Revelation 13:11-18
Notes
Transcript
If you’re able would you stand for the reading of God’s word.
Today we read from Revelation 13:11-18
Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and compels the earth and those who live on it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. It also performs great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in front of people. It deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs that it is permitted to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
It was permitted to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could both speak and cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And it makes everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast’s name or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666.
Pray with me. Go ahead and have a seat.
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We have arrived at the chapter with the infamous mark of the beast. Deep breaths everyone, we’re gonna be okay.
This section has had so much written about it and speculated about it. A lot of that, historically speaking, has been quite good. Also quite a bit of it has been less then stellar. Which again, leads people to either revo-mania or revo-phobia, which we’ve talked about many times. We can err by ignoring these texts, as if they have nothing to do with us, or by hyper-focusing on them and letting speculation consume us. Both are wrong.
I will say, that the mark of the beast promotes a ton of speculation. I mean so many things have been speculated to be the mark of the beast. Visa Cards, bar codes, vaccines, passports, social security numbers, microchips, bitcoin, smart phones, and even the internet. Others even think that worshipping on Sunday is the mark of the beast, as the sabbath day was originally Saturday.
And this type of speculation typically does not lead to good fruit in the lives of people. It usually makes us more fearful, more resentful, instead of loving God, loving people, and making disciples.
Remember - the goal of revelation isn’t to make us afraid. It’s to challenge us to overcome. It’s a work of victory, not fear. So however we read this book - if it makes us more fearful of the world, it it makes us less bold about the proclamation of the Gospel, if it makes us want to hide inside our homes rather than be out in the community - then those are indicators we are reading this text wrong.
This book was written to first century Christians who were feeling the tension to compromise their faith and participate in idolatrous and evil systems, rather than be faithful to Jesus. For faithful living can have dire consequences in worldly circles.
And in the roman world, we know that it lead to great consequences for believers who refused to worship caesar as a god. or to worship to the pagan gods.
We know that during the time this book was written, perhaps the end of the first century, that the trade guilds were largely controlled by the empire, and had pagan influence throughout them, and Domitian claimed to be a god, and that there was the imperial cult and cult prophets running amuck. By Christians refusing to participate in the pagan feasts associated with these guilds they would be having significant financial struggles and not just financially, but could even face legal issues.
Now not every emperor pursued legal recourse against Christians - some were too busy running an empire and fighting wars so that hunting down a peaceful religious sect just didn’t seem that worthwhile. But there were some emperors in which an incredible amount of persecution broke out.
While quite a while after Revelation, in 249AD a man named Decius became the roman empire. Now when he assumed the throne, rome was going through a lot of turmoil, with barbarians growing restless, and serious economic issues at home. Decius looked back at the times of Julius Caesar and wanted to bring rome back to it’s glorious days of old. He theorized that Rome was dying and struggling because they had abandoned their ancient gods.
Well Christianity had been spreading for those two hundred years, and with nothing less than the fate of the Roman Empire at stake (from his perspective) he needed to rid the empire of Christians. But he knew that killing the Christians wouldn’t put and end to it, for fifty years earlier, Tertullian, a church fathers had written that the blood of the martyrs was a seed for the church - that wherever it was spilled the more christians would spread.
So instead of creating martyrs, he wanted to create apostates. Christians were told they must recant their faith
To do so, Decius declared that worship of the old gods was mandatory throughout the empire. EVERYONE must worship and offer sacrifices to the old gods, and to burn incense at the statue of Decius. Now here’s where it get’s interesting - those who did so - those that complied were given an actual certificate called a libellum that stated that they worshiped the pagan gods and caesar. If not - they would be considered outlaws.
So christians were forced to either capitulate, and pray to a false god - and be given a mark from rome they were legal - or to confess that JEsus is Lord and perhaps endure torture. I mean that is as blatant as it gets right?
Again in our country where we enjoy great religous freedom - that type of thing seems outrageous - but remember - evil that looks evil is almost never the problem, is evil that masquerades as good, or indifference that ends up causing the most harm. Make NO mistake, Satan and his beasts are at work in our day, in our time, in our country, just as he was at work in first century Rome.
Let’s walk through our text now, starting with verse 11 and 12
Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and compels the earth and those who live on it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.
