Revelation 17

if you are just entering in this morning. Like a mid season episode. You might be asking who that is or why that person is doing this or that

refelction on revelation

apocalypse Bug language

x ray of the spiritual reality of things.

it sheds light on reality

Imagine you are sitting around and all the sudden the power goes out. It is completely dark. What is the first thing you do? Why do we automatically look for a light? What are we looking for when we do that?

Why do we automatically fumble around for a light switch? We are hoping for instruction. We are hoping for a better layout of our surroundings that we have previously had. What is it like to walk in darkness? – Wewalkinthedarknessofinjustice – Ofbrokenrelationships – Wewalkinthedarknessofwaiting – Wewalkinthedarknessofrage – Wewalkinthedarknessofdepressionandanxiety – Wewalkinthedarknessoftheworkofthe principalities and powers of the world – OfViolenceandforce – OfMisunderstanding – Ofdeceptionandexploitation. – Wearestumblingaroundlookingforthelightthat can end any one of these things.

We are looking for something that can actually do anything about these dark places in the world and in our lives.

We have seen a lot of darkness and a lot of chaos in the book of Revelation. The next two chapters are like walking around in a pitch black room.

But we will see that someone finally and fully turns on the light for us.

This morning we are going to look at the effect of evil in the world and it’s attempt to reign larger than Christ.

Last week we talked about justice and God’s work to end evil. Today we will see one final stand of evil against God.

And in our world we see all sorts of evil. Spriritual evil, human evil, injustice, violence. Coercion, manipulation.

Augustine states that evil is something that is turned away from good. we take what is initially good and turn from it. That act of turning is evil itself.

evil is overcooked desire

Have you ever overcooked something? Pasta? Or put toast in too long?

I made hot dogs years ago and I must have put them too long on the grill. I served my family and the first words out of Josiahs mouth was “boy dad you sure do know how to burn our food.

Evil is overcooked desire. Something good, something that we need and want that we spend too much time on. Evil is rarely just raw evil, it comes from a place of desire, something we want. And then we overcook it and it perverts and it becomes sin

That is why there is beauty in revelation 17. That is why there is power in revelation 17. There are things in there that have a base in desire, in something good and useful. But it got overcooked, it got manipulated for our own selfish good. The goalpoasts changed.

That is why empire never turns out. That is why all empires fail. They overcook. They collapse in on themselves like a noodle that has been boiled too long.

We do the same thing. We take what is good and think that we have the ability to use it properly but then never really do. We need someone who has not overcooked desire.

And so cooperation becomes competition.

beauty become envy

Instead of helping we push down in order to rise

We have become weary of holding up against evil.

Evil can never stand on it’s own. But Christ causes people to be able to stand.

Let’s look through the chapter to see what evil is trying to do and why it is a ruse every time.

we are going to see a few different ways in this chapter that evil tries to stand but can’t and how Christ is the response to each

Evil always tries to manipulate through a disordered love. Christ re orders us through eternal love

Revelation 17:4–6 ESV

The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.

What does a kid do when they aren’t getting the attention they want? They make more noise.

Unfortunately, humanity hasn’t grown out of that.

We want attention.

We make noise until we get it.

The woman in this passage is the city, the mechanism of humanity. All that humanity uses in order to get attention.

This is not saying that humans aren’t beautiful or make beautiful things, it means that we will often arrange things in such a way to manipulate or to disorder or to coerce.

We do this ultimately because of a disordered love.

226a Freedom and evil really come down to the application of what we love.

Our loves are either ordered or disordered. A disordered love is bound with the fear of loss and with it an easy inroad to the privation of evil.

If my love is disordered then I will only love that which will help me get to where I want to go. And when that kind of love happens, there is only selfishness and anger.

As soon as love is disordered, everything is competition. And as soon as there is competition, we will do whatever we can to diminish someone else in order to ascend.

disordered love is a dark room.

some of us live in disordered love that is only competitive

We need a better way out. We don’t just need better tactics, we need a better definition of love itself.

