Sermon Tone Analysis

Revelation 13:11–18 (ESV)

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.

Last week we saw the beast that came from the sea.

We saw that it represented the secular powers of the world - the governments, the commerce, the money - all of which is ultimately under the rule of Satan.

And we saw that those of the world worshiped this beast, which means they ultimately worship the dragon, who is Satan.

Many think of the earthly powers that be, as ultimate powers, so they give their allegiance to those powers, they serve those powers, and they look to those powers as their savior.

And we saw, the results of this is persecution for those who do not worship the beast.

This is Satan’s goal in his reign over the beast.

He wants to affect the church’s mission because he knows his time is short.

So some of us are thrown into prison, and some of us are killed.

This happens now and it may happen to us.

And at the end - right before Christ’s return - we saw that the beast will be allowed to prevail over us for a time.

And we will all be persecuted like never before.

And we saw that John ends with this:

Revelation 13:10 (ESV)

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

Because all of that is happening, we need to persevere through faith so that Satan doesn’t win.

But Satan is not done.

There is another way he makes war on the saints.

There is another beast:

Once again, we see that this beast is part of the kingdom of the world.

Remember, the sea and the earth together are used to speak of the world as a whole.

We had a beast from the sea that represented the secular powers of the world.

So what is this beast that John sees rising out of the earth?

Well, we need to note that in the ancient world, even into the first century, that people thought of the land, or the earth, and the sea, very different ways.

The sea represented chaos, whereas the land represented order.

The sea represented danger, whereas the land represented safety.

And what came from the sea would be thought of as foreign, whereas what came from the land would be thought of as native.

So here in Revelation 13, the sea beast is foreign to John and the first readers of the book.

It is foreign to the church.

It is secular power that is outside the church.

But the land beast would be native to John and the first readers of the book.

The land beast comes from within the “church”.

This beast represents religious power.

And make no mistake, there is great power in religion.

Why?

The Bible is clear that all people have a knowledge of God in them, even if they suppress that truth.

Romans 1:18–23 (ESV)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Everyone worships something.

We can’t not worship.

This is why Thomas Edison called man “incurably religious”.

Worship is part of who we are as humans.

It’s how we’re created.

We were made to worship.

But because of sin, we don’t always have the right object of worship.

And so people worship false gods.

Like worldly powers.

Or like false religion.

And false religion is more powerful than non-religious powers, because it fulfills man’s innate desire to worship something greater than himself.

And what this beast represents is false religion, and its power over people:

But we need to realize, the best counterfeit is the fake that is the closest to the real thing.

And we tend to think of false religion as things like Islam, or Hinduism, or any one of the various cults we have seen throughout history.

And they are.

But the most dangerous false religion in the world, is false Christianity.

And it comes in many forms.

And I am not talking about modern Christian heresies like Judaism, Mormonism, or Jehovah’s Witnesses.

I am talking about nominal Christianity.

A religion that is called “Christian” but is really anything but.

And this describes plenty of so-called Christianity in the 21st century.

And this is what is being described here.

Note that this beast, unlike the sea beast that had the features of all those other animals so we’d know it represents those world powers from the vision of Daniel in Daniel chapter 7, this beast has only one visible feature that John describes.

It has two horns like a lamb.

The word here means sheep, lamb, or ram.

We considered this word when we looked at Revelation 5:6:

Here, the Lamb is Christ.

And as we saw, the word used here for “lamb” is used only once outside the book of Revelation.

And we decided that there was no special significance to John using this word to describe Christ, even though there were other words he could have chosen to describe a lamb.

And when we looked at Revelation 5:6, we looked forward to this verse:

This is the only place in the book of Revelation that this word for “lamb” is used of anyone - or anything - outside of Christ.

It is used 29 times in the book, and 28 references are to Christ.

So while there is no significance to John using this word to describe Christ, I think it is very significant that he uses the word to describe the horns of this beast.

He is likening this beast to Christ.

The horns - and remember, horns represent power - so the power of this beast, is in it resemblance to Christ.

It appears Christian.

But it’s not.

Because there is another feature of this beast.

It isn’t visible, John hears it.

It spoke like a dragon.

And of course, the dragon in the book of Revelation represents Satan.

So this beast resembles Christ, but speaks the words - the lies - of Satan.

This is false Christianity.

And while I am not going to call out any specific denominations or types of so-called “Christians”, false Christianity is any Christianity that points people anywhere but Christ, that holds anything other than Christ to be ultimate: be it to tradition, idols, or any one man - or political action, social justice, and the ways of the world.

False Christianity redefines sin and salvation.

False Christianity preaches self-help and easy love - it teaches that people are ultimate.

It is a Christianity that is very much concerned with, and influenced by, the world.

There are churches not far from here that would condemn you for believing in salvation through Christ alone, but would celebrate you if you took part in a pro-choice rally.

It looks like Christianity to many, but it teaches the lies of the devil.

This is what is being described here: