Whatcha Lookin' For - Revelation 13:16-18

Whatcha Lookin’ For?

Revelation 13:16-18 Whatcha Lookin’ For?

I told you last week that we would look at verse 17 and 18 concerning the mark of the Beast, the number of his name and the number of a man: His number is six hundred and sixty six. And to be sure I am going to keep my word. But remember when we first started I told you that we would not be trying to name the Antichrist or the False Prophet, we will not be defining what the mark of the beast is and we will not be specifically defining the meaning of 666 only its symbolism as best we can. Just so you know I intend on keeping my word there as well. So to that end we will be looking at Revelation 13:16-18 to begin with but we will move to other portions of the Scriptures. Let’s pray and then a have a quick review then get into our passage.

In chapter 12 we met the fiery red dragon. We recognize him as the serpent of old, Satan himself. He is wrathful towards God because he is kicked out of heaven and no longer can accuse the redeemed of God. In chapter 13 he calls up two monsters. The first monster he calls up from the sea symbolizing turmoil and unrest. This monster we noted represents the antichrist. The antichrist will come to the world that is in collapse and ruin, looking for a savior and offer himself as the savior of mankind. He will work wonders and will appear to have been dead but now alive. People will worship him as god and bow down to him as a false messiah and he will unleash the wrath of the dragon on the redeemed of God. Then the second monster comes on the scene. He arises from the land representing solid security. Nothing is more stabilizing than religion and this beast will be the false prophet causing the world; those whose names are not written in the Book of the life of the Lamb to worship the antichrist; to bow down and worship him. He will be so convincing that the lost will build a statue to the antichrist and the false prophet will cause it to appear alive demanding that everyone worship him and those who do not would be killed.

Now let’s read Revelation 13:16-18 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666 (six hundred and sixty-six).[1]

We covered verse 16 and the first part of verse 17 last week but to catch us up; everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, from every station of society will receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads. I will be as honest as possible, I do not know and I do not believe anyone else knows what this mark is. But I do know that whatever it is it denotes that that the person wearing it owes his allegiance to the Beast and ultimately to the one who gives the Beast his power, Satan. It will be a mark that is given and received because one worships the Beast/antichrist. It will not be received accidentally or forcibly. I read a person’s idea of how this will happen written back in the 60’s and he said that at the beginning of the Antichrist’s reign when you give the cashier your money they will laser a bar code on your hand whether you want it or not. That will not happen. I remember back in the 70’s there were movies out there that showed the government tracking down people, holding them down and branding them with the mark of the beast. That will not happen. It will be a joyful choice because the persons worship the antichrist. Most likely it will be more like a worship service, like baptism or first communion in some Christian churches. And like I said a couple of weeks ago it will not be a microchip inserted in you when you take a vaccine. Those who take the mark will take it willingly in worship of the Antichrist, the new savior of humankind. And because they have chosen to worship the Antichrist they can now enter into civil society and do any kind of commerce they desire. Without the mark no one will be able to purchase food, medical attention, car repair, homes or even make their house payments, you will not have access to water in your homes because you cannot buy it and if you have a well then you are out of luck because you will not be able to purchase electricity. This is not going to be just an inconvenience for those whose names are written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, this will be life and death, at least while you are in this world that will increasingly be opposed to God, the things of God and the people of God.

What we know about the mark is that it will be the name or the number of the name of the Antichrist and it will be applied in some way on the forehead or the right hand of everyone both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb. We know that those whose names are written in the Book will have already been sealed by God on their foreheads whether this is visible or not is unknown. However these marks designate who one worships and everyone living during that time will have a mark, one or the other. Of course that is somewhat true today as well. You are either saved by the blood of Christ and serving Him or you are lost in your trespasses and sin serving Satan.

That pretty much covers verses 16-17 and it carries us over into verse 18: 18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666 (six hundred and sixty-six).[2] What we have in that statement by John is a riddle of literal biblical proportions. It is almost like John is saying: “If you are smart enough you can figure this out. The Beast’s name in number format is six hundred and sixty-six.” For the ancients this might not have been as difficult as it is for us. You see the Greek speaking world and the Hebrew speaking world had no numbers. The Romans had their Roman numerals but they were cumbersome so the Greeks and the Hebrews used letters of their alphabet for numbers. Let me try my best to explain this. The first 9 letters of their alphabet were the numbers 1-9. The next 9 letters were the numbers 10, 20, 30…90. After that the letters were 100…900. There were only 24 letters so they used some letters that were no longer used and some dots…My eyes were crossed and my hands were shaking by the time I got through looking at that so let me just says that they used letters for numbers. If I were to use the English alphabet and use my name, George, my number would be 174 but how many other people’s names in English would have the same number? There could be almost endless possibilities. The same is true of the Greek language. The second century church father Irenaeus gave the possibility of Lateinos (the Latin empire[3]) it does add up to 666. Some have suggested Nero Caesar. But to get his name to add up to 666 you have to use the Latin spelling Neron Caesar then change it to Hebrew making it add up to 666. There is no indication that the first readers of the Revelation of Jesus Christ would have even known Hebrew much less how to write it so we can throw that out. During Napoleon’s invasion of Russia the Russians were sure that Napoleon was the Antichrist because if you changed a couple of letters and dropped one letter then wrote it in Russian it would add up to 666. The point I am making is that if you really want to name someone as the Antichrist all you have to do is manipulate the spelling and or the language to get the “truth” of who he is.

