The Beast, 666, and The Lamb-Rev 13:1-14:5

New Testament, Revelation, Sermons

Revelation 13:1-18

Key Verses: Rev 13:10b; 14:12, 1

“This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.” “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.” “Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb…”

(Pastor Ben’s Note: My written sermons are for reading; the sermon on Sun is for hearing, which I preach extemporaneously.

You just can’t kill the beast. Among the Eagles best known and most popular song is “Hotel California” (1977)–which some alledge is the church of Satan in San Francisco. It is a song about hedonism, greed and self-destruction. A line says, “We are all just prisoners here of our own device.” It is about the “high life” and the dark excesses in America, which is seemingly irresistible and indestructible. Another line says, “They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beast.” It comes back again and again. It attracts and captivates almost anyone and virtually everyone. No one is immune from her allure. Finally, the most memorable eerie nightmarish last line of the song says, “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.” This verse sounds remarkably like the irresistable, indestructible and undeniable power of the Beast in Revelation. It sounds like those who have the mark of the Beast–666–on their righthand or their forehead (Rev 13:16).

Do you belong to the Beast or to the Lamb? This sermon addresses these questions:

  • Do you have the mark of the beast (Rev 13:16), or the mark of the Lamb (Rev 14:1)?
  • Are you coerced by the beast or embraced by the Lamb?
  • Are you a (scary) beast or a (lovely) lamb?
  • What is the meaning of 666?

Patient endurance. As the beast continues his raging assaults and relentless accusations against the church, i.e. Christians (Rev 12:10, 13, 17), John exhorts God’s people to patient endurance (Rev 13:10; 14:12). From last week’s sermon, we learned that we overcome the dragon–Satan’s vicious accusations–only by the blood of the Lamb, by testifying to Jesus before a watching world, and by not loving our lives as to shrink from death (Rev 12:11). When we try to save and enjoy our lives, we lose it (Lk 9:24; Mt 16:25; Mk 8:35). But when we entrust our lives to the Lamb without fear or reservation, God enables us to live an abundant life, life to the full (Jn 10:10b). This is the unchanging paradox of life: Die to live, or live to die. There are no other options or choices.

What is the nature of the beast? He is a blasphemer (Rev 13:1, 5, 6). He promotes idolatry–worship of the Dragon through his agents the Beast and the False Prophet (Rev 13:4, 15)–anything but God. He is like a mighty warrior whose rage and persistance never abates or diminishes.

Know your enemy. The Dragon (Satan) is a relentless foe who desperately and relentlessly wants to claim you as his own. He wants to stamp you and own you with the mark of the Beast–666. He is irresistible and alluring. Before him, you are already defeated before you can even take your first breadth. He gets to you ferociously with a frontal attack like a beast, or seductively with lies and deception like a false prophet. He is like a roaring lion waiting for someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8), or he masquerades like an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14).

The two parts of this sermon are:

