Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: Revelation 13

REVELATION 13 PT. 2

If you were here last week, you heard this. If you weren’t, I just want to kind of restate where we’re at in this study of the Book of Revelation. First and foremost, I want you to understand it’s not lost on us that systematic verse-by-verse study of a book like Revelation is A) not for the faint of heart and B) not very commonly done in church. 

There’s reasons for that. There’s some parts that are really fun to teach, and there’s some parts that are epically difficult to teach. There’s some parts that are really easy to interpret, and there’s some parts that are really hard to. 

And so we’re in chapter 13. For the next nine chapters, we’re going to work on trying to do those chapters in at most two weeks. So, we’re on the second half of 13, and last week, we really looked at the historical context. 

And the thing I want to remind us of as we’re studying the Scriptures, in our culture, there are often times where there’s a dynamic tension of wanting to bring a really pop-savvy message with fun takeaways. And I love that, and we work hard at that. 

But I also think there’s a discipline we are to have as the people of God, which is to believe all scriptures God-breathed and valuable for our study. So, that’s really the aim of this study and this time. 

HOW THE ORIGINAL HEARERS RECEIVED JOHN’S LETTER

I want to remind us we cannot apply– and in the Book of Revelation, I think we’ve done this terribly as a church at large– we cannot apply what we think it means until we know first what the original hearer would have understood, would have really come out with. 

So last week, we looked at some big things that are in here: there’s beasts in here, there’s an antichrist in here, there’s the mark of the beast in here. There’s just a lot of, like, big apocalyptic ideas. 

And I don’t know how you grew up, I grew up in a very Pentecostal environment where all of those were named things. We were told what they were. I was told at some point in my life I was going to have to take some microchip, maybe in my hand or in my forehead, and that was going to be the only way I could survive. And when that moment came, I was gonna have to choose to not take it because that was the mark of the beast. 

I was told that there would be an antichrist, a specific individual who would arise, who would stand against God. I was told that these beasts could be anything. They were China. They were Russia. You pick it, you name it. We were assigning things to them. 

My goal in this is not to debunk all of that. My goal is to ask the question: how do we know that if we don’t know what the original hearer would have understood? We looked at the original hearer, we looked at these things like the beast, and what we really came out with last week was just this understood reality: the beasts, for them, represented more world powers and systems that they were fighting. It was things that they were up against, the tyranny of leaders. 

We talked about–John makes a statement, we’re going to read it– but John makes a statement, says, “Let the one who has understanding solve the number of the beasts, for it’s the number of a man.” So, John will make a statement that the beast represents a person, and that person’s number is 666 or 616, and so we worked through that last week, and I’m just trying to recap it to bring us to where we can do application. 

If you look at that number, we looked at a thing called gematria, which is the use of numbers for the spelling of language, and that was a common practice in this time. We use it all the time with Roman numerals. We talked about this, when you, on an outline, put “III.,” you’re not stuttering. It’s not like you can’t figure out how to say the word “I,” it’s three. Correct? How many would agree with me that “III.” means three? Except for Porky Pig or Morse code.

So we looked at this. Well, if we look at the gematria of the day, 666 or 616, spells out Caesar Nero. We believe John was really aiming them at a leader, trying to point out what was going on, trying to help the church understand what was going on on a spiritual level with the world around them. 

Because if you could imagine being an early believer, being in Rome, or being in Asia Minor, being in these areas, and just being under the tyranny of incredibly volatile leadership, and it might be easy to go, Where’s the Lord in all this? Where is God right now? And John’s working with a church, seven churches that he planted, and his goal is to communicate to them what’s going on in the world around them so they don’t lose hope. 

REVELATION 13

So, we’re going to read Revelation 13, and then we’re going to look at some application pieces for our life. “And now in my vision, I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, and ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were the names that blasphemed God. The beast looked like a leopard, but it had bear’s feet and a lion’s mouth! And a dragon gave him his own power and throne and great authority. 

“I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery– but the fatal wound was healed! All the world marveled at this miracle and followed the beast in awe. They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, and they worshiped the beast. ‘Is there anyone as great as the beast?’ they exclaimed. ‘Who was able to fight against him?’ 

“Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. He was given authority to do what he wanted for forty-two months. And he spoke terrible words and blasphemy against God, slandering his name and all who live in heaven, who are his temple. And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and overcome them. He was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names are not written in the Book of Life, which belong to the Lamb who was killed before the world was made. 

“Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand. The people who are destined for prison will be arrested and taken away. Those who are destined for death will be killed. But do not be dismayed, for here is your opportunity to have endurance and faith. 

“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, and he spoke with the voice of a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and those who belong to this world to worship the first beast, whose death-wound had been healed. He did astounding miracles, such as making fire flash down to the earth from heaven while everyone was watching. And with all the miracles he was allowed to perform on behalf of the first beast, he deceived all the people who belong to this world. He ordered the people of the world to make a great statue of the first beast, who was fatally wounded and then came back to life. He was permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. Then the statue commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die. 

“He required everyone– great and small, rich and poor, slave and free– to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could sell or buy anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. 

“Wisdom is needed to understand this.

“Let the one who has understanding solve the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.” 

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

So, the number of the beast, I want to start there, as far as application for us. The first thing I want us to know is you can catch this phrase that John says here, where he says, “They were not able to buy or sell without the mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name.” 

What we know from history is that there was a time period when Domitian– who was the Caesar that followed Nero– Domitian decided that he was going to call himself God. He wanted to go by the name Theos, and he wanted everyone in the kingdom to worship him. 

He mandated it, so much so, that if a Christian went to the market to buy food, they were not allowed to buy food unless they were willing to renounce their faith. And the process of renouncing their faith is they would have to go get a certificate from the Empire that said, I, known as a believer– got baptized, everybody knew it– I am renouncing my faith so I can buy and sell in the marketplace. It was a way of forcing servitude. 

It’s interesting that John makes this analogy because he says it’s either going to be his name– and we know the beast is a man because he says, “Calculate the number of the beast, it’s the number of a man.” 

So, we see this interplay in history. So, I would say for the early church, what this meant for them wasn’t that there was a microchip coming that they were gonna have to take into their forehead or their wrist, what it meant was they were going to have to make a choice to renounce Jesus or to be able to buy food. 

Archeologists have actually uncovered those certificates. So, when we look at this, what I want us to look at is, I think that that’s a very easy thing for us to consider how it affects our lives. 

THE BEASTS

So, I want to do some application; I want to look at the beasts first and foremost. We’ve explored what these beasts could have and most likely meant to the churches of Asia Minor– world leaders, powers, systems they were under, most specifically, probably Nero and Domitian. 

To the question, though, what did the beast mean for us today as believers? If we consider them to be directly connected to world leaders and powers of the early church, then it makes it easy for us to consider holding that forward and looking at world leaders and powers and how they impact us, because we are still living in the time until Jesus returns. 

How many would agree with me Jesus hasn’t returned yet? It’s a pretty easy answer. You got that question right. So, we’re still in this time period that is dealing pre-return of Christ. I think it’s really safe theologically, and I also think it’s correct, to make a really simple assumption that we’re still embroiled in a battle with those same principalities and rulers; we still face them in our day and in our time. 

We are correct, if we look at Revelation 13 here, to understand it as both literal and symbolic. It had a literal application and meaning to the early church, but there’s a symbolic overlay that we can extrapolate. 

In one sense, these beasts represented the real emperors– Nero and Domitian– who waged war against God’s people, but in an equally right, different sense, they represent the reality of a demonic realm that uses humanity to wage war against God. 

I want you to consider that there’s a spirit in the age that is antichrist. I want you to consider that there have been many people through history that have been under that spirit. Pretty simple to consider Hitler and say, I think he might have been influenced by the antichrist spirit. 

But there’s multiple people through history that we can look at, and if we do that, then it saves us the need of trying to figure out how to grab one person and go, Who’s it going to be? We start realizing this is a spirit that very much roams the earth and loves to utilize humanity against God. 

THE NUMBERS

If we look at the numbers, all the way through Revelation– specifically here in 13– we see this interplay between sixes and sevens. Now sixes, throughout the history of Scripture, are used to define the people of the human race without God. It’s humanity without God. Seven is always used to define Divine order, whether it’s a seven or a multiplier of seven. 

So, simply stated, in this passage, I think John is using numbers like 666 or 616, to communicate this constant juxtaposition of, There’s humanity without God; there’s the Divine order of God involved. 