Just for the record when John wrote this letter to the church he wrote out using Greek letters the number of the man whoever he is. His name in numbers is chi, x, stigma, six-hundred and sixty-six not 6.6.6. Using this same format that is called gematria, using letters for numbers, the number of the name of Jesus is 888. Six-hundred and sixty-six is far short of eight-hundred and eighty-eight. Some believe that it is more helpful to think about the possibilities suggested by the phrase, it is a man’s number, that is a human number rather than a divine number. The name tie of the Son of God, Jesus, as I have said, calculates at 888; the name of Antichrist, whoever he is, is only human and only calculates at 666. This means that in spite of his terrible imitation and mockery of Jesus, Antichrist will fall short both in reality and in mathematics. Others have suggested that the number 666 also falls short of the “divinely perfect” number 777, but nobody has offered a believable suggestion about how to make any name for God calculates at 777. In fact, only by using Arabic numerals—not even invented in the first century—can we readily see the mathematical relationship between “666” and other name totals.

To be honest with you I believe that it would be best for us to confess ignorance. Although John expected anyone with understanding to calculate this number, the last nineteen centuries of preaching, teaching and study have kept this a secret. We do not now know who the Antichrist is. Even though I do not believe that using gematria will tell us in advance who the Antichrist is I think that when he begins to do his evil, attacking the redeemed of God and claiming to be god then I believe the number of his name will become obvious. It will serve to confirm his identity. Surely it is better for us to see how this entire chapter contrasts God’s eternal truth with the final mockery of God’s truth in which Satan will deceive the world.[4]

To be frank with you my first inclination when I began working on the Revelation of Jesus Christ and then later when we started chapter 13, my first inclination was to just not even delve into the “number of his” and the whole 666 issue. But as I moved on through the text and saw that the purpose of the Revelation is to reveal Jesus, to know Him more fully, to see His sovereignty and His glory as He brings to completion God’s plan to redeem His people.

So the world is going to be looking for a savior to come in and save them from all of their trials and tribulations. He will promise peace, health and prosperity if you will only put your in him; if you have enough faith you will be fine. The whole world (those whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb) will be looking for him. Even people in the church want to know who he is so they can be looking for him too. They want to delve into all kinds of methods to identify the Antichrist. To that I have to ask the question: “Whatcha lookin’ for”. What is your focus? Because he is the Antichrist all he can do is counterfeit the true Christ, the true Messiah of God. So why are you spending your time, you energy looking for him when we have a mandate to look to Christ? We should be actively looking for Christ.

Philippians 3:20-21 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.[5] We don’t need to look for a savior to come riding in to save us. We already have the Savior. We have already put our faith in Him and we live in His kingdom, we are citizens of His kingdom and it will conquer all other kingdoms that rise against His. He will change our bodies that are frail due to sin into glorious bodies like His resurrected body. 1 John 3:2-42 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.[6] Since we will be like Him we should purifying our lives now in preparation of seeing Him. We don’t have to be looking for someone to bow down to so we can get our daily bread because as Paul said in Philippians 4:19 19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.[7] All of Psalm 37 alludes to this but look at verse 4:4Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.[8] Delight yourself in Him. Will there be trials and struggles? Yes, some will be imprisoned and some killed by the sword but look at what Paul said about that in Romans 8:18 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. [9] Every struggle and hardship we experience on this earth is nothing compared to what is to come. People of God need not be looking for the Antichrist, we will recognize him when he arrives but we should be setting our eyes elsewhere as we read a moment ago in Colossians 3:1-4 to seek those things which are above, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. We should be doing as Paul says in Titus 2:11-14 11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.[10] Did you get that? Our lives should reflect that we have been changed by our Savior and that we should focus our lives on Him and His glorious appearing. The grace of God is not in vain and Christ’s intention is to present His bride as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish according to Ephesians 5:27 and if we are looking anywhere other than to Christ, awaiting His coming, His appearance, then we are not without blemish, spot or wrinkle. It is high time for the church, the redeemed of God, to stop looking around and start looking up.

So again I ask you; “Whatcha Lookin’ For? Are you looking for someone to make you more comfortable, more personally fulfilled, wealthier, healthier, and more prosperous? Or are you looking for the One who will make your eternity secure, you life and heart clean and mend the broken relationships between you other people and God? One of those is going to be here some day and if that is what you’re looking for then you will find him and all you will have to do is bow down and worship him. But the other, the One who will secure eternity, HE has already come once to redeem for Himself a people. He will return again to take the redeemed of God home, then judge the rest, look for Him. Look up, look for Jesus. Let’s pray

[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 13:16–18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 13:16–18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[3] Easley, K. H. (1998). Revelation (Vol. 12, p. 234). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[4] Easley, K. H. (1998). Revelation (Vol. 12, p. 235). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[5] The New King James Version. (1982). (Php 3:20–21). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[6] The New King James Version. (1982). (1 Jn 3:2–3). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[7] The New King James Version. (1982). (Php 4:19). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[8] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ps 37:4). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[9] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ro 8:18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[10] The New King James Version. (1982). (Tt 2:11–14). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.