  1. The Beast: The Mark of the Beast (Rev 13:1-18)
  2. The Lamb: The Redeemed of the Lamb (Rev 14:1-5)
  1. The Beast(Rev 13:1-18): The Mark of the Beast
  • His nature: Who/what is he (1-3, 11-12)?
  • Rome in the first century. Antichrists (worldly kingdoms, anti-god coalition, self-deifying godless leaders, the power of the sword).
  • False prophets (false Christianity, the power of deception).
  • His actions: What does he do and how does he operates (3a, 5-7, 13-14; Jn 8:44)?
  • Blasphemy (Rev 13:5-6). Declare themselves to be god and to act like god, like a beast. Satanic opposition to God and to the people of God.
  • Fake, counterfeit resurrections (Rev 13:3a, 14). The counterfeit trinity of the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet.
  • Deception (Rev 13:13-14).
  • Persecuting the church (Rev 13:7; 12:13, 17). The martyrdom of believers seems to be their defeat, but their death-defying faithfulness conquers the dragon and the beast (Rev 12:11; 15:2).
  • His scope: How far reaching is his influence (3b-4, 7-8)? The whole world, i.e. those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev 13:8)
  • His intent: What his ultimate desire is (4, 15)? To be worshiped.
  • His mark: What is the meaning of 666 (16-18)? It is the rule, ownership and control by the dragon. 666 symbolizes the spiritual control of heart allegiance and behavior. Seven expresses the idea of perfection or completeness. So six, which falls below the sacred seven, can never be seven or reach perfection. It symbolizes the imperfect fallen humanity, that which is depraved and destined to fail. It is a constant falling short (Rom 3:23). It characterizes godlessness and faithlessness, the incompleteness and counterfeit nature of the devil’s kingdom. Thus, 666 may be correlated with “imperfect imperfect imperfect,” “incomplete incomplete incomplete,” and “failure failure failure.”
  • Our response: Patient endurance (Rev 13:9-10; 14:12). Perseverance is a major theme in Revelation (Rev 12:17; 14:12; 16:15; 17:14; 21:7-8; 22:7, 10, 12, 14).
  1. The Lamb(Rev 14:1-5): The Redeemed of the Lamb (Rev 5:10; 1:6). Who are they?
  1. They have the mark of the Lamb and his Father (Rev 14:1; 7:3). The seal on their foreheads is the name of the Lamb and of his Father—a token of possession and protection by God, promised to every conqueror in the spiritual war (Rev 3:12).
  2. They sing a new song (Rev 14:2-3; 2 Cor 5:17). Their song belongs only to those who have experienced the Lamb’s redemption (Ps 107:1-3). Their song indicates that they are redeemed.
  3. They do not defile themselves with women (Rev 14:4a; Mt 5:8; 2 Cor 11:2; 1 Tim 5:2; 1 Cor 6:15-20; Eph 5:26-27).
  4. They follow the Lamb everywhere (Rev 14:4b). They are unwaveringly loyal to the Lamb, whatever the cost (Rev 12:11).
  5. They consecrate themselves to Christ (Rev 14:4c; Rom 12:1).
  6. They do not lie and are blameless (Rev 14:5; Eph 4:5). They speak God’s truth of the gospel with humility and tears and with fear and trembling (Acts 20:19, 24, 27; 1 Cor 2:3; Phil 2:12). They are not sinfless, but sanctified.

Know your only salvation. Satan the Dragon is both a Beast and a False Prophet. No one can defeat him….but the Lamb. The Dragon accuses us daily (Rev 12:10). His accusations are vicious, ruthless and heartless yet sadly true. But on the cross Jesus became the Lamb who took all of our accusations upon his body. When the Father looked upon his Son he saw my hideousness and had to turn his face away. He allowed all the accusations of the Dragon to be unleased upon the slaughtered Lamb. When I see my bleeding Savior on the Cross dying as a helpless Lamb, the power of the Beast begins to abate in me. In this way, and only in this way, the Lamb triumps over the Beast. In this way and only in this way, God enables me to live with patient endurance (Rev 13:10; 14:12), knowing that my victory is guaranteed and secure in Him.

References:

  1. D.A. Carson. 26 lectures on Revelation given to seminary students at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1995.
  2. Johnson, Dennis E. Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation. Pillipsburg: P&R Publishing Company. 2001.
  3. Morris, Leon, The Book of Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries). Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1987.
  4. Kim Riddlebarger. 32 sermons on Revelation. Kim Riddlebarger is the Sr. Pastor of Christ Reformed Church. Anaheim.
  5. Goldsworthy, Graeme. The Goldsworthy Trilogy: (Gospel and Kingdom [1981], Gospel and Wisdom [1987], The Gospel in Revelation [1984]). UK: Patermoster Press. 2000. Appendix: What is the Mark of the Beast? 323-328.
  6. ESV Study Bible.
  7. ESV Gospel Transformation Bible.
  8. The Reformation Study Bible.
  9. Revelation: Notes on each chapter.
  10. Revelation links: Overview. Study outline. Study guide. Introduction.

Notes:

D.A. Carson’s 5 parts on the Beast or Anti-Christ (Rev 13:1-10)

  1. The power of Satan expresses itself in antichrists (pleural) in concrete historical opposition to God’s people (Rev 13:2-4).
  2. Antichrist is always full of blasphemy (Rev 13:1, 5-6).
  3. Antichrists command wide allegience (Rev 13:8).
  4. Antichrists cause great suffering among the people of God (Rev 13:7, 9-10a).
  5. The existence and threat of antichrist calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints (Rev 13:10b).

The enemy. “Know your enemy” is a maxim of military strategy. John warns of Satan’s deception of the church through false teaching, his seduction of the church by the harlot, and exposes our greatest enemy in Revelation 13–the beast who wages war upon the saints.

The characters. Revelation 12 describes the period between Christ’s first and his second coming from a new vantage point. The seal and trumpet judgments depict God sending woes on the earth. Now John focuses on 7 main characters who participate in the great drama of redemption in Revelation 12-14. It depicts the spiritual conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of Satan. The characters mentioned include:

  • the dragon (Satan),
  • the woman (Israel of God),
  • the beast (the satanically empowered state),
  • the false prophet (the spokesman for the beast),
  • the 144,000 (the church),
  • the three angelic announcers (Rev 14:6-13), and
  • the Son of Man, who return to make all things new (Rev 14:14-20).

The woman. Revelation 12 introduces 2 characters: the woman and the dragon. The OT speak of Israel as the bride of her redeemer-husband (Israel’s Messiah). He removes Israel’s barrenness and gives her countless spiritual children. Israel gives birth to the Messiah. The virgin can be traced back to Abraham–and all Jews who embrace the Messiah.

The dragon (Satan) seeks to destroy the woman’s child (the Messiah), before turning on the woman. This on-going war between the seed of the woman and the serpent first began in Eden after the Fall, when God announced Satan’s final defeat as conflict was just getting underway. Satan is described as a dragon, symbolic of ferocity. His 10 horns are symbolic of those kingdoms which arise and do the dragon’s bidding–persecuting Christ’s church. The 7 heads and 7 crowns represent kings who lead kingdoms and swear allegiance to Satan. 7 is symbolic of Satan’s kingdom spreading throughout the world. It is a deliberate blasphemous attempt to mimic the kingdom of God.

Satan is under God. Despite the dragon’s ferocity and apparent power–his tail sweeps a third of the stars out of the sky, an echo from Daniel 8, where a great blasphemous kingdom spreads throughout the world, displacing part of the heavens. The dragon is unable to devour the woman’s child, because God protects the woman and her child in a safe place in the wilderness. Satan may be fierce and powerful. But he is a creature subject to the will of God.

God’s protection. When the Messiah is born to the woman, Satan suffers a great defeat. The result of a war in heaven is that Satan no longer has access to the throne of God, where he brings accusations against the saints. The Devil is cast down to the earth and leads the whole world astray. He is enraged because he knows his time is short and his doom is certain. Lashing out, he attacks the woman. After giving birth to the Messiah, she represents the true Israel, the church. To protect the woman for 1,260 days (this present age), God gives her wings of an eagle (symbolism from God’s preservation of Israel during the Exodus from Egypt: they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, and began their journey in the wilderness.

Lies. The Devil attacks the woman with lies, depicted in apocalyptic symbolism as a great flood spewing from the serpent’s mouth. He is the father of lies, while he attempts to imitate the Son of Man, who speaks the word of God. But instead of sweeping the woman away with his deceit, miraculously, the earth opens and swallows up this river of satanic lies, thereby protecting the woman from the Devil’s futile efforts. These images are drawn from the OT (Num 16:31-33: the ground opened and swallowed Korah and his men). They graphically remind us that the church, like Israel, is in the midst of our own Exodus from captivity to the guilt and power of sin, to the glorious freedom awaiting the children of God in the New Jerusalem where there is no longer any curse, or hint or trace of human sin.

Unholy trinity. God does not leave his people on their own. When warned of the judgment soon to come–God’s people flee the city of man (Babylon the Great), before it is destroyed when the 7th and final trumpet sounds. The NT church is like Israel of the OT. Depending on God to provide all we need, we go through the wilderness of this present evil age on the way to the heavenly city. Without God’s protection from the dragon’s rage, Satan would consume the church with a torrent of lies. Frustrated in his efforts to consume the woman, the Devil seeks other avenues of attack. John introduces the next 2 characters in the redemptive drama, the beast and the false prophet, who together with Satan form a counterfeit Trinity.

A most sensational text. Rev 12:17 gives a very solemn warning. Revelation 13 explains. Rev 13:1-10 is one of the most interesting and sensational passage in Revelation. It is also one of the most misinterpreted. So, let’s cover this chapter in some detail. We will face the beast and engage him in spiritual warfare. It behooves us to know all we can about him.

Remember the OT. Rev 13:18 says that understanding these things correctly “calls for wisdom.” Many among John’s audience were Jews, who were thoroughly familiar with the OT. Upon hearing John’s apocalyptic vision read aloud in the churches, these Jewish Christians were immediately filled with OT texts which provide the context for John’s vision. This is the key to rightly understand his highly symbolic language. Virtually every line in this vision refers–directly or indirectly–to one or more OT passages.

Ongoing struggles. John writes against the backdrop of a very pagan god-hating world empire–Rome, which was predicted by Daniel. John asks his readers to think about how Jesus fulfills the OT passages. He also asks them to make the connection between Christ’s fulfillment and how they currently play out before their eyes in the Roman empire, as seen in the struggles of the 7 churches John originally wrote to.

The church truimphant and the church militant. Once Christ comes and fulfils the prophecies, the anticipated messianic age has begun. The struggle between Satan and the people of God take on new dimensions in the final chapters of the story of redemption. The context is God’s victory over Satan when Christ dies on the cross and is raised to life. But the question remains, “How does Christ’s victory over Satan relate to the on-going struggle with the godless nations who persecute the church?” Because of Christ’s victory on Calvary, the final outcome is certain, though the consummation of all things has not yet come. This is why John repeatedly speaks of the church in two senses: as victorious in heaven–the church triumphant–and as a struggling church on earth–the church militant. Though we must face the beast, we do so with the certain and final victory yet to come firmly in our minds.

Rome is the beast out of the sea (and the 4th beast in Daniel’s prophecy). The beast in John’s day is Rome, with her emperor cult, and her economic and military domination. In Revelation, the Roman empire is a symbol of all god-hating empires and their self-deifying leaders, which rise again and again throughout this age, bent on waging war on the saints.

How might we identify the beast in our age, and a final beast which will arise immediately before Christ’s return? This beast will make Rome and her persecution of the church pale by comparison. Revelation does not predict future events with the precision we would like. But John lays out the way Satan works and the weapons we must use against him–the law and the gospel.

Persecution. Daniel 3 shows what it means for the beast to persecute God’s people. 3 young Hebrew men were cast into a fiery furnace because they refuse to worship the image erected by King Nebuchadnezzar. God protects them as they remain faithful unto death. The 4 kingdoms of Daniel 7 represent the 4 great empires of the ancient world–Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the beast of John’s day, Rome. John describes the beast of his day as having 10 horns and seven heads, making Rome the apocalyptic symbol of all satanic kingdoms that arise to persecute the church until Christ returns.

Rev 13:1. “And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.” In the ancient world, the sea was considered the home of monsters, a place of storm and tempest; it was frightening to people. The sea is a fitting symbol for the abyss to which Satan has been cast down. As the home of the Dragon, it is also that place from which comes the prime agent of Satan, the beast. John says, “I saw a beast coming out of the sea,” connecting the beast (Rome) directly to dragon (Satan). The beast “had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.” Notice how the beast mirrors the Dragon (Rev 12:3): “enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.” The beast draws its power directly from Satan and serves as his chief tormentor of Christ’s church.

Rev 13:2. John connects the beast who comes out of the sea to the 4th beast of Daniel 7. In Dan 7:7, the 4th beast was “terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.” Daniel prophesied of this beast 600 years yet in the future. John speaks of this same beast as a present reality. The letters to the 7 churches of Revelation 2-3, tell us that the beast is persecuting the Saints.

Rev 13:5-6. The beast of Daniel 7 spoke boastful words against God. This beast was “given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months,” the entire church age. Furthermore, “he opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.” God has sealed his people on the earth with the name of Christ (the 144,000) protecting them from his own wrath. God protects the church (the woman) from Satan by hiding his people in the wilderness (Rev 12:6, 14). Enraged at being cast from heaven, and twice frustrated in his attack on the woman, Satan now seeks revenge upon the people of God through the agency of the beast.

Rev 12:3. The beast empowered by Satan seeks the same things the Devil does–receive the worship of the peoples of the earth. To deceive the whole world, the beast imitates the power of God, specifically the resurrection of Christ (Rev 12:3). The resurrection of the beast must be seen against the historical background of John’s own age and the so-called “Nero myth.”

