In Revelation chapter 12, we learned that one of Satan's
final fits of rage before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ
is that he will wage war against followers of Jesus Christ across
the world in an unprecedented way.
And it's in Revelation chapter 13 where we discover how he will
attempt to pursue this. The way that the evil one will
seek to exterminate what's left of Christian witness during the
Tribulation period is by possessing a human being in a
manner unlike what we have seen in the past.
We are about to be introduced to a figure in this prophetic book
that you have most likely heard about before, but not in the
detail presented in this passage.
If you've been with us in this series of the Book of
Revelation, then you most definitely have heard about this
individual. If you're visiting for the first
time and you are hearing what I'm saying, and this already
sounds strange or unfamiliar, I want to let you know from the
beginning that we are studying a book in the Bible that makes
predictions. Another way of putting it.
This is a book filled with prophecies.
These are not predictions made by men merely, but by God, who
through men gave insight into what will come.
And the reason why as a church we take these prophecies
seriously is because the Bible has given us predictions before,
and history testifies that those predictions have come to pass.
And so it is our conviction that if God was right before, then
he's probably going to be right again.
And so we're taking these claims very seriously.
We believe that they are indeed from God.
And at this point here, what we discover is the blueprint for
the last days. What we are looking at here are
some of the final marks of what's to come before the
culmination of the age. And the focus of our study this
afternoon is a person. And this person is famously
known as the Antichrist. The Antichrist goes by many
other titles in the Bible. In Paul's writings alone, he is
known as the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, or the
lawless. 1 And that's not even counting what this man is known
as in other places of the Bible. But what we're about to see in
Revelation chapter 13 is an identity about this man that is
new. This agent of Satan who arise
near the end of time is called the Beast.
The Beast, a name that accurately reflects the twisted
nature and personality and behavior of this one man.
Now, this is not the first time that the Beast is referenced in
the Book of Revelation. He appeared in Revelation 11,
verse 7, when we were told there briefly that the beast will kill
the two witnesses. But John now in this chapter
reintroduces this diabolical character, and more
specifically, he's going to give us insight into his career, what
he is going to do, and how he is going to do it.
Evidently, this is something that the Lord wants us to know
because it's in our Bibles. And the reason why I say this is
because I'm fully aware of how some can be overwhelmed, maybe
even intimidated by something like this, given its symbolism.
We have to trust something. We got to trust that by
meditating on these things, we're going to do more than just
satisfy our curiosity. If we interpret it faithfully
and apply it rightly, it will bless us, it will bless us, it
will equip us, it will stir us, it will move us in a deep way.
At least it should. And this is what we seek to do
by God's help. So again, let me emphasize why
we're here today. We are looking at Satan's plan
to extinguish the light of the gospel near the end of time
during his final few years of tyranny.
And he will attempt to do this by raising up a powerful
individual known as the Beast. And in this session, we will
begin looking at 5 insights about the career of the Beast.
And the reason why I say begin is because we're only going to
look at the first one today. The first one is the most
densed. The the first one is the most
packed with information. And I don't want us to be
overwhelmed, but I want to let you know that if we decode this
first one, this initial insight, it's only going to get easier
from here. And we'll look at that by God's
grace next week as we simply focus on the 1st foundational
point about the career of this man known as the Beast.
This is what it is. He will be a global leader.
Turn with me to Revelation 13.
We're going to look at the 1st 2 verses together, John writes.
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven
heads, with 10 diadems, that is, crowns on its horns and
blasphemous names on its heads. 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 gave
his power and his throne and great authority.
Let's pray, Lord, we admit that we need the spirit of wisdom and
revelation at this moment. Guide us, Lord, help us see your
wisdom, your beauty in this very text.
Help us understand it with clarity.
May the delivery be accurate, may be faithful to your design,
to the message that you desire to give through it.
And Lord, may we all be transformed as a result.
We believe that every corner of the Word of God has this
purpose, our sanctification and you being glorified.
May we experience that now as a church.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen and Amen.
John's first sight of this beast is truly hideous.
He has seven heads, and with each of those heads there's a
blasphemous name. He has 10 horns and there are 10
crowns upon these horns. And if that wasn't frightening
enough, the other parts of the beast are just as grotesque.
We see here that he looked like a leopard.
We learned that his feet are like that of a bears.
And when you look at its mouth, it was ferocious.
It was like the mouth of a lion. And there is no doubt that these
characteristics portray the vicious and monstrous nature of
this beast, whoever he is. And that's significant already
because we've studied about the Antichrist before and we have
determined from the Bible that he will be a future political
leader, a ruler Who Will Win the affection and the devotion of
the globe. Now, if you're going to do that,
it's very unlikely that you're going to be successful if you
look like this. So this is indeed symbolic, but
more than symbolic, it's God's perspective on the beast from a
human standpoint. He, he has to be charismatic.
He has to be a genius. He, he has to be successful.
He has to be charming to some degree if he's going to sway the
world to surrender to his leadership.
But from God's standpoint, he's hideous.
He's ugly, he's vile, he's destructive.
And all I want to tell you from this point is that God sees the
things differently than we do. But these details also provide
incredible insight, and the best way to understand the message of
these symbols is to examine them individually.
And this is our practice as a church.
When we come to something that seems cryptic, challenging,
strange, we have to step back and ask ourselves, have we seen
any of these features and other parts of the Bible?
Have we seen paralleling Scriptures?
And if we have, we have to visit them to to see if they will shed
light on what's presented before us.
And that's what we're going to do.
So we're going to turn these verses that we just read, these
first 2 verses, into bite size portions and we'll begin by
examining where the beast comes from.
Look again at Revelation 13, verse 1.
And I saw a beast, John says, rising out of the sea.
Throughout the Scriptures, especially the Old Testament,
the sea often represents things. Obviously there are parts of the
Bible where the sea is literal, but in different areas we see
that the sea can represent chaos, danger, even forces of
evil that oppose God. But there are also other places
in certain contexts where the sea simply symbolizes nations,
especially Gentile nations. We find that in the book of
Daniel, and we even find it in the Book of Revelation.
Consider another vision that John experiences where the beast
is included and other characteristics similar to what
we have in Revelation 13, where God gives him the interpretation
of some details that help us understand what's before us.
You have your Bible with you. I hope so.
Go to Revelation 17. Look at verse 15.
This is the middle of another vision John will experience.
But I look at this one verse to shed some light on the verse
that we're looking at in our main text.
Revelation 17, verse 15. And the Angel said to me, the
waters that you saw, John, you saw a sea.
You saw a body of water, large body of water.
The waters that you saw where the prostitute is seated are
peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.
Do you see that? So this body of water again
speaks of nations. With this in mind, we can
understand that the beast emerging from the sea signifies
that he's going to come from this world, specifically the
Gentile world. Now there's debate.
Is the beast a Gentile? Is he a Jew?
Is he a mix? We won't get into that
conversation now, but what is obvious is that he is a human
being and that he is summoned by Satan at a particular point.
At what point we'll remember how Revelation 12 ended when he was
kicked out of heaven. He pursued the woman and he
failed. So he vented his anger toward
the rest of her offspring, those who bear the testimony of Jesus.
And he stands the border there beside the water.
And then the next thing you see in Revelation 13 is the
emergence of this beast. He is summoning this individual.
But let's go to the next detail. In Revelation 13, we learned
that, yes, he comes from the sea, but also with 10 horns and
seven heads, with 10 items on its horns and blasphemous names
on its heads. What do we make of these
details? What do we do with these
features? Well, let's ask ourselves this.
Have we seen something similar before?
We're going to keep asking that question, by the way.
Have we seen these horns and these heads in a similar fashion
associated with a different creature that we've studied
recently? Answer Yes.
Just go back to Revelation 12. Look at verse 3.
