Revelation 13
Well… Hey! We’re back! I said it last service. I’ll say it again. That’s a great way to start a sermon! Right? [The lights went out as the last song was sung] But I’ve got a question for you. Do you? Do you feel the world is broken? Do you feel the shadows deepen?
First and foremost, welcome to Saylorville Church! My name’s Colton Willey. I’m the Connections Director here, and I know that was weird, okay? Now trust me, we don’t start every message that way, okay? That was intentional, obviously, if you couldn’t figure that out. But that’s a great song! It’s from a guy named Andrew Peterson. It’s called, “Is he worthy?” — and it’s a triumphant song about the Lord Jesus Christ, both what He’s done and what He will do. But what if it stopped at those first two lines? Maybe that reflects how some of you, how I am feeling right now in our world today, Christian or otherwise. Maybe, if you’re like me, you feel like there’s just a palpable darkness on the world. There’s wars. Our current national culture doesn’t have a clue what it’s doing! Up is down. Left is right. Our politics are divisive, full of hate, and there’s just this cloud of anxiety over the whole society. And it may seem to some of us that the light (like in the auditorium) seems to be fading. But us Christians we’re not surprised by this. As the old proverb goes, ‘The night is always darkest before the dawn.’
And dawn is coming!
If you’ve been with us the last couple of weeks, you know that we’re actually in the Book of Revelation. It’s our sermon series. And we’ve entitled the series “Unveiling Jesus Christ.” And in fact, if you go throughout all the Book of Revelation, there’s a central theme. The King, King Jesus, God incarnate who created everything, who created you, The King is coming again! We’ve seen seals broken. We’ve seen trumpets sounded, and today in Revelation 13, we are in one of the darkest moments before the light. Chapter is going to talk about a future world leader who the author of Revelation calls “the beast.” Paul in his epistles calls this same character “the man of lawlessness.” And John in his epistles calls him “the Anti-Christ.” So that being said, if you have a copy of scripture, I would invite you to Revelation chapter 13.
Just to give you some context, this chapter takes place at the height of the tribulation, a moment of great oppression, and wrath and judgment on the unbelieving world. And there may even be, there will be some saints who have yet to come to Christ in this time period. But if you remember two weeks ago in Revelation chapter 12, Pastor Pat brought us through the battle that took place in heaven. The hosts of Satan against the armies of angels of our One true God, and of course Satan lost and was thrown down to the earth, and now that he’s been thrown down here, he has a personal vendetta in Revelation 13 against God and against his people.
Now there’s a lot going on in this chapter. Just for the sake of kind of helping us out here, I really want you to focus in on three main characters. First and foremost, there’s “the dragon.” This is Satan. This is the devil. This is the arch enemy of God and his people. And then in verse one, there’s a beast that comes up from the sea. This is the first beast. This is the Antichrist. And then in verse 11, there’s another beast. Another beast rises out of the earth. And this is a False Prophet. It’s a religious leader that’s aligned with the antichrist. So that being said, I’m going to read through the whole passage and we’ll kind of unpack it. Revelation chapter 13. John writes,
Revelation 13:1-18 (ESV)
1 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.
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 (that is Satan) gave his power and his throne and great authority.
3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, (Many commentators think that the Antichrist actually received some kind of mortal wound) but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.
4 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?”
5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. (that’s three and a half years)
6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
7 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,
8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, (That is, the beast) everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear:
10 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.
11 (Here’s the second beast) 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 (almost like an idol or a statue) 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.”
This is the word of the Lord.
