Kingdom work.

I think here we are more in danger of being sucked into being obsessed with the Beast.

Some people bow down to the beast because they think it fixes all their problems.

Some people spend all their time trying to reform the beast into being some old version of itself. “Make the Beast Great Again,” if you will.

But here is the thing about the Beast—it only has the authority that God allows Satan to give it.

And here is the other thing about it—the kingdoms of this world, along with their beastly governments, will be tossed into the flames of hell in the end.

Revelation 19:20–21 ESV

And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

As a Christian, I submit to the authorities above me, but I don’t worship them and think they can fix all my problems.

The government is a beast doomed to die.

And as a Christian, I vote and participate in this union as a citizen, but I don’t spend all my time working to build this government, because at the end of the day, I know what it is—it’s still the Beast.

I work to build a different kingdom. Not the kingdom of this world, but the Kingdom of the beloved Son, which will go on and on forever.

We must be careful not to spend our days fretting over fallen kingdoms.

We must spend our days on guard against beasts, not worshipping them.

My address is on the new earth.

I am just an ambassador here.

We go about representing the true God and the true King and true Kingdom and we expose the lies and the counterfeits and the beast for it was is—works of the Dragon.

THE MURDERING BLASPHEMER (v. 5-8)

We have two points left tonight, but I am aware of the time and it won’t take as long to get through the final six verses. This text is top-heavy.

We see the beast is given a mouth uttering proud and blasphemous words (v. 5-6)

In verse 6, it opens its mouth and its blasphemy of true religion is in totality.

He blasphemes God’s character.

He blasphemes God’s name.

He blasphemes God’s heavenly tabernacle.

And He blasphemes God’s people.

This is what The Dragon did from the start.

He blasphemed God in the garden and convinced Adam and Eve to join in.

The beast coming from the sea in his image spits the same filth from its mouth.

We also see the beast seeking to kill the saints (v. 7)

He makes war on them and is allowed to conquer them.

We saw this when the witnesses fell dead in the streets in chapter 11.

The beast picks up on the work of the Dragon.

The Dragon seeks to kill the Woman in the wilderness and so the beast made in his image does the same.

2. The Beast is a murder blasphemer (v. 5-8).

And what is alarming is that this murdering blasphemer has authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.

This is reminiscent of what we know of Christ.

Revelation 7:9 ESV

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

Yet again, we see how the Dragon is attempting to counterfeit the Messiah with his beast.

But the beast does have this transferred power.

I say transferred because it is limited authority handed down to him by someone who has limited authority.

Remember, Satan has been given authority for a time. But it is limited in scope and duration.

He has now endowed his limited power to the governments of this world, in hope that they will further his cause of stealing glory from God and dragging souls into hell.

But the beast will not have this authority forever.

It will only last for 42 months.

That is 3.5 years.

1260 days.

The last half of Daniel’s 70th symbolic week

That is the age of the church

The last days began at Pentecost and they will carry on until Christ returns.

And when that happens, the time of the beast will come to and end.

All of his limited authority will be gone and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of the Son, Jesus Christ.

But until then, the people on the earth worship the beast.

They think the beast can provide them with security and safety.

They think the beast can save them from destruction.

The climate is changing—the government must fix it—it is our only hope!

They think the government can fix the broken culture

If we just elect the right people, the immoral sexual debauchery in the country will reverse!

But we must know better as Christians.

Our names are written in the book of life from before the foundation of the world.

Our hope is eternal.

It doesn’t just stretch forward, touching the glowing horizon of eternity future on the new earth

It reaches back and believes that from before time, God has His children on His heart and mind

And our names were written down before He even said, “Let there be light!”

We do not worship the beast or put our hope in it.

We keep our eyes on Christ. The Lamb who was slain.

ENDURED BY BELIEVERS (v. 9-10)

And then we wrap up tonight with verses 9-10.

Revelation 13:9–10 ESV

If anyone has an ear, let him hear: 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.

Verses 9 and 10 give us the brutal facts. If you have an ear to ear, listen up.

This is the Spirit’s way of saying, “Hey Christian—this is for you”—after all, only Christians have the spiritual ears to hear the special revelation of the Lord.

John’s text breaks from prose and gives us a little poetic proverb about the reality of the Christian life during the age of the church’s witness.

If you get taken captive, you get taken captive.

If you get killed, you get killed.

Endure and believe. This is the way the world is until Christ returns.

3. The Beast’s attacks must be endured by believers (v. 9-10)

Don’t despair at how the world is. You can mourn it, but don’t despair as if hope is lost.

The world is exactly the way the Bible told you that you would find it.

Evil and angry.

Seething and unbelieving.

Diving further and further into immorality.

And if they lead you away in chains, then you go away in chains.

Matthew 5:11 ESV

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

And if they kill you with a sword, they kill you with a sword.

Matthew 5:12 ESV

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

And if they want to publicly put you in a grave for translating the Lord’s Word into your native tongue, you pray for the King’s eyes to be opened so that the work could change the world.

If they want to burn you alive, you defy them to the end and tell them to burn the part of your body that shames you the most so that their evil at least speeds up the process of sanctification.

John tells us that Christ loved His own who were in the world until the very end.

Those who are in the world who belong to Christ, will love Him to the very end.

Though there are seasons where the reed is bruised and the wick of the candle is barely smoking, God will not let His fire go out.

He will fan the flames and the Christian will endure.

No one who is truly of Christ falls away.

Only those with false professions.

The true saving professions of faith are followed by lives that are kept burning by the soul-stoking of Christ.

And the fire will burn to the end. Whatever may come. Chains or swords. Trophies and victories. Everything in between.

But whatever we do, we will not bow down to the Beast.

He is a counterfeit Messiah.

He is a murderous blasphemer.

But we will endure.

We will meet the Second Beast next week.