Revelation 12 and another sign appeared in heaven.
Behold, a great red dragon with 7 heads and 10 horns and on his
heads 7 diadems. Not exactly the same, but close
enough. And that's intentional.
There is differences in in the details, but we're not looking
at the differences, we're looking at the similarities.
The beast shares the same qualities as the dragon.
Who's the dragon? Satan.
So he resembles the devil. He is distinct from the dragon.
He's his own thing, but he reflects the nature and the
ambitions of the evil. 1 So he does arise from men.
He comes from the sea, comes from the world.
He is a human being, but he also carries the likeness of Satan.
In other words, he is practically the devil Incarnate.
And that's why in other parts of Revelation you'll read The Beast
Who Arose from the Abyss. Well, which one is it?
Well, again, he's coming from the sea, the world, but he's
also energized. He is summoned and he's
operating under the power of Satan himself.
This is, in a sense, Satan trying to mimic God.
We're God, who in Christ came in the flesh.
He wants to do the same. He wants to appear in a way in
the flesh. He wants to embody someone.
He wants to take over and he wants to operate through a human
being, and he will do so successfully.
But the shared features between the beast and the dragon are not
only to emphasize this point, it's also to highlight the
influence the beast will have in the world.
What do I mean by that? Well, let's go back to the same
vision that interpreted the sea, because in it we're also going
to get further clarity about what these symbols represent.
So let's go back to Revelation 17.
I want you to see what it says here in verse 8 down to verse
10, Revelation 17, verse 8 and 10.
Is there anything here to help us understand what these heads
and these horns mean? Well, let's read.
The beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to rise
from the bottomless pit and go to destruction.
And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in
the book of life, from the foundation of the world, will
marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to
come. This calls for a mind with
wisdom. Pause there for a moment.
God tells us that in order to understand these things, we have
to use our minds. We have to think.
We can't be lazy in our study of God's Word and expect to get
answers. So there's a challenge even in
this. This calls for a mind of wisdom.
Somebody's who's willing to do the work of the Word to arrive
at conclusions. Just throwing it out there
because we're going to be doing a lot of travelling in our
Bibles. This calls for a mind with
wisdom. The seven heads are 7 mountains
on which the woman is seated. But look at verse 10.
Now they are also 7 kings. There are 7 kings, five of whom
have fallen. One is the other has not yet
come. And when he does come, he must
remain only a little while. Now Scroll down to verse 12 and
the 10 horns that you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received
royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for
one hour together with the beast.
These are of one mind and they hand over their power and
authority to the beast. I'm aware that we just read a
lot of data. There's a lot of information
here and we'll get to the details once we arrive at this
chapter. But for now, all we need to see
is that these heads and these horns clearly represent
political leaders and their kingdoms, rulers in this world,
and the reason why these powers symbolized by these horns and
heads are first associated with the dragon.
Remember Revelation 12, He had several heads, He had many
horns. The reason why these political
leaders, their kingdoms are associated with the devil, what
we studied in Revelation 12, is because it's being communicated
through the Word of God that these powers are ultimately
under the dominion of Satan. The Bible teaches that this
world to a certain degree is under the influence and the
leadership of the devil himself. I don't think I need to give
many examples to you to prove that.
Real world cultural illustrations.
It's not even subtle anymore. It's right in our face.
Sometimes it is more deceptive, sometimes it is cloaked in
supposed righteousness and goodness.
But the day that we're living in is just in your face.
And it's even causing unbelievers to wonder.
I mean, there's got to be something operating behind the
scenes for these devilish agendas and symbolisms and all
these acts and what we find in our entertainments.
This is something beyond the natural, for the Bible has
answers. So Satan ultimately is the
puppet master and God has granted him a level of control,
but not total control. But here's what's interesting.
We find that in Revelation 12, the devil has his horns in the
heads. But then you go to Revelation 13
and those horns and heads are now upon who the beast.
Yes, because they, they're, they're sharing the same
qualities. They're from the same family.