So in Revelation chapter 13, Satan, the arch enemy, the ancient foe, is cast down to earth. And in his death throws, because he’s already been defeated at the cross and will be defeated to come, he raises up this beast. And there’s all kinds of vivid symbols throughout this chapter, but it’s important to note, even though it shows a picture of a beast, this isn’t an actual monster. This is a man. And this leader will be the most evil enemy of God’s people ever! And he’s actually a leader that was prophesied in scripture in the Old Testament. We don’t have time to go too crazy here, but if you go back to the prophet Daniel, Daniel chapter seven, the prophet Daniel is given a vision by God of all human history, and in that vision, he sees four beasts, a lion, a leopard, and a bear. And then the fourth beast is so crazy, he can’t even describe it. But then he kind of asked for an interpretation. And the angel says to him that these four beasts represent four kingdoms. And out of these four kingdoms will come a king someday. And this is explaining the king in Daniel 7. See if this sounds familiar.
[Daniel 7:25] (Speaking of this king), “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law;”
This is the Antichrist, a very real, future descendant of all the oppressors of God’s people from Babylon to Greece to Rome. He’s a real person, and he’s a culmination. If you look at the text, this beast has the heads of all the former kingdoms. This antichrist will be worse, more cunning, and more powerful than any oppressor of God’s people before. And I know what you’re thinking. ‘Well, Colton, who is he? Is he here?’ Yeah, he is. But not how you might expect. ‘What do I mean?’ Do yourself a favor, never look up the antichrist on YouTube, okay? It’s gonna say he’s this person… he’s that person… it’s just rabbit trails all over the place! But people do that throughout history too. The church has always said, ‘There he is! That’s the Antichrist!’ Listen, I can’t tell you who the Antichrist is, but I can tell you that there are currently antichrists among us right now. How can I say that? — Because the Apostle John, in his epistle, 1 John 4[:1-3], tells the church, tells you to;
1 John 4[:1-3]
1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.“]
… test every spirit, test every idea, test everything that people give to you as truth. Test every spirit and any spirit that does not confess that Jesus came in the flesh is the spirit of the antichrist. And remember, “anti,” (Pastor talked about this.) —the prefix there, “anti”, it can mean “opposed to Jesus,” but it also means “instead of Jesus.” And let me ask you, are there people currently in our culture today that are opposed to Jesus? Are there people in our culture today that offer an alternative to Jesus? Yeah, there is. In fact, the spirit of the Antichrist might be in this room right now. It might be in you right now. 1 John chapter 2 verse 18 says,
1 John 2:18, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that (the) Antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come…”
So the point is, is that even though there is the antichrist of Revelation 13, there is always throughout all the generations of church history a type of antichrist. In fact, just last week, they celebrated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz. And perhaps there is no better example of a type of antichrist than that psychopath, Adolf Hitler. This man who took over the reigns of the Nazi Reich, he instigated the deadliest war in human history, millions of lives. He had dominion over Europe and parts of even Africa. And most infamously, he murdered six million Jews, God’s own people.
I’ve entitled this message “666: Then, future, and now, Today,” and our question is this; What weapons will the Antichrist to come and the spirit of the antichrist today use against God and his people? One of the biographers of Hitler, his name’s Ian Kershaw, he said this of Hitler, and this is true,
“Hitler was no tyrant imposed on Germany. Hitler was legally appointed to the office of fear.”
One of the biographers of Hitler, Ian Kershaw
Do you realize that? Hitler took power legally! The German people gave him power! He arose by deception, and the antichrists to come and the types before him, they do the same thing. They do use force, but they mainly use deception. So what are those deceptions? First and foremost, the antichrist then and now is going to try to make materialism. That is the love of stuff, the love of money, the love of materials. He’s going to try to make materialism your master. Checkout verse 16. This is a famous verse, right? The mark of the beast. Don’t look that up on YouTube, okay? — Because you see, people are so busy trying to figure out what the mark is… ‘Is it a chip? Is it a barcode?’ I don’t know… that they actually miss the whole point! Anyone that doesn’t have the mark of the beast, what can they not do? They can’t buy or sell. What is the antichrist doing? And what do antichrists today do? They’re attacking people’s security. The antichrist says to the faithful, ‘If you resist me, if you cling to this stubborn faith in Christ, I’ll strip away everything from you. I’ll take away your home. I’ll take away your possessions. I’ll take away your money, your food. I’ll take away everything. The floor of your life will drop out.’ And he won’t be the first to do this.
