The Second Beast

He is writing to churches throughout the Roman Empire who find themselves laboring in this age between Jesus’ first coming and the promised second coming.

Its a difficult age,

Its an age of trial and tribulation,

of martyrs and persecution,

of enduring, persevering, and waiting,

and its the age we still find ourselves in today.

The visions that John is seeing are full of apocalyptic imagery and symbolism that kind of pull back the curtain on the spiritual realities that are ongoing during this age.

There is a very real spiritual world,

a very real spiritual conflict between good and evil that is raging behind the physical scene…,

and God uses these visions given to John to drive home the reality of that world.

We are now in a section of Revelation where visions that John is receiving highlight particularly the spiritual enemies of God at work in our world.

In chapter 12 we were introduced to the great dragon who has been seeking to devour from the beginning.

The dragon is identified as Satan, the accuser, and the deceiver.

Satan is described as having already been defeated because of the resurrection of Jesus, but now he rages against the church

because he knows his time is short.

In chapter 13,

John then catches a vision of a beast rising from the sea, and we saw last week that this beast represents governments, and empires, and human power structures that Satan uses to attack God’s people In the world.

Satan, has, therefore, recruited accomplices in this world to do his bidding.

In the first century it was the Roman Empire with all its imperial cult worship and persecution of Christians…,

but the dragon has been working through human institutions in every place and in every generation in his attempt to prevent the kingdom of God from spreading

According to Revelation 13…,

only those whose names have been written in the book of life from before the foundation of the world will resist and endure with faith the many schemes of the dragon and the beastly empires of man throughout the ages.

The vision of the beast from the sea ends with this call To Christians.

Revelation 13:10 ESV

….Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

The call for the believer from that vision was a call to endure the hardships that come with resisting that beast.

The call to Christ is a call to persevere through the pressures, and persecutions, and tribulations of this life as we await the promise of eternal life.

now in verse 11…, the scene changes again…,

and we have yet another vision of another beast that will lead to a different kind of call to believers in this age.

Turn your attention with me to verses 11-18.

Revelation 13:11–18 ESV

11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 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. 13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 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. 15 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. 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, 17 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. 18 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.

Lets Pray

Revelation 13:11 ESV

11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.

The first beast rose from the sea,

It was immediately ominous and obviously evil…,

rising from a place of deep and mysterious danger and evil.

The second beast, however, comes from the land,

Its less immediately threatening.

The first beast is described with all the fearsome and frightening language of the beasts in Daniel 7.

Look back at chapter 13 verse 2.

Revelation 13:2 (ESV)

2 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.

We saw last week that each of those animal like descriptions are a combination of the four beasts in Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7.

Those beastly images in Daniel were clearly identified as representative of the real world empires that wreaked havoc upon the people of God In history.

The first beast was symbolic for the big bad beastly empires being employed by Satan…, like that of the Roman Empire.

But this beast rising from the land is different.

It is first described as having just two horns like a lamb.

The only reference we have thus far in the book of Revelation for a lamb…, is the person and work of Jesus himself.

the song of heaven is a song of praise over the worthy lamb who took on himself the punishment for the sins of the world.

Revelation 5:12–13 ESV

12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

“Worthy is the lamb” is the song of heaven…,

and here in this vision appears a beast that looks like a lamb…,

Already we begin to see the unique emphasis of this vision…

This beast looks like a lamb but it speaks like a dragon….

The ministry of this particular beast is not so much persecution as was the work of the first beast….,

the ministry of this beast is deception…,

The tactic of the dragon is not always going to be as blatant as a beastly empire…,

His scheming will also include voices, organizations, institutions, religious traditions, churches, preachers, and pastors…..

who at first glance look Lamb-like but who speak the message of the dragon…,

The identity of this particular beast is clarified later in the book of Revelation where this beast will be called the false prophet.

If your a note-taker write this down.

#1 Satan is Mobilizing the Ministry of False Prophets

Listen to what this beast is identified as later in Revelation.

Revelation 16:13 (ESV)

13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.

Revelation 19:20 (ESV)

20 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.

Revelation 20:10 (ESV)

10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

As the visions of Revelation unfold, they reveal the work of God’s enemies in the world taking a particular form.