As we read it, we see this constant: he’s putting one thing in front of us and then another thing, and then it’s back and forth so the early church and us never forget that our tendency as human beings is to align outside of God. 

We have a nature that wants to be governed on our own without the government of the Lord, and we are to remind ourselves that when we add the government of Heaven, it brings Divine order into our life. 

You and I both– all of us– have a tendency to want to react out of our humanity because it feels right and it feels justified, and there are times when we bring it under Divine order. What does that look like? It means I choose behavior patterns and reactions that align with the Scriptures, not my nature, and when I do that, I’m coming under Divine order. 

I think John’s goal is to help them understand. Now, before I jump into that, has the number 666 become used in the demonic realm, or connected to the demonic realm? Yes, it has. Why? Because I think the enemy loves to grab anything he can. 

I want you to understand the enemy has one agenda, and that is glory. It’s always been his agenda. He wants the stage. In your life, he wants to create chaos, he wants to create fear, whatever it is, whether it’s through his minions or him, it doesn’t matter. His goal is always glory. 

Now, if I go to a store and they give me $6.66 back, am I still putting one of those pennies back in that tip jar? I am. Still don’t want that number connected to me. But I think for us, the application is that we need to be reminded that we’ll always wrestle with the desire to live disconnected and free from God in our humanity, and our job as believers is to always bring the Divine order to our lives by aligning with the Scriptures, by choosing the behaviors that the Scriptures teach. 

THE MARK OF THE BEAST

John will talk about a mark of the beast. How do we apply that? Well, in the Book of Revelation, the whole of humanity is divided into two categories, there’s two marks: there’s the seal of the Holy Spirit and the seal of the beast. There’s the mark of the Holy Spirit and the mark of the beast. 

The early church faced a very real, present threat from emperors in imperial sacrifice. They had to make a choice: I take a mark, or I can’t buy food. I think that’s what John is talking about here for the early church. 

But for our application, I think we have to recognize that as believers, we still have to face a question: who and what will I worship? If we consider that the number six that he’s talking about, that mark was dealing with the certificate that they had to be willing to take to buy food, I think it asks us a question: what will govern our thought processes? What governs our mind? 

How do we think? Because I want you to understand your worship is motivated out of your thought process. 

You always will worship what you fear. If you fear the Lord, you’ll worship Him. If in a culture like we live in now, where tolerance is being preached at a level that’s insane, if you fear the culture, you’ll worship tolerance. You’ll adopt a mindset about being tolerant and loving that is anti-Scriptural because you feel the pressure from a culture that you cannot say there are rights, and there are wrongs, there are absolutes. 

You cannot say publicly, You know what, your sexuality is not just your choice, it’s something you were given from God, and there’s a way you’re supposed to use it that he says. And if I say that publicly in my culture right now, I’m ostracized. We understand the pushback and the pressure where there’s friends that will recoil from us because, How dare you say homosexuality is sin? Well, I didn’t. The Scriptures did. 

But what I have to do as a man living in the culture is have the courage to say, I align under Christ. I don’t get to take a stance that He doesn’t take, no matter what the culture thinks about it. And so my actual faith becomes concrete the moment I’m willing to align against the pressure that I feel in culture. You’re so unloving. That’s not true because love, by definition, has boundary, so love without boundary isn’t love at all. 

We know this instinctively when we raise our children. It is not loving to say to a two-year-old, You’re welcome to run in the street. I want you to feel the freedom to make a choice. The kid gets hit by a car, and we go to jail for not being capable of taking care of our child. Negligence. 

Okay, what’s the principle? The principle is we understand, in that moment, that love needs boundary and a swat, maybe. 

You see the early believers faced this real temptation: worship the emperor for temporary benefit– food, shelter, wealth, social acceptance. In those communities, there were false teachers at these times that were saying things like this: Jesus knows your heart. Whatever you do in the marketplace doesn’t matter. Do what you got to do to survive, and when you’re at home, love Him. 

And John is standing against this saying, No, that’s actually not true. Why? It’s called private/public. You will only ever be able to be authentically in public or private who you are in the other place; it’s called a transparent life. Integrity means we’re the same person everywhere we are. 

There’s a faith index that’s required that John’s dealing with here: are you willing to suffer because of your love for Him? And we’re going to nail down verse 9 at the end of this, which is going to be really fast. 