John sees another beast - instead of from the sea, this time from the earth. This is a separate entity than the first we read about last week - yet both are agents of the dragon.
This beast says it has two horns like a lamb - and yet spoke like a dragon. That’s important! Remember, when we were introduced to the lamb in chapter 5, JEsus Christ, the Lion of Judah, the lamb that is slain - he had seven horns, which reflected the Spirit of God and the completion of his authority.
This beast has two - but like a lamb. This is a forgery, a mockery. It’s an attempt to look jesusy, but when it opens his mouth it wasn’t of God - but of a dragon or satan.
This beast is often called the false prophet. One who appears in all the right places, and looks like how a holy one is supposed to look - and yet when he opens his mouth: something is wrong. It doesn’t sound like God.
False prophets, false leaders, false Christs even are nothing new to the biblical understanding. In the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 18, the israelies were told that prophets who presume to speak for God, but God didn’t command them to speak that is a false prophet and must die. Or if they speak in the name of other gods, must die. Or if they prophesy and their message is not true or fulfilled, they are not real. Or in Deuteronomy 13, if a prophet does signs and wonders and works crazy stuff - but points to follow other gods, that they are false. So in the Old Testament - a true prophet is one that shamelessly following Yahweh, and is proven by their words and deeds.
In the new testament - there is an expectation for false as well. Jesus in Matthew 24:23-25 says this
“If anyone tells you then, ‘See, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Over here!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Take note: I have told you in advance.
Paul talks about this in Galatians 1:6-9
I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!
So the idea of false prophets was true in the Old Testament, in the time of Jesus, in the early Church, and we have no reason to doubt that false prophets are active today.
And the dangerous ones are the ones with stuff that’s just similar enough to Jesus, while sounding nothing like him. They speak great on stage, but you get them alone off stage and they are wretched and lost. They make bold predictions and freak people out but they never come true. They are more excited about hyping up political figures than proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Looking back at verse 12
It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and compels the earth and those who live on it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.
So this false prophet has the same authority and power of the first beast - and compels those on the earth to worship the sea beast. Whose has a fakeness about him as well - remember the first beast looked as if he had been fatally wounded. The false prophet is trying to convice people to worship the beast!
A lot of scholars here point out that emperor worship of the Roman Caesars has to be in mind here. And that makes sense contextually. Again - The early church in asia minor here is being compromised by false idols and the imperial cult. And they are feeling the pain of being poor by not participating in the pagan rites.
Rome promised Peace. They claimed the be the sons of god. And interestingly enough - many at this time thought that the emperor Nero was going to come back to life.
Brief history lesson -
Nero reigned as emperor of rome from 54ad to 68ad. And he oversaw truly heinous persecution of Christians. And even his roman contemporaries describe him as tyrannical, self-indulgent and debauched. And yet historians note that amongst the public he was generally quite popular.
This was the emperor who likely oversaw the death of PEter and Paul. And eventually he was declared an enemy of the state by a rival in the imperial senate, but before he could be hunted down - he apparently committed suicide.
This lead to a crazy period of civil war known as the year of the four emperors - and there was real fear that the empire would collapse. And many began to hope that the suicide wasn’t real and that Nero would come back to and the war.
Especially in the eastern empire, near where Revelation was written two, there was a common myth that Nero hadn’t died and would return.
He claimed to be linked to Apollo the sun god.
And now in the 90’s when revelation was written, Domitian is emperor and he has brought back emperor worship to a huge degree. In Ephesus, there was a temple of Domitian, with a giant statue of the emperor where people were expected to come offer incense to.
And apparently, in Revelation 2-3 there were some false teachers in the church who were telling the churches that it wasn’t a big deal! They should just go along with it so they can continue to operate and live well in the glorious empire of Rome. I mean doesn’t God want us to be safe and happy? We know that Caeser isn’t really a god, so what’s the big deal?
That seems to be at view here, The false prophets, pointing at Rome, saying yeah just worship it. it’s not a big deal. And look - nero will come back and make us all better right?
One could also think of the old testament story of Nebuchadnezzar and the giant golden statue, which - believe it or not, in scripture is 60 cubits high adn 6 across. And all the world was to worship it or be thrown in the fire - but Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego didn’t worship it. And they have this crazy line in Daniel 3:17-18
If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”
He can rescue us, but even if he doesn’t not. Woah.
