E10: The True Enemy (Revelation 12–14)

Behind earthly events is a deeper spiritual battle. This episode unpacks Jesus' unveiling of evil and the powers at work that seek the destruction of all people.

Transcript

Michael Berry: What was your favorite video game when you were growing up? ⁓ I actually owe all of my video game experience ⁓ to my sisters. I just found this out a few months back that we owned a regular Nintendo when I was a kid and ⁓ the only reason we had a regular Nintendo ⁓ was because my sisters in elementary school sold enough of those chocolate bunnies ⁓ to win a regular Nintendo. And so that's the only reason I ever had a Nintendo. And I just found that out just a few months ago. But of course I grew up in the 90s and my favorite video games was of course, one of them was Mario. And you can picture that pixelated little plumber running around right now. and that song you will never forget. da da da da da da, right? I also enjoyed ⁓ Paperboy. That was probably less popular, but it was one of my favorites. It was a nice little anxiety attack for kids as you had a job that you had to get done and you were riding down the street on your bike as you threw papers at doorsteps and. You'd get you get a skater guy coming by and knock you off your bike or a car that came flying by or you'd run into a fence it was there I could say I'm I'm looking at the picture right now of Of a screenshot of paperboy and it's like ⁓ my gosh, it's anxiety. I didn't need that pressure as a kid I've already got that pressure As an as an adult I didn't need to start that that early ⁓ But then there was Zelda truth be told I didn't really care for Zelda much. It just wasn't my cup of tea, but I know that was a lot of people's ⁓ favorite video game. But for me, my absolute favorite video game was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the second one. This was one of the only games on the original Nintendo that you could kind of you could do a co-op mission and you could play along with somebody. And so you could You pick out your turtle, the other guy pick out their turtle and you could go through these levels and and and and you know, beat the game that way. ⁓ And my favorite was always ⁓ was always Donatello. He was always the most redneck of the of all the Ninja Turtles because he just like it's like he went out back. He found a stick and he started beating people with it. ⁓ And so I always played with Donatello. But but in that video game. As you were going through each one of the levels, you'd get to the end and you'd fight the boss of that level, And then you got, occasionally you got glimpses of the big bad, of Shredder. You'd get close to rescuing April and then he'd swoop in and he'd grab her and he'd take her off to the next level and you'd have to go follow him. But you never really got to deal with him until the very end. You fought his cronies all the way through the big bosses at the end of those levels, but never shredder himself until the very end. And the whole time you're playing this video game, you know who is orchestrating all of this chaos that you have to fight through. But he stays out of the limelight while you concern yourself with steroid infused rhinos and bumblebee man slash men, mutants and hockey stick wielding Samurais. And I never thought I would say this sentence, but the book of Revelation is like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. Why is John on Patmos? The easy answer is Rome, right? Why are the churches of Asia Minor struggling? Rome, or you could say sin or idolatry. When the seals are open, what rides forth? the easy answer is what's in front of your eyes, conquest, war, economic oppression, death. Now what happens when the trumpets sound? Well, the easy answer is sin and demons and conquering armies ravaging the world. And in all of these scenes, the layers of our reality is being pulled back in order to reveal what is at the heart of our struggle and our pain. Well, unlike Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, Jesus actually pulls the big boss. He pulls the shredder from the end of the book. He pulls it into chapter 12. And we finally find out what is the cancer at the center of our tribulation. Who is the big boss? Make no mistake, the other things matter. Rome, conquest, economic oppression, demons. But in order for us to understand our world, we have to understand the true problem. true condition or the true problem maker, the shredder. And we're going to see the cosmic cause behind all of these events of the first half of the book of Revelation. And so that's what Jesus drops on us in the middle of this book. And the storm of chapter 11 verse 19 signifies the culmination of one section and the beginning of another. And so just like the other times we see this in Revelation chapter five and chapter eight, we have to reset our minds. Okay. This is a new scene, but in Revelation we are not moving forward in chronological time. We are moving deeper into an understanding of how our world works. And so chapter 12 shifts from what the church experiences to why the church experiences it. And in this new scene, we are going to be ⁓ introduced to some new players on the stage. And we're going to see recapitulation, what we talked about last time, ⁓ even within the same chapter. And I almost wish the editors of the Bible would format the first six verses in kind of a poetic way, because I think that might be better or easier for us to understand if it was in poetic form. as an introduction to the second half of the book almost. But they didn't. ⁓ And so we're going to have the first section, verses one through six, and then it's going to recapitulate ⁓ in verse seven. So let's jump in. Verse one. And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars. So notice the term sign. This is a symbol. This is an image. Okay. And this woman, we get a clue of who she is. It's the same language that Joseph uses to describe his vision in Genesis 37. And he's describing his vision to his family. he says the sun, the moon, and the stars in Joseph's family, namely Israel, they will bow down to him. And so the idea of Israel is in our minds right off the bat. But we don't know when this symbol is taking place just yet. Verse 2. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And so she's pregnant. With whom? We don't know yet, but there's the second character that who she is pregnant with. Verse 3. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold a great red dragon with Seven heads, ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth, and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it." And so this third player on the stage is another sign, and we have some clues here. Seven heads, ten horns, seven diadems, and we'll dive further into those in the coming chapters, but He is and this all these signs are in heaven and it he's characterized as a red dragon. He's not yet fully revealed. We'll get his true identity later in chapter 12, but he stands and he's ready to devour the child. Verse 5. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared for her by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. All of a sudden, in verse 6, we know who is being born and on one level who the woman is. As for me, I have set my king on Zion. my holy hill. will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." And this is commonly known as a messianic psalm. And so we have an identity of the son being born. It is Jesus. And so we have a woman who is giving birth to Jesus. Where are we? Bethlehem. Our Christmas time. And we're on earth. The location shifts here from heaven to earth. And I would submit to you today that your nativity scenes are incomplete. I'm sure they have Mary, I'm sure they have Joseph, baby Jesus, sheep. Wiseman, shepherds, I'm sure, but they likely do not have the third player on the scene, the red dragon. He wasn't discussed in Matthew or Luke's account of the Christmas story, but he does appear here in Jesus' account. And so I've provided, or I'm going to try to provide a link in the landing page of this podcast for you to go and... by the last piece of your nativity set, a red dragon. And so verse six captures the totality of Jesus' life here on earth. He was born and he ascended. Who loses? The dragon. And throughout the rest of this ⁓ chapter, we're going to count his defeats. This is number one. But what about the woman? Who is she? Well, as John mentioned, she is a sign. And so often signs function on a multifaceted level. And so on one level, she is literally Mary giving birth to Jesus. But the symbols work beyond ⁓ just one example in a lot of cases. And so in this case, a lot of people propose that the woman is also on some level Eve. Of course, Genesis 3 15, God speaks to Eve and he says, her seed will crush the serpent's head. And that'll come up a little bit later. And so on one level, she's Mary, on another level, she's Eve. Yet another level, she is Israel, the nation who ushered in the Messiah. Yet, as we have seen, because Jesus is Israel's Messiah and the very idea of Israel is redefined around him, Israel is defined now as the people of God who follow the lamb that we learned in chapter seven. Now notice the woman flees into the wilderness for 1260 days. Wait, where have we seen that number before? Well, when the two witnesses came on the scene in chapter 11, they testified to the gospel and I argued that was the church. And so this woman who now flees into the wilderness for 1260 days is not the ethnic nation of Israel, but the spiritual Israel as redefined by Jesus. You see how these symbols are at work. And so with that, Jesus has set the stage with these new characters, the woman and the dragon, and of course, Jesus himself. And here we're going to see, like I mentioned earlier, a recapitulation of this same story told from a different viewpoint starting in verse seven. And what you'll see is multiple defeats of the dragon starting in heaven and moving to earth again, just like in the first six verses. We'll jump in verse seven. Now war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated. So here's defeat number two. And there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. And he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. So here, the devil is not only defeated, he is cast down out of heaven. And at this casting out of heaven, a victory is proclaimed. Verse 10, and I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ has come for the accuser of our brothers have been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God. Now, why is this seen as victory? Well, Satan is cast out of heaven. And if you think back to Job, Satan has access. He just waltzes into the courts of God to accuse Job of his faithfulness or his faithlessness. And so here is a perspective shift for us. The enemy no longer has access to the throne room of God today. He has been cast out. Well, when was he cast out? Well, obviously here, Revelation 12, verse seven and onward. Also Revelation 12, verse five, but also John 12, 31. Jesus says, now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out? And