In 1933, the very first thing that the Nazis did when they started to take over Germany is they instituted a boycott on all Jewish businesses. They would literally just write Jew on the business. So when people were walking through Berlin, they would know which ones were Jews, and they’d also put all kinds of Nazi propaganda up on the windows. But they didn’t just do it to Jews. They did it to anyone who sympathized with them, even Christians. And so these Jewish Germans and their sympathizers, they had a choice. Are we going to hide our faith and be secure, be comfortable, or are we going to stand against the darkness?
Friends listen, you have the same choice today. What are you trusting in right now for your security? What’s the floor of your life? What’s actually holding you up? What are you trusting in? Is it Christ or is it your materials; your checkbook, your 401k, your car, your house, whatever? What’s that one thing that if it was taken from you would throw your life into chaos? Perhaps no one says it better than God, Himself, through the prophet Hosea. Hosea chapter 13 says… this is God talking. He also talks to us today. This is what he says.
Hosea 13:[5-6]
5 “It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought;
6 but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.”
The antichrists today and the antichrists to come, he offers you a choice. Are you gonna have security in Christ, eternal security through the blood of the Lamb? — Or are you gonna have security in the world? ‘Cause friends, you can’t have both.
Our small group actually hosted one of our missionaries last Christmas, and they came to our house and our small group and we just asked them, “How can we pray for you?” Like, “How’s your heart right now since you’ve been in the States?” — because that can be hard. I’ll never forget what she said. She looked at us and she said,
“Guys, it’s been good, but I’m just, I’m too comfortable. I’m forgetting about Jesus.”
Un-named missionary here on furlough
The more secure you are in this world, the less you need Jesus.
So you’ve got to ask yourself the question, ‘Are you too comfortable?‘ You see, so many of us, (I’ve done this too) so many of us confess Christ, but in our life, in our day to day living, we don’t depend on Jesus at all! We’re living as if he never came. And that is the spirit of the antichrist.
But that’s not all. The antichrist, then and now, is gonna try to get you, try to get us to wonder… without the word. You notice the beast doesn’t rise alone, right? He rises up with the second beast which is acting as a false prophet. This is gonna be a religious leader, someone who’s calling people to worship the beast, worship the Antichrist. And notice all the crazy things happening. In verse three,
[Revelation 13:3, “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.”]
… the Antichrist, it seems like he has some kind of mortal wound. But then he miraculously resurrects. He’s almost faking the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. In verse 15, this false prophet calls down fire from heaven. Verse 13, sorry.
[Revelation 13:13, “It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people…“]
And then in verse 15, there’s this statue that they build.
[Revelation 13:15, “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.”]
And this false prophet gets the statue to talk. It’s very interesting to me that the Antichrist, he doesn’t do what we would expect. He doesn’t use atheism. He uses belief! He uses faith, a corrupted faith. All these miraculous signs, they’re not empowered by God, They’re empowered by the dragon, by Satan. And again, this is not new.
Did you know during the Nazi regime that there was a church, there was a state-sponsored church? (Watch this) It was called the German Evangelical Church. And these guys were straight-up collaborators. It was literally a Nazi propaganda machine. They had racist doctrine, all kinds of just divisive things. They had ceremonies devoted to Hitler. But perhaps one of the most shocking things was what was recorded in history. When German soldiers died on the front, they would come back and they would be buried through a funeral ceremony through this church. And history records that during one of those ceremonies, a Nazi official stood up in front of the church and said this.
“This fallen soldier towers over Jesus of Nazareth who pleaded that the bitter cup be taken from him. How unattainably high are all of our fallen soldiers as they stand above Jesus?”
a Nazi official speaking at the funeral of a soldier who died on the front
Friends, that is blasphemy! That is wonder misplaced. This church had deified a man… men, over God incarnate.