They, they carry the same DNA, but more than that, because
Satan at that point will delegate these authorities to
the beast, he will hand over these positions and these powers
and these governments over to this one man.
So here's what this means. This beast, whoever he is, will
be a leader indeed, but he will be spearheading a global agenda.
He's not going to be just leading a powerful nation.
He is going to rule over all nations.
And the nations at that time will gladly surrender their
power to him. Now you might be wondering what
will the world come to for, for such a decision to be made?
Well, listen, if you, if you actually just lean in a little
bit, there have been talks of, of globalism for decades.
There's a push for it even in our day, to erase borders to to
erase distinctions, to all come under 1 banner.
And so we even see undertones of this.
We, we realize this from time to time it rears its ugly head, but
it will reach its fulfilment in this person.
And one of the reasons why it will actually happen is because
the world will be such a mess. There'll be so much confusion
and havoc. There'll be such a lack of
competent leadership that when this figure does eventually
emerge on the scene, people will desperately throw themselves at
him. He's going to put a spell on
them. He's going to make promises.
And in fact, the Bible shows us that initially he's going to
solve world issues that global leaders have not been able to
do, the only dreamed about doing.
And so he's going to win the allegiance of the nations.
And it's ultimately going to be a satanic trap.
He's going to deceive these world leaders to surrender their
power. He's going to work through this
individual to make it even more convincing.
And the power of the beast and his system is expounded on in
the next set of details back in Revelation 13.
Look at verse 2, John says, after describing where he came
from and what he looked like, to zoom in and give us more details
of his appearance in verse 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 gave his
power and his throne and great authority.
So the second part of that verse confirms what we just heard,
right? That Satan is going to
orchestrate it for the world to be united under this one system,
the beast. But what do we do with all of
this? That much is clear, I hope.
But why is he described as a part leopard, part bear, part
lion? What was the question I said
that we were going to repeat over and over again.
Have we seen these features in the same context in different
parts of the Bible before? Answer.
Very good. Yes, we have.
Who saw it? Daniel.
Very good. So let's go to Daniel Chapter 7.
Now this is where things get very interesting.
Daniel the prophet had a vision about the same beasts.
And notice how these two texts will complement each other.
You're saying, well, what's so impressive about that?
Well, Daniel existed and lived hundreds of years before the
time of Christ. John, who's writing Revelation,
is doing so decades after the resurrection and center of
Christ. And yet there's perfect harmony
in their writings, in their not just writings, in their
predictions. Daniel 71.
Notice what the Holy Spirit says through him.
In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a
dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed.
Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.
Daniel declared, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the
four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.
Isn't that interesting? Here we see the sea again, and
what's going to happen with the sea?
Verse 3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea,
different from one another. The first was like a lion and
had eagle's wings. Then as I looked, it's wings
were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and
made to stand on 2 feet like a man.
And the mind of a man was given to it.
And behold another beast, a second one like a bear.
It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth
between its teeth and it was told arise devour much flesh.
After this I looked and behold another like a leopard with four
wings of a bird on its back, and the beast had four heads and
dominion was given to it. This is fascinating.
This is exhilarating. And in case you're a little bit
confused of what we just read, Daniel actually gives us the
interpretation because he was granted the interpretation.
What Daniel is seeing here is the trajectory of human
governments, more importantly and more specifically world
empires from his time until the return of Christ.
Proof. Are you still in Daniel 7?
Scroll down to verse 17. Here's a part of the
interpretation of this vision. He's told these 4 great beasts
are 4 kings who shall arise out of the earth, but the Saints of
the Most High shall receive the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom
forever, forever and ever. It's right there, it's plain.
But what kingdoms is Daniel seeing?
Well, biblically and historically we know the first
king that Daniel saw was represented by a lion, and that
represents and speaks of the Babylonian Empire.