And you may think it odd for Christians to put their hope in political leaders - but that is one of the main ways that Satan can work to compromise us. When we become more excited about a politician than Jesus Christ. We need to pray for the faith to answer like those in daniel that God can rescue us, but even if he does not we will not worship or serve any other god.
Look at verse 13-15
It also performs great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in front of people. It deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs that it is permitted to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. It was permitted to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could both speak and cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
The beast does wield power - and causes fire to come down. These phrases, performing great signs, brings to mind Moses, and causing fire to come down brings to mind Elijah - which if you remember months ago now to REvelation 11, the two witness who perhaps stand for the church in the image of Moses and Elijah. Now, We see this false prophet - this false christ, with two horns, mocking not only Christ, but his people.
GK Beale has this great quote in his commentary on Revelation:
“When purported Christian teachers take their primary cues from the surrounding culture instead of from God’s word, they corrupt the covenant community spiritually by encouraging it to live by norms and a faith that ultimately oppose the reign of God and Christ.” - G.K. Beale; Revelation
This beast, this false prophet, makes the image of the beast seem to come to life - allowing the image speak. And whoever did not worship the image of the beast was to be killed. This is wicked deception for the world, but also the church if the people of God capitulate and falter rather than overcome.
Verse 16-17
And it makes everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast’s name or the number of its name.
We get an infamous passage here - that in order to participate in the beasts world, in the ways of this world, you need to conform to the image of the beast. Again - this can lead to just gross speculation and fear. But I actually first heard this from Mat Chandler - we need to think about this in terms of the Shema and Deuteronomy 6. The Shema is the prayer that the jews would pray twice a day. Look at this - Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
I highlited verse 8 here - bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be symbol on your forehead.
In Revelation, the mark of the beast is like an Anti-Shema. Belivers are called to be marked by Christ - we read about that Revelation 7, where the believers were sealed.
We are called to be marked by Christ - by love of God, love of neighbors, love of the Gospel. Death to sin, willingness to suffer on others behalfs. Quick to forgive and slow to anger.
Instead of marked by the world and satan. I don’t think it’s visa cards or anything like that - it’s a way of life and operating. IT’s an allegiance.
And in context, like I shared earlier - stuff like that literally happened with the libelliums. And often I think things like it happen in our lives. Where we stand at a decision point of whether to participate in something evil, or not to. And usually if we do, there is some type of perceived benefit that is offered to us in exchange.
My concern is if we look at this mark as it will be a literal future physical thing - that we will miss the ways that the dragon and the beasts are already trying to mark us by participating in evil ways here and now. We need to remember that this book was written TO real believers two thousand years ago. It had to have made sense to them. And I think it did in very real ways with the pressure of the imperial cult and worship.
But it’s not ALWAYS just a physical mark or paper - it often is a condition of the heart. I can’t help but think of Joshua 24:14-15
“Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord. But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”
As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord. That is the stuff.
Last verse of Revelation 13 verse 18.
This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666.
This one verse is perhaps one of the most debated verses of the whole book of Revelation. We’ve talked a lot about this already during my introduction, but the calculation of this number has been difficult for Christians throughout time. The most common means of interpretation is that of gematria, which if you’re not familiar is that of numbers and numerals. In many ancient languages, letters were substituted for numerals - think of roman numerals. Well Greek, Latin, Hebrew, all were this way.
So many will try and add up the values of names to see if they get to 666. One of the issues - in your Bible, you may see a footnote under verse 18, where it says that some manuscripts have 616. The most consistant ancient name that fits both (depending on spelling) is Nero Caesar. But it’s not super clear. Becuase a ton of names can be made to come out to this number.
Even the early church fathers had huge hesitations about signaling out specific names.
Irenaues (who lived in 140s - 200s ad) and an early church father and bishop says this:
New Testament XII: Revelation The Name of Antichrist
It is therefore more certain and less hazardous to await the fulfilment of the prophecy than to be making surmises and casting about for any names that may present themselves, inasmuch as many names can be found possessing the number mentioned; and the same question will, after all, remain unsolved.
We do know, and Beale points this out, that in revelation the word number, arithmos, is always used figuratively in Revelation. And so others will point out how if 7 is the holy number, and trinity would be a 777, then perhaps this is to show the evil, and falseness of the dragon, beast, and false prophet with 666, whom some have called the unholy trinity.
What is helpful is to remember to have wisdom, endurance, and faithfulness. And to be aware of how Satan is trying to compromise us.
Let’s stop there and ask our question:
So What?
So What?
What are we to make of the land beast, the false prophet, and these section of scripture with a whole lot of baggage and speculation surrounding them? How are we to hear the Spirit in this to live faithfully as conquerors?
Tim Dwyer rights that Satanic Political power (the sea beast) worlds in tandem with Satanic religious power (the land beast) to deceive many. Satan operates by offering things he has no authority to offer, in exchange for obedience and worship, which he doesn’t deserve. He’s a liar, and an accuser.
At the top, we need to be aware that Satan has false teachers and false prophets at work in the church and in the world working to deceive us and lead us into sin and deception. So we need to test all things to ensure we are on the right path - and the best way to do that, is to study the true thing!
Spend time with JEsus. REad the sciptures. Pursue godly teachers and submit to them. Confess sin, flee temptation.
Time and time again we are going to be offered sneaky morally great or ambiguous ways to get ahead - that we would gain the world and forfeit out souls.
We need to be aware of the ways we are tempted to compromise and how insidious some of this stuff is.
Craig Keener in his commentary on revelation sites an article from Christianity today from 1998, where they suggest that even though bankruptcy rates are 18.6 percent higher in counties with casinos than in other counties, and suicide rates average four times higher in heavy gambling areas, the government gets benefits and the gambling industry even gives money to churches and charities. Their goes is to silence you by compromising you.
The covetousness of our culture is deep - keener says this too - every time we buy something we dont need because our neighbors have one, we compromise with the worlds system’s values.
Our culture is so tricky because it is a free country, and especially in our area largely culturally christian. The problem is most people are not submitted to Christ, and therefore are willing and even proud to skim some off the top to get ahead.
It’s okay to look at porn, as long as you don’t have an affair, some say. It’s okay to steal from the wealthy, for they have a ton anyway. IT’s okay to lie or fudge the truth to a customer, they won’t know the difference.
A lot of people put much more hope in money, in governemnt, and in control rather than in the cross of Jesus Christ.
Keener summarizes it this way:
Revelation allows for no divided allegiance: we must decide between God and the world and between what each side values. And remember - Every beast kingdom, every babylon has fallen, and every empire who opposes God and oppresses us will fall too. The future belongs NOT to Babylon, or Rome, but to the faithful. Who await new heavens and new earth.
And if I can bring this home to us right now even more:
Men, a lot of our wives are off at the womans retreat right now, which is amazing. Good job showing up today even though your wife was gone - I know it’s tough.
But I think we as men, as fathers, need to own this for our homes and our community. How you, man, operate and live, has drastic impact on our community and future generations.
Sociologically we see this in a lot of ways. When trying to reach families with the Gospel, if a kid is saved, they may bring their mom and siblings, but probably not dad. If the mom gets saved, you may get the kids, but not the dad. But statistically, if the father is saved and chooses to attend, the whole household attends.
How you, man, live, operate, and model life with God, matters. To you brothers, sisters, neighbors, wives, and children and grandchildren.
We must not be passive men. We must not allow evil into our homes. We must resist. We must confront. We must love and be willing to be tender and vulnerable. And bold. We must pray for our kids and in front of our kids. Our kids need to see us reading scripture and seeking the Lord. Our neighbors need to hear from us how God is actually the one who calls the shots.
In others words - we all need to choose this day who we will serve. Will we just allow the forces of the world push against us and blow our kids into evil and death - or will we choose to follow Christ, even unto death - so that we, and our households will experience life with God forever.
As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
What about you?
I call you, my brothers, to step up. to draw a line in the sand, and commit to follow and model Christ in your life for others.
And in doing so, we will cover ourselves in the blood of the lamb, and preach the word of Christ to others.
What does this look like tangibly?
Pray with your family. Out loud, start praying for your kids - you don’t have to be weird about it, but you need to do it. PRay with your spouse, out loud, every day. And you need to take your own faith seriously, lead us, my friends, by following Jesus.
Choose this day, who you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Would you stand with me as we pray?