he's referring to the first coming, at the time where he will be ministering on earth and will eventually be led to the cross. Colossians 2, 15, says, Paul writes, he disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him, by nailing our debts to the cross. Romans 8, 33 through 34, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? And so what we see is that Satan's activity is now no longer in heaven at the foot of God's throne, accusing believers. It is limited, he's been cast down. It is limited to an earthly level. And I believe what he does now is accuse believers' consciences against themselves. That's how he primarily works in his lies and his deceit. And so he has been chained up. He has been limited. But if you see a pit bull chained up to a tree in somebody's front yard, that pit bull is limited, but he's still dangerous. If you get too close, he has the ability to inflict harm. And that will be key when we get into chapter 20 and we start talking about the new millennium. But today we live in the realm of already happened, but not yet realized. Or you could say, we live in the realm of inaugurated, but not yet culminated. The enemy has been defeated. He cannot win. But the realization of the finality of that defeat has not yet come to pass. And we see that in the next verses and throughout the rest of Revelation, verse 11. And by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. And there's that word conquer again. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, in you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth, and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short. And so we ask the question, well, who is they? And they, in verse 11, is the people of God. How do they conquer? They conquer by the blood of Jesus and by the word of their testimony. The blood of Jesus is their defense. The blood of Jesus protects them from the lies, from the accusations that is lobbed at them from the enemy. But also, not only do the people of God have a defense, they also have an offense, and that is the word of our testimony. And so what's happening here is that we are seeing the summary of the point of the seals and the trumpets so far. The seals were all about overcoming by the blood of the lamb. The trumpets were all about overcoming by the word of our testimony. This is how we gain victory in the kingdom. Verse 13, and when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child, but the woman was given two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time. And so the woman is back here in verse 13 and she is preserved on two wings of an eagle. ⁓ And God uses this to describe his work in Egypt, this idea of two wings of an eagle. Back in Exodus 19, he talks about saving Israel from Pharaoh and he says, I brought you out on two wings of an eagle. And so the wilderness that the woman is sent into is always used to describe a time of trials or perseverance and waiting before reaching the promised land. And she's in the wilderness for, and this is really cool, for time, times, and half a time. That is three and a half. You take time, that's one, times, that's two, and half a time, that's three and a half. And if that's three and a half, that takes us back to verse six, and the woman who's nourished in the wilderness for 1,260 days, it takes us back to the two witnesses in chapter 11. And so this is the church that is nourished and protected. And it's protected as the dragon comes on and pursues the woman. And water like a river is coming from his mouth. How many times has the church been accused, slandered, and lied against throughout history? But notice, the earth comes to rescue her. Notice he can't destroy the church. And this is now the third defeat of the red dragon, of the serpent, of Satan. The serpent poured out water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to help the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river so that the dragon had or that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman. He is ticked. And at this point, another character steps on the scene. Because the church, the woman, is safe. Satan cannot defeat it. The gates of hell cannot stand against it. So now he turns his attention to someone else. Someone that is susceptible to his attacks. He turns his attention to you and to me. He says it goes off to make war with the rest of her offspring on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus and he stood on the sand of the sea. If you hold to the testimony of Jesus and claim his blood over your life, you have a target on your back. The enemy hates you and he is furious and he will do whatever he can to destroy you. And I want you to understand this. He seeks to destroy you and we cannot get caught off guard. There are agents of his sent to defeat you, just like in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Conquest, War, Economics, Pain, Torment, Demons, whatever it is. They are mere agents bidding the work of the dragon. We'll see that here in a little bit. But he is the true enemy. He is the undercurrent of evil in this world. 