But the question is how do people approve of these statements? How does someone that says they’re a Christian allow that to happen? They have no knowledge of the word, no knowledge, because listen, you can’t defend what you don’t know. Do you know this book? Are you feeding on it? … Is it your daily bread? Because listen, there’s churches all over our nation today that though they confess Jesus, they live lives in utter opposition to him. The Lord Himself said that His Word is not just a truth. His Word is the truth. [John 17:17] So either these churches don’t know truth or they just don’t care. They’re led by other things, things that I struggle with too.
Many Christians today are led by their feelings, or their culture or their politics. They look Christian, but they’re devoid of Christ! The antichrist then and today doesn’t use disbelief. He’s gonna use belief.. belief in the wrong things.
Psalm 119[:105] famously says that ‘the word of God should be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.’
What’s your guiding light? Is it the true unchanging testimony of Scripture? — Or is it a passing fad? — Is it the latest book? — Is it the newest YouTube sensation? Listen, if you’re living a Christian life apart from this book, you’re basically living as if Jesus never came, and that is the spirit of the Antichrist.
And finally, the antichrists then and now calls us to faith without fire, that is, the fires of tribulation, a tough, suffering faith. You notice the very beginning, verse 7;
Revelation 13:7, [“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…“]
… It says that this beast will make war on the saints. The Antichrist and the antichrists today, they want to scatter the flock. They want to destroy God’s people. Remember that German church, evangelical church? They deified German soldiers. During one of their services, there was a pastor present, not a very well-known guy. His name was Paul Schneider. And when the Nazi official got up and said that, he said this and I quote,
“I protest! This is a church ceremony, and I, as a Protestant pastor, am responsible for the pure teaching of the holy scriptures!” Pastor Paul Schneider
Brother Paul was removed from office, he was hunted down throughout Germany by the Gestapo, the Nazi Secret Service, he was thrown into concentration camp and he was killed by lethal injection. Paul Schneider was the first martyr that Hitler killed. In history, reports about our brother Paul, his biographer says this,
“Paul Schneider was an obscure village pastor. He could have escaped persecution completely had he simply been willing to keep his mouth shut.” Paul Schneider’s biographer
Why didn’t he keep his mouth shut? Why not just be silent? Our brother Paul had the same spirit within him as the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament. The prophet, Jeremiah, says of God, he says,
[Jeremiah 20:9] “If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.“
Brother Paul had that fire! Do you? Do you have a passion for God and His word, the one true God? If you’re a Christian, who saved your eternal soul? — do you have a desire to know Him and to make Him known? — Or are you silent to the voices of the antichrists today, both without you and within you?
Another martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, killed just before the war ended, said this:
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak, is to speak. Not to act, is to act.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Antichrist calls for faith without fire, living like Jesus never came into our world. But brothers and sisters, we confess with all the martyrs that King Jesus did come in the flesh and He will come again. The light will turn back on.
Do you feel the world is broken? Do you feel the shadows deepening? Don’t you know that for all the dark, it won’t keep the light from coming through. Friends, in Christ, perfect life, shed blood on that cross for us and His resurrection, all antichrists and the dragon are already defeated! Hitler reigned in Germany for a time, but not without resistance within. His own people rose up against him. His own generals rose up against him and, yes, our brothers and sisters who are now in glory with Christ, they rose up against him, too! In Christ we, the church, can and must do the same thing. I love this verse! In Second Thessalonians, this is talking about the Antichrist to come.
2 Thessalonians [2:7-8]
7 “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only He who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.”
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth…”
Something currently restrains the Antichrist to come right now. What is it? It’s God the Spirit through the church, through you! You, by the power of the Holy Spirit, restrain him! See, the Antichrist, he tries to make materialism our master, but us Christians, God’s own people, we use our materials as a method to push forward the kingdom of God, because we’re not trusting in the security of this world. We’re trusting in the eternal security that Christ has won for us. We don’t store up treasures on earth, but we throw up treasures in heaven.
