War Against the Saints

Introduction

Dragons. Beasts. Tribulation. Judgment. War.

Not exactly the start of your typical sermon is it? In fact, if its your first Sunday here, I promise you we are not crazy people! I am talking about these things today because the Bible uses these words when describing the War Against the Saints of God.

Why?

Each of these words evokes an image, doesn’t it? And what imagery does is it grips us in a way that regular, straightforward language cannot. Theologian Darryl Johnson says imagery “hooks us to the very center of our being” and helps us to internalize the underlying truth represented.

Show me, don’t tell me illustration.

**Review of the Tribulation - Jason set up that the time of Tribulation will be a time a trial and testing of the Saints of God. That it will be a time of God pouring out his wrath on sin**

Today we are going to spend the vast majority of our time in Revelation, with some pits stops in Daniel.

My approach to Revelation is this - knowing that Revelation was written to 7 Churches trying to find a way through life in the midst of immense persecution in the Roman Empire

Revelation was written to a specific group of people at a specific point in time - “written to them, but for us”.

It cannot mean to us what it did not mean to them

Today we are going to be jumping back and forth between some of the most talked about, debated, and pondered sections of apocalyptic passages known in the Bible. And i’m going to be honest with you, I struggle to even preach or take a stance on any of these topics because I’ve seen first hand what it can do to communities of believers. The squabbling, the fights, the church-splitting that happens over the topic of the end times is one of the most confounding realities of the modern church. I have very little stomach for the debate, to be perfectly honest with you. Because no matter how you slice it, no matter how you try to squint to see something different…

The unrelenting message in Scripture when it comes to the End Times is “Fear Not Tomorrow. Tomorrow is won”.

THAT is ultimate reality! THAT is Truth that cannot be shaken. THAT is the foundation upon which we stand.

With that being said…lets see how many people I can make mad today. Please stand with me as I read Revelation 13.

Scripture Reading

Revelation 13:1–18 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. Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 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. 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, 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. 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, 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. 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.

The Dragon (Rev 12) - Satan, our enemy,

Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

Revelation 12:12 “Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!””

Church, we are at war with a defeated enemy who KNOWS he is defeated. He is called the “deceiver of the whole world” and thats exactly the campaign he has started. It started in the Garden of Eden and continues to this day. And yall, he’s good at it! HE”S GOOD AT IT. Way better than you and I. Its going to sound right. I promise you its going to sound right. More on that later.

The Dragon has his minions to help him. the first is the Beast of the Sea.

Beast 1 (Antichrist; Rev 13) - Dragon-Directed Governmental Power 1 John 2:18

The first beast is called out of the Sea, which is a common symbol used in scripture to represent the world, or society in general.

There are striking similarities between the first beast at the four beasts from Daniel 7.

Four Beasts from Daniel

Beast 1 - Lion w/ eagles wings

Beast 2 - Bear

Beast 3 - Leopard with 4 wings and four heads

Beast 4 - Exceedingly terrifying w./ iron teeth, Ten horns + the Little Horn

Interpreted in Daniel to represent four kingdoms

The First Beast in Revelation

Ten Horns and Seven Heads

Ten Crowns

Like a leopard, feet like bear, mouth like lion,

To it the dragon gives authority.

The first beast is most often thought to be the Antichrist.

Now, here’s where I need to make my first aside….if you expect me to stand here and tell who, what, when, and where the Antichrist will be….you will leave here sorely disappointed

The beast described in verses 1-10 is said in verse 2 to have the dragon give it his throne, his power, and great authority. Remember, Revelation was written to specific churches at a specific time. They would have read this and immediately would have thought ROME. Roman Caesars at this point in history were deified and expected to be worshipped as such. They had complete and total authority, and Christians were persecuted because they held that God was the only true God and would not recognize Caesar as equal.

Remember the similarities we just talked about with the four beasts in Daniel? Those beasts were interpreted in Daniel to be representative of four kingdoms that oppressed God’s people. This beast in Revelation appears to be a combination of the four beasts in Daniel. and he does the bidding and commands of the Dragon.

Beast #1 Represents Dragon-Directed Government Power.

In the time Revelation was written, this clearly would have hit those who read it as talking about Rome. I tend to agree, because how cruel would it be for God to reveal this to John, have him write a letter to the seven churches, and then in that letter tell them that - it’ll be good….in some far off time and some far off place…but it’ll be good. God wins. No, this was a message of hope to the people of God then, just like its a message of hope to the people of God now. Governments that reject God and do the bidding of the dragon become beastial. And I think it has manifested multiple times in history, and has been defeated multiple times throughout history because that is its destiny. Defeat. Devastation.