The dragon, the beast, and the false prophet make up a kind of un-holy trinity working together against the people of God and against the expansion of God’s kingdom.

The dragon gives his authority and power to the beastly kingdoms, in a similar way that God the father gives his authority to the kingdom of Christ Jesus,

and the false prophet speaks for them…, in a similar way that the Holy Spirit speaks and proclaims and witnesses to the work and the glory of the Father and the Son.

In every way, the work of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, is the work of an imposter and an impersonator.

And as devastating as the persecutions from human empires have been…, like ancient Rome, nazi germany, modern day north korea, or china, or Sudan,

This second beast may be the more dangerous of the two beasts.

Look at how the work of this false teaching beast unfolds in the vision.

Revelation 13:12–14 ESV

12 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. 13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 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.

So verse 11 says this second beast looks like a lamb, but actually speaks like the dragon,

Verse 14 says he “deceives those who dwell on the earth”

and verse 13 describes the beast with the same kind of language that was used to describe the prophetic ministries of Moses and Elijah.

The beast does signs like Moses,

We are reminded of the evil magicians in Egypt who at first were able to match some of Moses’ signs by their trickery and witchcraft.

The beast is described as being able to call down fire like Elijah.

In other words, the work of this false prophet is exceedingly convincing…, often even looking like the work of God…,

This is the second truth I want you to write down.

#2 False Prophets Deceive by Appearing Spiritual

This is the very important emphasis of this text.…

the biggest threats to the Christian church are the threats that feel and look and sound religious.…

the biggest threats are those voices, those influences, those thought processes which seem to be speaking for God…, but that are not grounded in the actual authoritative word of God.

This was happening in the church in John’s day…, just consider some of the warnings and commendations within the letters earlier in Revelation.

The church at Ephesus was commended for this

Revelation 2:2 (ESV)

2 “ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

What was happening in Ephesus!?

It wasn’t the threat of Muslims or buddhists, or pagans…

It was the threat of those who called themselves apostles.… those who claimed to walk with Jesus and thus speak for Jesus.

Praise God the church at Ephesus tested those who called themselves apostles…

They did not accept any claims that were contradictory to the revelation already passed down to them by the spirit-filled apostles of Jesus Christ.

In contrast, the church in Thyatira received a strong rebuke…,

Why?

Revelation 2:20 (ESV)

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

They accepted the claims of someone who claimed to be a prophetess….,

someone who appeared to be a lamb,

claimed to be a spokesperson for the lamb,

but who spoke like the dragon.

John’s vision is simply an apocalyptic retelling of the warfare that the churches were already enduring…, both from the persecution of the first beast and the deception of false prophets like the second beast….

both working together to entice God’s people most ultimately to worship something or someone other than the one true God as he has revealed himself.

Look at verse 15….

look at the true aim of the false prophet...

Revelation 13:15 (ESV)

15 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.

#3 False Prophets Deceive by Drawing Us to Worship a Distortion of God

The false prophet breathes upon the image of the beast to make it speak.

Again this is a picture of mockery and imitation of the one true God…,

It is the Spirit of the Living God which breathed upon humanity that gave us life…

but here the false prophet,

like a false Holy Spirit,

breathes upon a false God…,

to deceive the people Into bowing the knee to an image.

There is also an allusion here to the book of Daniel as we discussed last week.

Daniel 3:4–7 (ESV)

4 And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.” 7 Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

This is the aim of the second beast….

the false prophet wants your worship.…

In ancient Babylon, it was Nebuchadnezzar‘s image.

In Ancient Rome, it was Ceasar’s image…,

but don’t think for a moment that just because we live in a modern culture that the work of the false prophets is stunted, silenced, or slowed.

He works today just the same..,

He looks spiritual, but he subtly distorts the image of the one true God in our hearts and minds,

so that we find ourselves bowing the knee to something…,

but not to the God of the Bible Who has actually revealed himself in the flesh of Jesus Christ and on the pages of his inspired word.

For most of us in the room…,

we are not tempted to bow to a statue.…,

we are not tempted to bow to Buddha,

or to Baal,

or to one of the 300 million Hindu gods…,

but we are tempted to bow to the our own distortions of who we think God should be…,

We live in a culture that perhaps uniquely has crafted our own god…,

We serve this god,

we crown this god with all the authority and influence in our lives,

The god of modern western civilization is the god of self.