The Babylonian Empire. Babylon in the Bible is referred
to both as a lion and an eagle in certain passages, and notably
these symbols also appear as some claim and Babylonian
historical artifacts. So we know that Babylon is
represented by this majestic creature because it was a
majestic empire, powerful, fierce, lofty, impressive.
Following the line, we learn about the bear.
The bear speaks about the Medo Persian Empire because this is
the historically speaking, and biblically speaking, there's
history in the Bible. The Medo Persians succeeded the
Babylonian Empire. Why a bear?
Because it wasn't as majestic as Babylon, but it was powerful.
It was scary, maybe not as swift, but very destructive.
But then we come here and we realize something about the
third and it is a leopard, or like a leopard.
Leopards are fast, are they not? But more than just a leopard
being fast, we're told that it had four wings on its back.
So it's very fast. And this is an image that points
to the Greek Empire. And this empire, especially led
by Alexander the Great, swiftly conquered the Persian dynasty.
The speed, the agility, the far reaching success of Greece's
military campaigns are perfectly captured by this image of a
leopard that is winged. Now, there are other details I
skipped over, but if you are intrigued by this and you look
more carefully at these other symbolisms, you'll be blown to
blown away to realize that there are so many historical
fulfillments in them. So much so that skeptics of the
book of Daniel refused to believe that Daniel wrote this
at his time. That's how accurate these
pictures are. And so you'll have some who say
whoever wrote the Book of Daniel wrote it long after these
empires emerged and succeeded one another.
But there are differences between what we find in Daniel's
vision and John's 2 main ones. This is interesting.
The same beasts appear, right? But did you notice that the
order is different? What's the sequence of the
beast, these kingdoms and Daniel?
It begins with a lion, then the bear, then the leopard.
In Revelation 13, what do you find?
The same beast? Reverse order.
He saw the leopard, right? And then the bear, and then the
lion. Is that detail significant?
I think so. It just speaks about how
surgically precise our Bibles are.
And I think the simple answer is that Daniel is looking forward
to these empires rising. So he's seeing it from the front
end, his perspective. He's looking ahead, whereas John
is reflecting, he's looking backwards on these empires and
the order that they had already appeared.
But John's vision is more than just a reflection, because in
Daniel's perspective, he sees these beasts as separate
entities, right? Different kingdoms.
But then when John sees it, he sees these beasts compiled,
merged, mashed up into a single beast.
What does that mean? It means that John's vision is
that this new beast that will appear in the last days will be
convergence of these former world empires that are
historically known for persecuting the people of God.
In other words, the future empire John sees will be a
combination of the strengths of these historical empires who
have persecuted the people of God in the past.
So this empire, whatever this beast is, will have the strength
of Babylon, it will have the authority of Babylon, it will
have the ferocious force and movement of the bear, and it
will have the agility like a leopard all in one, all rolled
up in a single one. So the impression that we're
supposed to have, if you, if you read that with a Hebrew mind and
with a biblical mind like we do, understanding the implications
of the the strongest traits of those former empires now
colliding into one empire, this thing is going to be
unstoppable. It's going to be so
overwhelming. You think America is powerful?
You've seen nothing yet. This will eclipse all former
things. Whatever the history books have
testified about, this will be unlike anything that we've ever
known. Now some of you might be
wondering, but I thought Daniel saw a vision of four beasts.
So why is John by the Spirit only borrowing from the imagery
of the the first three that we read about?
And if you thought that, I applaud you because you're
paying attention. I commend you for that.
Yes, there is a fourth beast that Daniel describes.
And I think looking at that 4th beast will give us even more
understanding of the beast that we see in Revelation 13.
Let's go look at it. Daniel 7, are you there?
Look at verse 7. After this I saw in the night
visions and behold a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful
and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth.
It devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with
its feet. It was different from all the
beasts that were before it, and it had 10 horns.
Wow. At face value, Daniel seems to
be seeing the same beast that John is seeing in Revelation 13,
right? Is that the case?
I would say yes, but with a clear distinction.