Remember, what I just said holds true regardless of the details regarding sequence, or the specifics that so often divide the Christian community about the end times.

If I haven’t lost you already, buckle up….

Beast of the Land (Later called the false prophet in Revelation) - Dragon-Directed Religious Power

Now we see the second beast. Later in Revelation he is referred to as the False Prophet. His job is to point to the first beast, to direct peoples attention toward and call people to worship of the first beast.

Revelation 13:13–15 “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, 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.”

So what the Beast of the Land represents is Dragon Directed Religious Power.

The second beast represents religious power that exists to point you to the state. My goodness how true this has been throughout history. This beast has been one of the most prevalent ways in which the dragon deceives the people of God throughout all of history. The relationship between religion and state has led to destructive ends time and time again, yet we still keep falling for the lie that the state offers a false hope that will never last.

And if you think we are immune to that here in the US because of our so called commitment to separation of Church and State - I worry greatly about the future of our country. This is an apolitical point - BOTH sides our country are littered with pulpits that will just as soon point to the state as the hope for the future of our country than to the ONLY one in whom we should place our hope - Jesus Christ. And yall, i promise you, its going to sound right. But falling for it will mean putting your faith in the beast and not the one and only savior of the world.

Time and time again we have fallen for the lie that we should be a Christian nation that we’ve forgotten the call to turn our country into a nation of Christians. You cannot legislate the Gospel into the society. The Gospel conquers from the ground up and not the top down. Believing otherwise is to put your faith in the beast.

If what I just said angers you, I will put my red-blooded cold, hard, Patriotic love of America up against any of you - but she makes a crummy Savior yall. We have the best country and system that man can devise and it still is garbage compared to the hope that lies before us. And if you ever hear from this pulpit, or from any other pulpit a message that points anywhere else other than placing our hope solely in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ - Run. Run as fast as you can.

Mark of the Beast - “head and hand” calls back to Deuteronomy 11:18. Ezekiel 9:4-6 “Mark of the Believer”. The mark of the beast is the continual, routine, blatant disregard and rejection of the teachings of God.

Now I want to talk about the mark of the beast. Revelation 13:16 “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,”

Alright….the mark of the beast is not a tattoo, a brand, or the microchip Elon Musk wants to put in everyone’s head. Thats too obvious. If you’re worried about the government, or big tech, tracking you….get rid of your phone. The Dragon is too smart for that. He’s too good. It’s not going to be that obvious

Any readers of this passage would have read the words right hand and forehead and immediately their minds would have gone to Deuteronomy 11:18 which says “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” This was God’s way of telling his people to constantly keep his truths close in mind with what they think, say, and do.

Anyone with an in depth knowledge of the old testament would have immediately seen “right hand and forehead” and thought ‘Deuteronomy’.

Additionally, life in Rome required you to swear allegiance and acknowledge loyalty and worship to Ceasar in order to be able to participate in the economy - rejecting the teachings of the Bible. Otherwise, life was very hard for you.

So in this light, those who have the mark of the beast are those who continually, routinely, and blatantly disregard and reject the teachings and Lordship of God. And then swearing allegiance to the two beasts and the Dragon - these three make up an unholy trinity. That is what is meant by 666. Throughout scripture there are several numbers that symbolize completion. Two of these numbers are 3 and 7. So 3 (complete) 6’s (incomplete) we find this unholy trinity to be completely incomplete. In every way, in spite of their efforts to be God, the best they can do is mimic.

So how do we fight this. If it’s so subtle, and sounds so right, how do we possible fight it?

We don’t fight it by studying the dragon.

We don’t fight it by studying the Beast of the Sea

We don’t fight it by studying the False Prophet

We fight the attack by the unholy trinity, the trinity that can only mimic but never replicate the power of God, by studying and knowing the REAL thing so well we can spot a fake. We become so INTIMATELY familiar with the character of God that when something inauthentic comes along we can sniff it out right away.

We also don’t do it alone. As Lauren and I were talking about this last night and our homeschool group and the other beautiful groups of people God has brought into our life through this church and elsewhere. And an image came to my head of the old Greek phalanx formation. Shoulder to shoulder. Shields in front, shields on top. When one gets hurt and falls he’s pulled back into the group and immediately replaced by another shield to protect him while he recovers.

We do the same when we gather together. When we do life together. When we bear each others burdens. Love each other and each others families. When we call each other out of sin and into the light. When one falls we surround and bind up their wounds rather than throw to the enemy.

That is a people the Dragon fears.

Fear Not Tomorrow. Tomorrow is Won.