Who Can Fight The Beast? (Revelation 13:1-10)
GIST: Until Jesus returns, there will be many anti-Christs who oppose and persecute His people, so we must cling to Him in faith and endure.
Welcome to our 30th sermon in Revelation! This morning, we’re coming to the first part of Revelation 13. This continues with the kind of imagery we encountered last week in chapter twelve. Stepping into more narrative or story-centered illustrations, John was inspired to show us the dragon (Satan) pursuing the woman (the people of God) as she was expecting a child (Jesus). Then, once Jesus came, Satan tried to consume Him but was defeated, so he chased after the Church, but even when the circumstances seemed impossible, they were preserved by God.
Picking up with those same thoughts, we’re introduced to two beasts in chapter thirteen and shown what this pursuit of Satan will look like. For the sake of clarity, I’m going to divide these discussions into two weeks. Nonetheless, I’ll go ahead and give this overview in case you miss next week (or fall asleep at any point). These two beasts are frequently referred to as the Antichrist and the False Prophet. However, I think it would be better to call them anti-Christs (spelled that way to emphasize my point) and false prophets because they point to two kinds of opposition God’s people will face until Jesus returns.
This morning, we’re going to camp out with just the first, and possibly more well known of the two. However, I’m going to go ahead and give you this week and next week’s gist statements so you can have the whole picture here. (And I reserve the right to modify this second gist before next week if need be ☺️.)
GISTS:
Until Jesus returns, there will be many anti-Christs who oppose and persecute His people, so we must cling to Him in faith and endure.
Until Jesus returns, there will be false spirituality that deceives and tries to turn the world away from Jesus, so we must pray for discernment and wisdom as we keep our eyes locked on Jesus.
Let’s read just the first 10 verses. Then, we’ll pray and walk through each line together.
“1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" 5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear: 10 If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”
Let’s just walk through the passage together. Then, we’ll hit some takeaways!
“1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea…”
In the ancient world, the sea represented chaos. The sea was uncontrollable and unpredictable. So symbolically, this beast comes from a place of disorder and disruption. These sit in direct opposition of our God who brings purpose and clarity and calms the storm!
“...with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth.”
Some of this imagery will seem very familiar because it looks a lot like the dragon from last week. If it’s giving you those vibes, you’ll see in a second that’s because these two pictures are serving the same purpose. Again, horns represent power and these ten horns represent the destructive power of the beasts being described in the vision from Daniel 7 where four destructive beasts are described, but the last one has ten horns—emphasizing how much more powerfully destructive it is. And, that’s not the only parallel here to that passage. Check out this sampling ☺️:
“2 Daniel declared, "I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. 3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. 4 The first was like a lion … 5 And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. … 6 After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, … 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 ten horns. ... 17 'These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. 18 But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.'”(Daniel 7:2-7, 17-18)
So the beast described here looks like all the beasts described in Daniel combined, plus it has the ten crowns and seven heads of the dragon which represent an attempt to mimic the authority of God which all through this letter has be referred to in sevens. Now, we know from studying Revelation, sevens have been used to represent perfection, but on the beast they are covered in blasphemies instead.
Even though this will be getting ahead of myself a bit, I’m going to go ahead and make this observation. Like in Daniel’s prophecy, this imagery represents dilerbate attempts to fight against God and His people.
“And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.”
I told you there would be a connection! This beast is empowered by Satan, sin. Guys, this is the world we live in— where sin is allowed to reign.
“3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed…”
You’ve probably heard me say this a few times since we started studying Revelation ☺️, but this is a verse that has lead to a lot of speculation. However, I think understanding what is being said in the verse is key to understanding who this beast is, and I will just say upfront that I believe it is meant to represent a vast number of people and ideologies and governments and organization which directly oppose Jesus and His people. Let me break down why.
The next big description of this beast come in Revelation 17. In verse 8 of that chapter, we’re told this: “8 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.” We’ll come back to this passage… eventually ☺️, but for now let me draw your attention to that description that sounds a whole lot like what we hear applied to Jesus all the time. Emphasizing His eternal nature, we’re told Jesus was, and is, and is to come. The beast was, is not, and is to come. What does that mean? It’s pointing to a cycle. Anti-Christs will come and wreck havoc. Then, they will be overcome. They were, but now they’re not. For a concrete example, think of Adolph Hitler. He, undeniably, was an example of an anti-Christ. His power and influence were massively destructive, but he was defeated and now he’s gone. Still, was Hitler the end of anti-Christ opposition? Not at all. Anti-Christs have continued to come, but they haven’t had that name. Think of the terrorist organizations we’ve seen in our lifetime, or the organizations bent on defaming Christ and turning people away from Jesus. They all have new names, but they’re purpose is the same.
Until Jesus returns, there will be a constant cycle of those who oppose Him. Now, this doesn’t mean there won’t be individuals you can point to as “antichrists”. It just means there won’t be only one.
“...and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" “5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.”
What’s being said here? Anti-Christs will come and lead people away from Jesus and toward worshiping Satan. Now, this might seem crazy at first. Even with the vast array of false gods and religious teachings in our world, overt satanic worship has never really been mainstream. However, what does Satan want? The same thing our sinful hearts naturally want: pursuit of self. Look at what the beast is saying: haughty and blasphemous words. The beast, then, is represented by anything that turns us toward ourselves and away from our deepest need: Jesus Christ and His rescue!
Also, this influence will be so strong, that it will impact the whole world and cause people to ask: who can even fight this? Guys, don’t we see this? Haven’t you heard this argument? When we see wickedness reigning in our world, how often do people make comments like, “well, it’s not like there is anything we can really do about it any way.” Again, this is definitely getting ahead of myself, but remember, Jesus has already won! Why do we insist on living like we’re on the losing side? Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking you can’t be used to make a difference in this broken world. Yes, anti-Christs will always come. That 42 months reminds us of that. We’ve seen that number before (42 months, 3 ½ years, time and time and ½ a time, 1,260 days= from now until Jesus returns). Nonetheless, “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!” (John 4:4).
“6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.”
God, His people, and His truth will be under attack. People will even die for Jesus. Every part of the world is impacted by this reign of sin—BUT not everyone is under its authority. Because of Jesus, the Lamb of God, and His sovereign salvation, those who belong to Him, those who have received His unconditional love and forgiveness, those who are no longer trying to fight this life on their own, aren’t under the reign of this beast. My title question was: who can fight the beast? The answer? Jesus has already defeated him.
“9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear: 10 If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”
This will be hard. People will be taken into captivity. People will lose their lives. But the people of God are called to endure with faith. Let’s break that down in our→
TAKEAWAYS
There will be anti-Christs. Many will come in a continuous cycle of people, ideologies, organizations…etc, opposing Jesus and His people.
The Church will face effective persecution. In fact, at times, it will even be overcome. There will be battles that we lose, but, as cliche as this probably sounds, we can know, even then, we belong to the One who has won the war!
We need to hold to faith and truth. We need to place our confidence in His unseen, but fully trustworthy, hand! Likewise, and we’ll hit this even more next week, we need to remember the truth while surrounded by a world of lies.
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