1 Peter 5, 8 says, your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He is after you. Ephesians 6, 11 through 12 says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. But although he is after you, also know that he has been defeated. Hebrews 2, 14 through 15 says, Christ through death destroyed the one who holds the power of death, the devil. And so we need to recognize that. We need to recognize our fight is not one that is equal. The devil has already been defeated, so our fight is fought from a place of victory, not a flip of the coin or a battle of wits or strength. And the question is no longer will the saints win, it is will they remain faithful? And so what is starting to form here is an understanding of how this world works and who is behind the evil we see in it. And you may say, yeah, yeah, we know that Satan's behind everything, true. But Jesus wants to reveal the true enemy because as one of my professors would say, Shane Wood, he would say, it is easy to forget who the true enemy is, both in our story and in the stories that craft us. So your true enemy is not the person who hurt you. It's not the spouse who you distrust. It's not the abusive father or the angry mother or the spiteful sibling. It's not the boss who seems to try to make your life hell every day of the week. the enemy has been revealed. He is at work, behind the scenes puppeteering. And so at this point, let me pause. Let's gather our breath here for a recap before we move into the next section, which is just as action packed. Chapter 12 shows us who the enemy is. That's the dragon or Satan. It shows us what He wants. He wants to destroy Christ's people. It shows us why the pressure is constant. He has been defeated and He knows His time is short. And it also shows us how the war is fought, not by annihilating the church, but by targeting her offspring. And so from this point on, every vision is seeking to answer that question, how will He do that? what is his strategy? And that's what the rest of the book sets out to show starting in chapter 13. Now remember, this is the big boss. We're getting a front row seat to how he works, and we'll see he no longer works on his own, but he works through proxies that do his bidding. So we'll jump into chapter 13 here, and if you haven't listened to the supplemental session on Daniel 7, That's going to be really key to this section. John has it in his mind as he's recording what he's seeing. So I'll read the first four verses. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads, with 10 diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, and its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth like a lion's mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed. And the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. 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? And so if we were to recap Daniel 7, ⁓ Daniel is having a dream and a vision and he sees four beasts that come out of the sea. He sees a lion, he sees a bear, he sees a leopard, and then the last one he doesn't see and he just sees this. He just says it's a beast that is terrifying and dreadful. Beast is the word. And it's described with iron teeth, it's described with 10 horns, it's got one little horn and eyes like a man that speaks blasphemies. And so these beasts come out of the sea. And what we learn is that these are four kingdoms. That's what he learns in chapter seven. But what we learn from history is that prior to Jesus' birth, there are actually four kingdoms that rose and ruled in succession. And so what scholars have... have found and put together is that the lion is representative of Babylon, the first one of those major worldly powers. The bear comes on the scene and it is seen as Persia, the second of the worldly power. The fourth is a leopard and that is symbolic of Greece, actually Alexander the Great. And then the fourth beast that's terrifying and dreadful is Rome. And so that is the backdrop of this beast in Revelation 13, because in this ⁓ section, Jesus captures this idea and then he slightly alters it. See, each beast from Daniel is incorporated into this one beast in Revelation 13. If you actually go back to Daniel 7, you can notice, it's a really cool link, that the four beasts in Daniel, they actually have a total of seven heads. The lion has one, the bear has one, the leopard has four, and the fourth beast has one. is a total of seven. And so Jesus ⁓ is building on this idea of Daniel seven. And in Revelation 13, he includes some really interesting notes about this beast. And one of the main ones is in verse three, there's ⁓ one of the heads looks like it has a mortal wound, ⁓ but that mortal wound was healed. And a lot of people have postulated ideas. ⁓ one of the ideas is that this is Rome itself. that the, the, beast is Rome itself. Of course, the 10 horns then represent the 10 emperors that came after Augustus. ⁓ and if you count, if, if Augustus started the empire, ⁓ and you count from there, you get 10 to Domitian, who is the emperor at the time Revelation was written. And so you've got three emperors after Augustus between Augustus and Nero. You've got Tiberius, have Caligula, you have Claudius, and then you have Nero. Just a side note, ⁓ we've really dropped the ball on names because those four names are awesome. Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero. Those are pretty amazing. ⁓ We need to pick it up. So Nero. reigns until 69 AD. And that is known, 69 AD is known as the year of the four emperors. And so Galba, Otho, and Vitellius come to power in quick succession and lose power in quick succession. And then finally, Vespation comes along and stabilize the empire and initiated the Flavian dynasty, which is himself, Titus, and Domitian. And there you have 10. And so to many, that would seem like a mortal wound that 69 AD, where you have four emperors in one year, that seems like a mortal wound that was healed and stabilized by the Flavian dynasty. The other option that a lot of people put forward is that this was actually Nero. The beast was actually Nero. A rumor began in Rome that Nero actually hadn't died in 69 AD. Some believed he defected to Parthia and would eventually lead the Parthian Empire against Rome to destroy it. Or some believed that he didn't die or that he did die and he resurrected as Domitian, which is why persecution of Christians ramped up again. And that is the, let's see if I can pronounce this right, the Nero Redivivus myth. ⁓ And so that is ⁓ postulated as as some of what this beast could be. ⁓ Or, and I think this is most likely, ⁓ the third option is that this is the idea of a pattern, and that actually fits. That fits really well with what we've learned about symbolism, that it is a pattern of empire throughout history. And Rome is the most current form of this beast, but every time this beast looks like it has died, A new one comes in its place. That's the pattern. Empire rises, empire rains, empire falls, a new empire is born, and a new people are put under oppression. It looks like it dies, but it comes back to life every time. And so what does this suggest to us? This suggests that this beast represents at its basic form, political empires or kingdoms or governments. And we can hear the white horse from the seven seals writing, can't we? And who was that for the immediate readers of Revelation? That of course was Rome. And as we discussed with the seals, that's not limited to Rome, right? Any empire at any time in history. ⁓ is symbolized by this beast. And want to give you a fair warning because this is where I kind of go out on my own here. ⁓ A little bit rogue here because the vast majority of scholarship in my line of thinking ⁓ sees this beast as empire political systems like I've described. And is it a million percent? Yes, absolutely. I will not argue with that at all. I'm not even going to argue anything because I agree. It at its base. ⁓ place is empire or political systems. However, I do think there is a bit more going on here than just empire. And while I align completely with scholarship, my interpretation goes a bit more broad. And if I ever did a dissertation, this is what it would be over. The beast beyond empire. I believe this beast represents human power in any form at any time. And let me explain it. I don't believe this beast has its roots in Daniel. Daniel 7 simply reveals it. The root of the beast runs back to Genesis. Because when Adam and Eve sin, what is the very next story after they're kicked out of the garden? Cain and Abel, where Cain overpowered Abel and killed him. The next major story is the Tower of Babel, where people sought to gain power for themselves, even in God's realm. Joseph and his brothers, his brothers exercised their power over him and sold him into slavery. Israel was birthed in slavery and oppression. And that is... exercised power at its fullest. Judges show the cycles of this. ⁓ Israel has idolatry. ⁓ Israel is conquered by an overpowering nation. Israel repents. God rescues. And the cycle keeps going and going and going all throughout Judges. 1 Samuel 8. Israel asks for a king, and God tells them what that will mean for them. A king will take their sons. A king will take their daughters. King will take their slaves, their crops, they will be taxed because of his power. They don't care and they find themselves, they continue to ask for a king, God gives them one, and they find themselves eventually in exile when their kings continually lead them in idolatry. David suffered under the oppression of King Saul, and then Uriah suffered under David's power. Assyria conquers Israel. Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar conquer Judah. Persia conquers Babylon. Greece conquers Persia. And Rome conquers Greece. And this part is magnificent, and I think it drives home the point. When Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness, What does he do? He tempts him to eat, just like Eve in Genesis 3. He tempts him to doubt God, just like Eve in Genesis 3. And then the last one, he takes him up to a mountain and he shows him all the kingdoms of the world. And the Bible says, at a moment in time. And Satan says to Jesus, if you just worship me, They will all be yours. Satan tempts him with power. And so this pattern begins in Genesis three, the moment sin enters into the picture. And this is the beast beyond empire, power in the hands of humanity offered by the dragon. His beast receives worship from the people on earth. And isn't that what we do? I mean, whatever looks powerful and whatever looks in control garners our attention in our worship, at least until the next more powerful thing comes along. And so this beast with its power accomplishes the work of the dragon. So I'm going to let that sit for a moment so that we can move on, but we will come back. And we're going to see in verse five how this beast acts specifically. And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. Well, 42 months is 1260 days, which is also a time, time and how or time times and half a time, which is also three and a half years. What does this remind us of? It reminds us of the woman in Chapter 12. It reminds us of the two witnesses in Chapter 11. And so the beast is reigning during the same time as the church is witnessing. Verse six, and it opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is those who dwell in heaven. Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to, there's that word, conquer them. And authority was given over to it. Every tribe and people. and language and nation and all who dwell on the 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. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to be taken captive to captivity, he goes. If anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword, he must be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. And so we see that the beast ⁓ is oppressing the people of God as it did in the seals, as it did, or as we see in the seals and as we see in the trumpets. And this calls for endurance and faith of the saints. But what is odd at this particular point in Revelation is that Daniel doesn't have any more beasts. His is just a single beast. Well, it's Four beasts, but he doesn't have any more beasts, but Jesus does. And so we break from the Old Testament typology where Jesus will reveal something more and something deeper. And in verse 11, he introduces the third character, which is the beast from the land. I'm going to call this the second beast. And the first beast is the beast from the sea going forward. And so what might be the purpose of this character? Well, purpose of this character is going to be the same as the beast. and it's going to be the same as the dragon. And so what we're going to see is that he's seeking to destroy the offspring of the woman. However, it's going to have a little bit of nuance. If the primary focus of the first beast is concentrated human power, the primary focus of the second beast is the worship or the enforcement of that power. And sometimes that does look like seduction. um, two powers. And other times it just looks like dominance of power over, uh, over another. But the result is the same, destruction. And so verse, uh, 11 is where we'll pick up. Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. 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 it 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 the people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on the earth, now 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. And so from these four verses, what does the second beast from the land do? Well, what we see is that it supports the first beast, but it has a different strategy. This one looks innocent like a lamb, but it spews lies like dragon. It also exercises authority of the first beast on its behalf. It enforces worship of the first beast. It performs signs. It deceives those on earth. It creates an image of the first beast through the people of earth, and it gives the image the appearance of life. And then eventually it kills those who will not worship. And that last part, of course, Is the goal. So who or what is this second beast? And it seems that this beast from the earth is the one who brings the power of the first beast to your doorstep. So I think we can think of this as the local power broker, the leader or the local politician who props up the greater empire, the greater concentrated power. And so let's use Rome as an example. And this is the macro level. So, was an imperial cult worship ⁓ nation. And so, they worshiped the emperor as God. And this was enforced not by Rome directly, not by Demetian directly. He's not the one out in the streets ⁓ enforcing this. But it is enforced by the local officials. the priests, the trade guilds, the city magistrates, the people that support the overarching power structure. And they enact the power of the empire and require the worship, right? And so if we go back to Jesus' day, in Jesus' day, Tiberius isn't Rome, Pilate is. The local Roman legion is, the centurion is. And so this second beast essentially It mediates allegiance to the power structure. And this happens, you open your eyes to it, this actually happens all over the place and all over history. And so we can see it all over history. And there's a country that we know and love who condones slavery at its conception. That's the first beast. But the second beast were the slave traders. the slave catchers, the plantation owners. know, Nazi Germany was the first beast. But Hitler wasn't knocking on your door. The second beast was more so the SS patrol or maybe the Nazi sympathizing village leader. If you take it more abstract, a dominant worldview could be the first beast. And media outlets or celebrities or influencers can be the second beast. If you go beyond politics, the economy functions on this spectrum as the first beast. But the second beast can be seen as the credit brokers, the cash advanced systems. Every time you drive down one of the more ⁓ less well-off neighborhoods. You see these places all over the, all over, and they just kind of perpetuate this system of, of economy and economic imbalance. Consumerism could be considered the first beast. And the social media influencer with constant promotions in your face could be the second beast. Sports culture can be the first beast. And the second beast is the coach who redefines abuse as discipline in the name of success. And so you see how these are working together. But here's the interesting thing though. This not only functions on the macro level, it also functions on the micro level or the personal level as well. And as we move further away from the macro level of this power structure, the closer that we see these two beasts blend together as we get closer to the personal level. And so this could look like the church elder with too much money whose influence masquerades as spiritual authority. Or the professor who knows students will bend to their will in order to pass the class. Or maybe a boss who expects complete devotion to the job at all times of the day. the drunk, father or the apathetic mother withholding love, or the bully on the playground, or the abuser in your bedroom. You know, when I was six years old and throughout my childhood, after that, thinking through the sexual actions that happened to me. It was hard to reconcile that a friend had that kind of power over me. For most of my life, I felt complicit. And the enemy's lies made me believe that I was the failure. That at my very core, I was a failure. I was a bad person. And that I wasn't adequate enough. But what was really going on is that I was a victim of the devil's scheme of power and the overwhelming pressure to conform. And then, as a result, I lived most of my life believing his lies. I want you to hear me. Every person who has ever lived has lived under the pressure of these two beasts and their king. every single person. the dragon is seeking to destroy you and he has set his beasts up to run this world and if you don't conform you stand out and if you stand out you get the magnifying glass of pressure And so let's take a moment to breathe here. We've been kind of zoomed in on each one of these. The dragon, the first beast, the second beast. But if we were to zoom back out, when you look at these three, do you know what starts to form? What starts to form is a parody. and it's a parody of the Trinity. Look at what each of these characters does. So the beast from the sea or the first beast in verse one of chapter 13, we see that the beast has presence of horns like the seven horns of the lamb in Revelation five. Also in verse one, we see that it possesses a crown. Jesus is going to have this in chapter 19 verse one. Also shows that there's an inscription of a name again. Jesus is going to have this in chapter 19 as well in verse 2 This beast receives authority from the dragon in verses 4 and verse 8 It receives worship from the people verse 7 it is the leader in war and verse 13 we see a resurrection and so this parodies The work of Jesus. The second beast, it parodies the work of the Spirit. In verse 12, we see that it's intimately connected to the first beast, just like the Spirit is with Jesus. Verse 12, it exercises the first beast's authority on its behalf. That's what the Spirit does. We can see that all the way through, all through the Book of Acts. In verse 12, it shows that It induces worship of the first beast and that's the role of the Spirit is to convict people and to convict people to devote their lives to Jesus. In verse 13, it performs signs. That's what the Spirit does all throughout the book of Acts. We see that it is actually the book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, not necessarily the apostles. verse 16 through 18, it seals those who are not the people of God. That's the work of the Spirit in the Trinity. And then we get to the dragon. And the dragon has all the authority that is given out to the two beasts. And he is at work to accomplish his aims. Do you see what is going on here? The dragon, the first beast, the second beast, they form a parody of the Trinity. But this Trinity seeks to destroy God's people. And what we will see is that those on the earth, They're forced to make a decision. Because there's one more thing that the beast from the earth does, the second beast, and it's his most famous work. Verse 16. Also, it causes all, speaking of the second beast, both small and great, both rich and poor, both slave and free 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 man and his number is 666. This is one of the most popular parts of Revelation. People have speculated on what this number is or who this number is. Anything from a microchip and UPC codes to Ronald Reagan, the reincarnation of Nero, or even Judas Iscariot. What people will do is they'll attach numbers to Greek letters. Sometimes it gets transliterated into into Aramaic or Hebrew or whatever it is. ⁓ And these letters get numbers assigned to them. And you add up, you do some math and those letters come out to 666. And ⁓ that number has been attributed to anybody from Ronald Reagan to Taylor Swift to Barack Obama. It's all over there. And it's like I mentioned earlier in talking about the Antichrist, that's what it's often linked with. that this is the mark of the beast, which is the mark of the Antichrist. I'm going to over... Well, I'm not gonna overwhelm you. I'm gonna underwhelm you with what I believe this is. It's not some code for some future supervillain. In fact, verse 17 actually tells us what 666 means. It's plain. It's right there in the scripture. It says, 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. 666 is very simply the beast's name. In 13 verse 17, we're told it is the number of its name. Later in chapter 14 verse 11, we're going to see that it's the mark of its name. 15-2, it is the number of its name. It repeats it over and over again, three different times. And so that's what it is. 666 is the beast's name. Wait, we're not going to dive deeper into this number? No, I really don't think we need to. It's plainly stated. And if we think back to biblical numerology, the number six as one short of seven conveys the idea of humanity in its sinful rebellion. And so this is that rebellion perfected 666. It's repeated three times. And this understanding is grounded by what takes place in chapter 14. We'll jump into chapter 14 verse 1. says, I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the Lamb and with him 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. So have 144,000. Who's that talking about? Remember chapter 7, right? So we have the church with the Lamb and written on