We have to realize that as a culture.We are tired and weary because we keep hoping in whatever yells the loudest.

# We continually bump against the truth that evil is with us and we cannot domesticate it

# We have tried to eliminate evil but have only been able to marginalize it.

# We have tried to work with or tame it. We need instead to resist it through our witness to Christ and our worship of Him.

Love is defined as doing what is best for the other person regardless of what it costs you. The Bible says that God Himself is love. HE is the definition of love. And that definition completely gave Himself for others. Real love lifts the other person, it will not lift itself because of the other person.

Christ didn’t come into the world yelling and shouting, He came into the world and died for those He loves. God Himself would rather die than abandon us. He still stands in the human condition offering life and purpose. It is not the defeat of evil on our terms but the resolution to live with it in such a way that we understand evil will surrender to Christ.

Evil can only copy, only God can create

Revelation 17:8 ESV

The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

We hear now abou tthe beast. This is the spiritual reality of evil itself. It manifests through human operation.

it shows itself in and through the brokenness of humanity, taking advantage of anything it can

But evil is never really making anything. It is just copying. It never generates or creates or heals. It only takes.

Christ, who evil makes war upon, is the highest form of creation. In Him all things hold together

Romans 4:17 ESV

as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

God Himself creates by speaking.

ex nihilo

He has created all we know and understand. Life lived in God lives in a created and re created order. God takes, makes new, restores, redeems, finds, upcycles and makes.

The church is a part of that life. We live lives in Christ that are regenerative. That offer peace when there is no earthly way. That offers love to our enemy, that forgives when the world wants to crush.

Evil will always attempt to break up against the Lamb of God.

Evil will always collide into anything in their way, only God makes a way

Revelation 17:14 ESV

They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

this is just the nature of evil itself

Because evil will always ask more from you. It collides because it will never offer of itself, it will only take

Evil is parasitic.

It needs a host. It needs something other than itself. It can never stand on it’s own.

Evil is always more hollow than it is meaningful

233c1a2b Arendt understands the banality of evil. Evil is nothing because it is “wholly negative” Evil as non action. It is the negation of action always a non space. The author calls it a “causal hiccup.”

And we see here, and will see in the rest of the book of Revelation, that the Lamb will conquer those who make war on Him. Those who stand against HIm.

Notice what the Scripture states. It says that they will make war on Him. Notice what it doesn’t say about Christ. It doesn’t say that He will make war on them. It just says He will conquer them. The lamb will.

Jesus isn’t wringing His hands over some kind of battle strategy, He isn’t worried about war and rumors of war. He has already conquered.

Let’s go back to Revelation 5 when we saw the lamb.

We haven’t left this image. It is still the same. We are called to remember Him.

Revelation 5:5–7 ESV

And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

THe lamb who was slain is Christ on the cross. The cross as the ultimate response to evil. Taking on the evil of the world, taking on the sin of the world, so we would have another option.

198c1d2e3f4g5h Revelation contains good news about Christ that shows us “uncompromising faithfulness leading to undying hope”. Even when surrounded by evil.

We are reminded that evil has tried to do everything to conquer everyone, everything to become as noticeable as possible and everything to destroy the Lamb. Christ has come to us. Not just so we would notice HIm. But that we would be found by Him and know Him. God didn’t make enough noise so we would find Him, God came to us first.

Maybe you are here this morning and you feel like wave after wave of things have been breaking against you. Evil will always collide it will never partner. Maybe wave after wave has been in your heart, harboring anger or bitterness.

That will never make a way, it will only collide against anything in it’s way. And that will not work.

We need someone who has made a way.

Christ who has loved first, and gone first, and sacrificed first and given first, has made a way through that evil. Has made a way through His death and resurrection.

You can trust Him to make a way. He has made a way and He will make a way.