So, in our culture, I think we face a similar challenge, which is we have to choose whether we’re going to put our trust in a political-economic system, really give lip service to believing God is sovereign– in essence, live as the pagans do- or we decide to really trust the Lord. 

THE ANTICHRIST

Okay, so with the question of antichrist, will there be a future antichrist? Will there be somebody who pops up on the world stage who is the antichrist? I personally believe what John’s talking about is a spirit that is antichrist. I don’t believe John is talking about a person. 

I think that because it’s a spirit, it uses multiple people, but the answer is: we don’t know, and we can’t know, and I’m not sure it matters because the remedy to fight it is the same, no matter what. 

DO NOT BE DISMAYED

What’s the takeaway? The takeaway is verse 9. “Anyone who’s willing to hear should listen and understand. The people who are destined for prison will be arrested and taken away. Those who are destined for death will be killed. But do not be dismayed, for here is your opportunity to have endurance and faith.” 

Why would John say, “Do not be dismayed?” Because what he said before that was aimed at the church. It wasn’t aimed at unbelievers. What he says to the church of the day is, some of you are going to prison, you’re going to be arrested, you’re destined for that. Some of you are destined for death, and you’ll be killed. What a great message. 

But he says, “Don’t be dismayed.” Why? “Because here is your opportunity to have endurance and faith.” What is here? It’s in the moment of difficulty that you want to run from, that is your opportunity to have endurance and faith. What he’s saying to them is faith in Jesus is going to require a private and a public commitment to Him. You cannot claim to be His disciple but live one way in public and a different way in private. That message rings true today. 

You cannot claim to be His disciple, but in the marketplace, try to, like, kind of blend in and hide because you know, you just don’t want to feel the pressure. The reality is, I belong to Him; therefore, His thoughts are my thoughts; my thoughts no longer matter. I have adopted His way of living, thinking, breathing, and acting, and the moment I don’t do that, I have left my discipleship. 

John’s message to us, is as the people of God, we’re going to suffer tough stuff. There is no guarantee that you came to Jesus and it’s going to be awesome. Ultimately, yes; in the moment, no. 

We live in an incredibly blessed situation. We have a lot of freedoms, but at times, I think it makes us soft because we don’t know how to go through difficulty and keep our eyes on the Lord. A lot of times, we’re willing to walk away from our faith because, You know, I don’t understand what it’s doing for me, it’s not really working.

John’s statement to the early church, and his statement to us, is our faith in Jesus might cost us immensely, but according to what Jesus says here, when that happens, His expectation of us is that we stand strong. 

“Do not be dismayed” just jumps out of this passage. What’s that mean? It means you can’t let the difficulties that come in this system we live in get you down. 

So, you took a stand for righteousness, and you made a statement about what you believe. Let’s pick on the same thing we’ve been picking on. Let’s say in the marketplace, somebody asked you your thoughts on sexuality, on identity, and you gave a Biblical answer, and all of a sudden you got ostracized, you got demoted at work for it. 

Welcome to your faith because bad things happen for you taking a stand for righteousness doesn’t make Jesus bad. He told us ahead of time in this life, “You will have great tribulation, but be of good cheer. I’m with you.” 

Anybody remember Finding Nemo? Do you remember Dory’s disposition? What was her song? Just keep swimming. There was just this idea in her that no matter what happened, I’m just gonna keep swimming, we keep doing it, keep smiling. 

I would offer that that is to be our mindset in culture. No matter what we face, no matter how bad it gets, the answer is, Hey Lord, just doing this for You, standing with Your image, standing with Your nature. Gonna carry it no matter what. I’m gonna put on love, I’m gonna put on kindness, I’m gonna put on grace, no matter what they do to me, I am never letting go of what you gave me to carry. 

This passage leaves us with a very real question to consider: will we endure and hold to our trust in Him? Are we willing to endure difficulty because of our love for Him? 

Let’s stand. That’s a K-Love message right there. Positive and encouraging. See, if we don’t understand this principle, difficulty shipwrecks us. If we don’t understand this principle, the things that happen around us cause us to lose our faith. And they can. 

We have to be willing to not be dismayed. What does dismayed mean? Take a deep breath and go, All right, Lord, You got this. If You have difficulty in front of me, I also know that You have reward on the other side of that. That is a promise. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, blessing, not cursing, a future and a hope.