Rather than formulating our opinions about God from what God has said…,

we formulate an image of God based upon what we think God should be like…,

what we feel God should do or not do….,

we decide what God really means in his word..,

we decide what he approves of,

we decide what he disapproves of,

and in the end..,

we sound spiritual

And we may even sing songs

and we may pray prayers

but all the while we are bowing to a god of our own creation….

All the while we are bowing to

the god of American culture and values,

the god of material prosperity,

the god of love and tolerance as defined by us,

the god of man made traditions with all the appearance of religious piety…,

But….,

American religion is very much about conforming god into our image…,

Rather than repenting and submitting to the God who will conform us into his image.

This is the work of Satan in the world…,

#1 He Mobilizes the Ministry of False Prophets

#2 False Prophets Deceive by Appearing Spiritual.

#3 False Prophets Deceive by Drawing Us to Worship a Distortion Of God.

But thats not all….

The deception and the distortion often have very real world consequences.…

the false prophets often make promises about temporary prosperity and security...

They appeal to our desires for temporary and immediate relief.…,

They use the threat of persecution and tribulation against us.

This leads us to truth #4

#4 False Prophets Tempt Us with Temporary Relief from Trials and Tribulations

thats what verses 16 and 17 are all’s bout.

Revelation 13:16–17 (ESV)

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, 17 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.

We have already seen the symbolism of a marking on the head… and we will see it again.

This is how John described believers back in Revelation 7.

Revelation 7:3 (ESV)

saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”

In chapter 7 the seal on the head was a symbol of the security of the salvation that is promised to God’s people.

We are sealed by the sovereign grace of God.

We are his servants.

We belong to him by his grace and for his glory.

The mark on the four head in chapter 13 is the reverse of this.

It shows servanthood not of God…

but servanthood to the beast...

It’s a testimony of allegiance to the dragon.

And such servanthood purchases temporarily the ability to buy and sell in man’s kingdom.

There may be a parallel here with the real situation in Ancient Rome Where Christians who would not bow the knee to the emperor were prevented from engaging in business and thus suffered economically.

This was certainly the case for some of the churches that this letter was first delivered to.

Remember Jesus’ words to the church at Smyrna.

Revelation 2:9 (ESV)

“ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty

Remember the vision of the third seal in Revelation 6, where believers are seen to be suffering economic injustices.

Though I know it might get a lot of clicks on YouTube channels to say that the mark of the beast is your facebook profile, or your credit card, or your real ID or your Costco membership..,

I don’t think the mark is any one distinct tattoo of the future.

Commentator G.K. Beale writes,

“The mark was used for the emperor’s seal on business contracts and for the impress of the Roman ruler’s head on coins. If this background is in mind, then it enforces the metaphorical idea that the the mark in Revelation 13 alludes to the state’s political and economic ‘stamp of approval,’ given only to those who go along with it’s religious demands.” - GK Beale

The mark in this vision is a symbolic way of distinguishing those who have bowed the knee In exchange for temporary relief and financial prosperity.

in every age including our own, false prophets whisper to us that there is a way

to make make more money,

To satisfy our fleshly desires,

and to escape our difficulties,

there is grass thats greener just over the fence of compromise…,

if we would just compromise on our commitment to the one true God.

This translates in all kinds of ways…

It’s tax season…, and many of you have a choice even now….

You can lie and be more prosperous,

or you can tell the truth and suffer loss.

Those decisions are ever before us even in a day and age where we are not presently heavily persecuted.

The false prophet is whispering for you to take the wide and easy way that leads to destruction.

Revelation 13 was written for this purpose.

It’s a call to Christians.

A call specifically to Wisdom.

Revelation 13:18 (ESV)

18 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 whole vision really leads to this call And our primary takeaway this morning.

#5 Christians Are Called to Wise Calculation

Wisdom is something to be pursued.

We know this of course from our study of Proverbs a couple years ago.…

Proverbs 2:2–6 ESV

2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

but Revelation certainly brings another element to our pursuit of wisdom .

There is a a beastly spirit of false prophecy raging against the people of God…,

and seeking to infiltrate the church like a lamb who speaks the words of the dragon...

but we are called to “calculate the number of the beast”

that is we are called to discern it’s number…,

and then we are given the number.

the number is 666….