A very important difference. He is looking at the same beast,
but at two different stages. Let me explain.
Babylon. Medo, Persia, Greece, you're
seeing the succession of these kingdoms, and we come to the 4th
1. Historically speaking, who does
this 4th one represent? Rome.
And this accurately fits Rome.
I mean, Rome conquered Greece and became one of the most
impressive and lasting empires in all of human history.
And that's why Daniel says here that it was different from all
the other beasts. Nobody can stop Rome.
But what Daniel does here is that he goes on to give details
of the fourth beast that don't completely match the historical
Roman Empire, namely that when the reign of Rome expires of the
fourth beast, when when it comes to an end, evidently the literal
eternal reign of Christ will what begin?
That's something repeated over and over in Daniel Chapter 7,
and here's one example of that. Are you still in that chapter?
Look down at verse 23. There's further understanding of
what this 4th beast, beast means.
And in Daniel 723 we read thus he said, As for the 4th beast,
there shall be a fourth Kingdom on earth.
We shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall
devour the whole earth and trample it down and break it to
pieces. OK, look at verse 26.
Now this is the same breath. This is the same train of
thought. But the court shall sit in
judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away to be consumed and
destroyed to the end. And the Kingdom and the dominion
and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven
shall be given to the people of the Saints of the Most High.
His Kingdom shall be an everlasting Kingdom, and all
dominion shall serve and obey him.
Do you recognize the difficulty of this interpretation?
If the 4th beast symbolizes the Roman Empire and that God says
here that he will destroy it, and not just destroy it, but
hand over all the kingdoms under heaven to the Saints, how can
this be reconciled with the fact that the Roman Empire collapsed
around 1500 years ago? Are we living in that reality of
all the kingdoms of heaven being given over to the people of God?
Some say yes, we are, which would be a disappointment to me
if this is it. No.
So there's only three possible answers.
You ready? 3 possible answers to this
apparent dilemma #1 this prophecy failed.
It failed, the 4th Kingdom would end, and immediately after we're
talking about the return of the Son of Man.
That's in the same context, the same chapter.
Where is it? Which leads to the second
possible answer that even good hearted genuine believers would
say, well, this is referring to a spiritual dominion that Christ
inaugurated when he entered into history under the Roman rule and
reign during the time of their peak success.
Because we know that even in the Gospels that Rome was in power
when Christ came into the world. And so they would say all the
stuff that you're reading about dominion and the Kingdom and the
greatness of the Kingdom being handed over to the people in the
Saints of the Most High, that's all spiritual.
This is how they would try to reconcile this.
But here's the third and final option.
The prophet Daniel is speaking about the same beast that John
saw about the future, but in two stages.
And if the beast is the same here as it is in Revelation 13,
then I believe option #3 is the most accurate.
Which would mean what? That in the last days there will
be some form of revived Roman Empire?
That there will be this confederation of nations that
will dominate in a way that was previewed by the Roman Empire.
Now, that conclusion alone has led to many speculations, many
crazy applications. Some are more safe than others.
What does that really mean? Well, we can't get into that
now, But I would just say that is the understanding of this
beast that yes, historically Rome fell, but there is going to
be some kind of renewal that reflects its dominating
influence in the last days, known as the beast, and it will
carry the strongest characteristics of former
empires in that last period of time.
Now, if you're hearing this interpretation and you're
finding difficulty to accept it, let me mention one more thing to
hopefully persuade you. There are other details that
Daniel gives about this fourth beast that are very difficult to
say, being historically fulfilled in ancient Rome.
Let me give you just one example of that.
We read Daniel 723, but we skipped to verse 26.
What's in between? Let's read from verse 23 again.
Thus he said, As for the 4th beast, there shall be a fourth
Kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms,
and it shall devour the whole earth and trample it down and
break it to pieces. As for the 10 horns, out of this
Kingdom 10 kings shall arise, and another shall arise after
them. He shall be different from the
former ones, and shall put down 3 kings.
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, and they shall be given into his hand for a time,
times and half a time. And then he goes on to describe
how God's reign will come and take over everything.
Again, I'm aware that there are more details even here.
Here's the main point, however. The reason why I read this is
because you would be very hard pressed to try to see the
fulfillment of the fourth beast, the 4th empire, in this way in
history, especially when you consider the duration of the 4th
kingdom's maniacal reign. What does it say there at the
end of verse 25? Does this sound familiar to you?
They shall be given it to his hand for a time, times and half
a time. Have we seen that before in
Revelation? Yes.
That is describing the final few years of the tribulation period.
It's the same duration. So it's got to be speaking about
the same thing. So here's here's what we've
gathered so far. Daniel and John are seeing the
same thing, the same beast, but at two different stages.
It was historically fulfilled in part, but there's going to be
some kind of revival of a Romanesque type of empire in the
last days. Now this is how this has LED
some to believe then the beast in Revelation 13 is not a
person, it's a system, right? Because what have we been
studying the past few? Well, I don't know how long it's
been, but what a beast is a Kingdom.
So then why are we making it sound like a beast as an
individual? Is the beast in Revelation 13 a
person or a political power like a government?
And my answer is it's both. It's both.
Both. You actually consider this in
history, that in any empire, the government tends to be almost
wholly identified with the ruler, especially if it's a
dictatorship. And if you look back at
Revelation 13, we only read the first 2 verses.
But you go on and you read that the beast will be worshipped.
It's very unlikely that people will worship an ideology.
Maybe so. But then you go on to read in
Revelation 13, and there will be another beast that we're going
to study about in the coming weeks.
And he's going to persuade the world to worship the image of
the beast. The image of what?
A set of laws, a creed. And here's the most convincing
part, when you get to the end of Revelation, in Revelation
chapter 19, when Christ returns, one of the first things that he
will do is judge the beast. And it says this, that he will
throw him and the false prophet alive into the lake of fire.
To me, case closed. He's not just an idea, he's not
just a system, he's not just a form of government.
He's not just an empire. It is an empire, but it's also a
person who's running it. Well, we've heard a lot, haven't
we? I'm sure you can see why we
couldn't cover every point. Today was meat and potatoes in
the first point alone. So let's just pause here and
consider something marvelous. Isn't it amazing that Daniel and
John are seeing the same thing centuries apart in their
ministries, but seeing and complementing each other's
visions of the last days? How is this possible?
Well, it's the same. God is revealing it to them.
You can't convince me that this book is not supernatural.
But then we look at this and we think to ourselves, OK, well,
what do we do with all this information?
I mean, hopefully clarified, hopefully again, it provides
some tools of how to interpret the scriptures.
But if I myself wanting to ask this question whenever we come
to texts like this, what does it do for me now?
How does it influence me in my day-to-day with all the
responsibilities I have? And yes, I know we're studying
about the end of the world, but my world seems like it's ending
on its own. So preacher, help me.
Well, I have nothing to offer except the Word of God.
And I think one thing that we can do in terms of application,
in terms of how to relate this to ourselves, is to see Daniel's
reaction to the vision that he saw.
It's the last verse of Daniel 7. Notice how he wraps things up in
verse 28. Here is the end of the matter.
As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly alarmed me and my color
changed, but it kept the matter in my heart.
Apart from Daniel experiencing a supernatural thing, the reason
why he responded in such a way was because the thoughts that he
was having about the implications of this vision
overwhelmed him and moved him. It provoked something internal.
And I'm not here concluding this message to suggest that the way
we should feel about what we just heard is to be frightened,
anxious. But I do want to say that it
should do something in you, something.
When Daniel saw what he saw, sure.
The experience in itself was moving, but I believe when he
saw it, he believed it. It wasn't just an experience.
It was something that he believed to be true and that's
why it did the work in him to the point that it physically
manifests. I mean, he was losing the color
in his face. How did you respond in this past
50 minutes sitting there today to what was just said?
What did it do for you? Oh, I'm sure some light bulbs
went off in our minds. That's OK.
God wants us to use our minds. But do you actually understand
the implications of these predictions, where this is all
heading, how the story is going to conclude, how it speaks to
the temporal nature of the things that we think are going
to last forever, like your house and your body, your
relationships, all of that has an expiration date.
And we know that from personal experience.
But the Bible wants to tell us it's not just going to be an
individual thing where we're all one day going to die.
This whole world, this whole world is going to be flipped
over. This, this whole thing, all of
history is leading to one point, and that's Christ ruling and
reigning. That's Christ returning to
redeem and to establish his Kingdom.
That's where all of this is headed.
So maybe you're here today, you're visiting, and we're so
glad you're here. Maybe you've been coming, but
you're not a believer in Jesus Christ and you don't know what
to do with what you just heard. Here's how I want to speak to
your heart. You may not believe it, but at
least leave this place questioning what you just heard
and asking yourself what? What does this mean if it's
true? And are these claims just coming
from one author? No, I just mentioned it more
than once. You're talking about a library
of books of ancient literature that are speaking about the same
thing. How is that possible?
I want you to ask those questions.
Don't just leave out of here scoffing.
Don't just walk out of thinking, OK, I don't know what that was,
but glad it's over. No, no, Ask yourself, what did I
just hear? And if it's true, what does that
mean for me? And if you're so confident that
this is not true, then challenge it, Disprove it.
Believer, again and again, you are being reminded of what your
purpose is. Now there's a question of why
Daniel was alarmed. I mean, this ends on a good
note. All these other kingdoms will,
will fall, they will collapse and Christ's Kingdom, the Son of
man will come and rule and reign.
But I believe Daniel's wrestling with different emotions here.
It's what we need to consider also as we study this is, yes,
our future, but also the future of those who don't know Christ,
the loved ones that don't have faith in the Messiah, What's
their future going to be? Our children, Are we praying for
them? You know, you have some parents
who are more concerned about their future job and their
salary and who they're going to marry more than where they're
going to spend eternity. And so all these things need to
be considered. And if you find yourself sitting
there today unmoved, well, here's how we can pray and ask
God's help. Lord, do something in my own
heart. If I can hear these things,
these prophecies and your perspective on life and humanity
and history, and it doesn't do anything to me, then Lord do
something in me. And that is something that God
is willing to do because this book that has been written by
him is also written by God who is alive even now, and He can
work in your heart right now if you would just humble yourself.
What that means is if you don't believe in Christ, you can know
salvation today, and you can be assured that your futures
absolutely set on the path of redemption and hope and
everlasting joy and bliss. And if you're a believer here
and you find yourself for whatever reason, week after
week, becoming more stale and indifferent and more excited
about the things of this world than the things that are going
to happen to this world as God to revive your heart, that's
something He's willing to do. Can we pray?
Father, we stand amazed at your word.
We thank You that in this one service alone we heard verses
that minister to our personal needs, How You know about all
things from Psalm 139. We reminded in the same service
of the gospel truth how we are guiltless because of our faith
and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
And now we've come to prophecy to see what you will do in the
days to come and how you are telling us ahead of time.
I know tomorrow all these things happen in one service.
We do not take your word for granted.
We are blown away by Your revelation, but Lord, we don't
want to just be stimulated intellectually.
We pray like Daniel shows us even in this one brief moment,
how it moved him and it provoked him.
Lord, move us. It is our prayer that what we
heard would make us holier. It will make us more intimate
with You in the place of prayer. It will want us to get deeper
into the word for ourselves, that it will help us detach from
the things of this life. It will help us love those who
need to be loved and serve those who are called to be served and
reach out to those who don't know the truth.
So, Lord, take all the things that we've just studied together
and translate them into our lives and be glorified by our
obedience. We thank you for this in Jesus
name, Amen and Amen. All right, let's stand.