And that’s exactly what this church is doing. We have already risen half a million dollars to fund the Send Fund. We want to send missionaries across the globe that, by the power of the Spirit, they might restrain him who is to come. We have a ministry here called Heart for Des Moines where we reach out to the homeless, where we reach out to the broken, where we reach out to those who are down- trodden. In fact, whenever you’re generous with your stuff, whenever you’re hospitable, whenever you let go of your own security in order to give security to other people, you by the power of the Spirit, restrain the Antichrist. The Antichrist tries to make us wonder without the word. But us Christians, we wonder at the word. We look to Christ who loved us first. We count Him trustworthy and we say what Paul said. What do the scriptures say? Whenever you open your Bible, whenever you read this and it’s a tough passage, or it’s hard to understand, whenever you memorize scripture, whenever you explain scripture or teach scripture to someone else, the Spirit of God restrains the Holy Spirit through you!
And finally, the Antichrist calls us to faith without fire, but Christians looking to Lord Jesus, we have faith through the fire, and only because He went through the fire first. We speak truth even when it’s hard. We speak truth to power. And when we have cancer, when our finances collapse, when our families are in disarray, we have faith. Our lives look different than the world and the Spirit of God restrains the Antichrist.
So there’s only one question. Are you a restrainer? Are you living in the spirit of Christ or the Antichrist? — Because honestly, the ultimate way that the spirit restrains him is us, God’s people. We look to the Lamb. Look at verse 8 real quick.
Revelation 13:8, [“… 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.”]
It talks about perseverance, and it says that everybody in the tribulation will worship the Antichrist except those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. And it says that those who are gonna go into captive, those who are destined for destruction, the Antichrist and all his minions, to destruction they go. But you, dear saints, since you’ve put your faith in the risen Lord Jesus, if indeed you have, your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life. And guess what? It’s written in permanent ink! It says (there are… next slide here. I think we have it up here.)
[Revelation 13:8-10
8 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.
9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear:
10 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.“]
That is the perseverance and faith of the saints that we look to the Lamb. So the question is, are you in the Lamb’s book of life? You can only be in the Lamb’s book if you realize your need for him. Do you need Jesus?
Notice the mark of the beast. This is one of the most famous things; 666. That’s a very famous number in Revelation. But you know what number comes up more? Seven. Seven in scripture is the number of completion. Some say it’s the number of perfection. And what number is short of seven? Six. For all his power, for all his bluster, the antichrist falls short. He’s not strong enough to fight against the King of Kings. And listen, if you are not in Christ, you fall short too. The scriptures say that we have all sinned.
[Romans 3:23, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”]
We all fall short of the glory of God. And that means since we fall short, we deserve punishment. We deserve hell, just like the Antichrist. But then the scriptures say that…
[2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.“]
‘God the Father made Him, Jesus, who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God through Him.’ He took your place!
How do we have endurance in the present darkness and the darkness to come? — By realizing that if we are covered in Christ shed blood… we are complete! Christian, you are more than a conqueror through Him who loved you!
[Romans 8:37, “… in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.“]
[John 11:25, “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”]
“…and though you may die, yet you will live…”
The darkness is always the most dark before the dawn. But dawn is coming! Will you see it?
Let’s pray. Almighty God, victorious Christ, Lord, I lift You up and pray for all those souls in this room, Lord. God, this is a tough passage. There’s a lot of ominous undertones. It’s dark, Lord, but the light will shine through, Lord. You’ve already defeated him. You’ve already defeated the Antichrist! So, Lord, I pray that You make us a church of restrainers.
And I pray for all those who don’t know You, whose names are not written in the book of life. Lord, we all deserve judgment apart from You, But Lord, You’ve come into the world to save sinners, to save those who are broken, that you might write their name in the book of life. I pray you might write some names in that book today. Thank you, Lord, for your victory.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
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