their foreheads is the name of the Father and the Lamb. And this is actually done back in Ezekiel chapter 9. If you go back and read that, I'm not going to jump into it here, but it's a really interesting parallel in Ezekiel 9, 3 through 8. And in that ⁓ section, God actually stamps the name, stamps His name on the foreheads of the people in Jerusalem who were astonished at the rebelliousness going on in Jerusalem. And the angel, or it's a man in linen, he tells the man in linen as he goes throughout the city to destroy people, he says, don't touch the people with my name on their foreheads. And so do you see what's happening here? We just spent two chapters with one Trinity coming into play. And here, we see on the opposite end of the spectrum another. And there are two trinities at work in this world. And who you choose to worship is going to be as plain as if it was written on your forehead. Because whoever you worship claims you, and whoever claims you builds you into their image. And it will be as plain as day. And when we put this in line with the understanding of power and worship of that power, we start to see this in every aspect of our world. And the question becomes, will you live life serving the beast or the lamb? Will you reject the power structures of our day built off strength and violence and money and influence where people demand we play the game in the same way? Or will you conform? and enjoy the beastly master you have, or maybe worse, seek to become like him. What we are called to as Christians is to shed the name of the beast, to stop playing the game, and claim the name of the Lord and conquer like Him. Whoever you worship claims you. And whoever claims you builds you into their image. Verse 2, And I heard a voice from heaven, like the roar of many waters, and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with with women, or for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb. And in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless." And so this 144,000 representative of the church, representative of the 144,000 in chapter 7, they are the first fruits. Much more will be on the way. And they are going to be virgins, no lies, blameless. That's not to be taken literally. That just signifies their readiness to follow the Lamb and follow where He leads. Verse 6, then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation and tribe and language. and people. And he said with a loud voice, fear God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth and sea and the springs of water. And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath poured out full strength into the cup of his anger. and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name. Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice, from heaven saying, write this, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed, says the spirit, that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them. This is the first time we see Babylon in this section and we'll get more into it in the future. It'll come back up in I believe it's chapter 16 and 17. It'll come back up. But the first time we see it Babylon is already defeated and and it promises the the angel flying overhead who's declaring these things promises that some things that are pretty gruesome and it's a warning. And what we see is at the end ⁓ that those who are dead in Christ, who die, yeah, die in the Lord from now on, blessed indeed, says the Lord, that they may rest from their labors for their deeds, follow them. What you do matters. Who are you becoming like, the beast or the lamb? Verse 14, Then I looked, and behold a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple and heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who had authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe. So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God, and the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress as high as the horse's bridle for 1600 stadia. The judgment is here, and you do not want to be a part of that. And here again, we are at the end of the world, and we're ready for another recapitulation. in chapter 15. think the first part of verses 14 through 16 where it's clear that it is the one like the son of man reaping. I believe he's reaping the harvest of his church, of his people. The angel who comes along behind him is reaping those who are not his people, right? And they drink the cup of God's wrath. And so ⁓ we're here at the end of the world again. So the world ends again in verse or in Chapter 14. And so this is a lot. Not going to lie. This is this is a lot. We've covered a lot of ground in this session. ⁓ And I just want to I just want to summarize where we've where we've been and summarize what we've talked about in the last three chapters. ⁓ Jesus, in Chapter 12, has defeated the dragon. We learn that the dragon has been cast out of heaven down to earth. But we also know that the dragon cannot destroy the church. And so the dragon is targeting you. And he uses power divorced from God and the worship of that power, the enforcement of that power to destroy you. And the powerful beast is impressive, but it's also deadly. and it will claim you if you give yourself over. So what will you choose? Because your allegiance has consequences. And if you follow the lamb, it may be painful now, but it will not be anywhere near as painful as what will come in the future for those who have the name of the beast on their foreheads. Whoever you worship claims you. Whoever claims you builds you into their image.