I do not believe that Revelation 13:18 was given to us primarily to provide content for our horror films and haunted houses.

I do not believe that we are meant to do some secret mathematical equations to determine the specific name of the person that this number represented.

There have been literally hundreds of hypothesis of how the numbers add up to mean a particular name…,

But we know from our study that Every number in Revelation thus far has carried symbolic significance.

The number 12 and its multiples has shown itself to be symbolic for the whole people of God.

In the very next chapter John will behold a vision of 144,000 of the redeemed…,

not at all saying that only 144,000 people are redeemed throughout all of human history, but the number represents the full number of God’s redeemed people in every age…,

there were 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 disciples..,. And thus the full number of God’s people are represented by 12 x12 x 1000.

The number 7 carries with it the idea of completion, fullness, perfection, and/ or fulfillment.

The whole book is structured in order of

7 churches,

7 seals

7 trumpets,

7 signs,

and 7 bowls.

So when we see the number 666, we should be asking what kind of symbolism do these numbers represent.

Well I think that if 7 is the symbolic number for fullness, or completion Of God’s plan…,

then 6 is symbolic for incompletion, imperfection, falling short, and failure.

And the 6 repeated three times carries the same affect as the angels singing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty…,

only the point is failure, failure, failure is the kingdom of the beast…

failure failure failure is the kingdom of man.

False, false, false, is the word of the false prophet.

And the point is that we believers have a responsibility to discern who is speaking for God…,

and who is speaking for the beast.

That’s what it means to calculate the number of the beast…,

It‘a the wisdom and the discernment thats necessary to know when something looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon.

How do we do this practically?

Let me give you a few applications this morning:

#1 Regularly Re-assess Who or What Your Authority Is

Who has authority over your life, your decisions, and your beliefs?

Functionally who is in charge over your reality?

Is it most ultimately your opinions that you have granted supreme authority…, or is there a higher authority?

the false prophets, and false apostles of the world have granted authority to themselves and their false gods.…

but we Christians must be different.

We believe there is a supreme creator,

we believe he has spoken clearly through his creation, through Jesus Christ, and through the inspired writings of his apostles in the Bible…

That is our authority…, and we calculate the truthfulness of any claim on the basis of that authority.…

If you find yourself saying well the bible says this…, BUT i think this… you may even look like a lamb…, but those are the words and the logic of the dragon…,

we must be the kind of Christian’s who re-calculate our own hearts and our own submission to the true authority.

At the same time we must test everything we hear by that authority

We must test every teaching against the authoritative teaching of God’s word…,

and we don’t have to do that alone.

The apostle Paul’s continual instruction is that the Christian person find a safe haven within Christian communities full of people who also are seeking to live their lives under the authority of the word of the one true God.

#2 Rely Upon Word-Centered Community

The enemy is fought against through the ministry of word-centered shepherds

Paul gives this command to the Elders in Ephesus.

Acts 20:28–30 ESV

28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

He gives this command and warning to Timothy

2 Timothy 4:2–4 ESV

2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

He gives this command to the members of the church in Ephesus…

Ephesians 4:14–16 ESV

14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

And to the church in Colossae

Colossians 3:16 ESV

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

God has given a gift of grace in the church community that is devoted to the apostle’s teaching.

We are laboring to know the word and to protect each other from the lies of the dragon.

This is God’s design for your good that you endure with the saints as you speak truth to one another in a world of lies.

#3 Rejoice in the Grace of God’s Revelation

God has been so gracious to us.

He doesn’t have to speak.

He doesn’t have to make himself known.

We have sinned against him,

and we have so often worshipped the creature rather than the creator…,

we have so often fallen into the traps of the deceiver…,

but by God’s grace he sent Jesus to live and die for us.

To make known the glory of the one true God..,

and to bestow upon us the wisdom necessary to know the one true God.

May we know be the kinds of people who view the spiritual disciplines of bible reading and church attendance as burdens put on the back of believers…,

but as gifts of grace.…, meant to help us calculate the true number of the beast who is determined to devour us..,.

This calls for wisdom…,

but its wisdom that our God graciously gives to those who trust in him.

Lets Pray.

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