Nero–one of the most notorious and evil figures of the ancient world–was at first indifferent to Christianity. Later he became violently opposed to it, probably putting both Paul and Peter to death in Rome, along with countless other Christian martyrs. Nero was vain, preoccupied with personal luxury. He bankrupted the imperial treasury. Then he confiscated land and property from the nobles to continue his spending. He was a violent man. He killed his pregnant wife (who was no saint), by kicking her in the stomach. He was suspected of starting the horrible fire which for six days burned much of Rome during the summer of A.D. 64. To deflect criticism from himself, he blamed the Christians for starting the fire, many of whom, he had tortured by turning them into human torches.

Nero committed suicide in A.D. 68 at 30 years of age. Rumors spread throughout the Roman empire that Nero was still alive and that he had gone into hiding in some remote part of the empire, and that he would soon return to take revenge on all who cast aspersions on him. There were even rumors that Nero would come back to life or had already been raised from the dead. Though he was hated in Rome, he was admired throughout much of the empire. The Jews living in Rome compared Nero with the little horn of Daniel’s prophecy and identified him as the Antichrist, an evil figure the Jews believed would arise in the days immediately before the appearance of the Messiah.

Nero figures prominently in John’s teaching about the beast and his persecution of the church. Nero is the historical backdrop against which all subsequent self-deifying persecutors of the church must be measured. If we want to know what the beast will be like, we look to Nero and the Roman empire under his rule.

Rome the beast. In Romans 13 (written by Paul in the mid-50’s), Paul calls the Roman government a minister of God. But when John writes Revelation (end of the first century), Nero began persecuting the church and moved the empire toward the deification of the emperor. Between Paul and John (30 years), Satan transformed a pagan empire largely indifferent to Christianity, into a 10-horned, 7-headed beast, which wages war on the saints and is led by men who consider themselves divine, and who demand worship from their subjects.

The beast suffered a seemingly mortal wound, only to come back to life again. The historical record is clear that under the rule of emperors Vespasian, Titus and Domitian–men who came after Nero–Rome regained the power and wealth she had before Nero brought the empire to virtual collapse. A case can be made that when one of the beast’s seven heads was slain (Nero), a series of emperors arose who saw themselves as deities and restored to Rome her imperial majesty. The fatal wound to the beast was, apparently healed. But though many commentators focus almost exclusively on the details of the history of the succession of Roman emperors, this might not be as important as the big picture. “The symbolism has broader application. The revival of a powerful movement or an institution after serious trouble seems to indicate to its followers that it is invincible. The Empire seems to survive all threats, thereby showing that is was eternal and attracting more worship than ever.” A counterfeit resurrection, in the sense just described, is one of the tell-tail signs that Satan is at work.

Rev 13:4, 7. Given the reversal of Roman prestige and power, “men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?” Imperial Rome came back from collapse. Her grandeur was restored. Her military was victorious again. By worshiping the emperor and the state, men were worshiping the Dragon. Fallen humanity will never worship Satan directly–he is too hideous and too evil. But humanity will gladly worship the Dragon disguised as the beast. This resurrected beast “was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev 13:7). Those who are not Christ’s–those whose names were never written in the book of life–are at the mercy of the Dragon. And he has no mercy!

Martyrdom. The beast was given authority over the nations, and he appears victorious over the Saints (Rev 13:7). They are Christians living throughout the Roman empire, in Smyrna and Pergamum, where Christians had been prevented from buying and selling, and killed for refusing to worship the beast and his image (Rev 13:15). In John’s day countless Christians lost their lives for refusing to renounce their faith in Jesus and acknowledge Caesar as Lord. But this is not limited to ancient Rome and the first century. Throughout the 1990’s, an average of four Christians per day were killed for their faith in Jesus and for refusing to deny their Lord. “He who has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints” (Rev 13:10). John says this without despair, because he know how the story ends.

Christ’s kingdom always wins in the end! John repeatedly says that when the beast kills a saint, that saint comes to life and reigns with Christ for 1,000 years, taking their place in the triumphant church in heaven, that multitude so vast they cannot be counted, as they await the resurrection of their bodies. They are safe in the presence of God, and spared from the lies of the Devil. What do we see in Rome? Ruins! In Berlin, what do we see? The bunker where Hitler committed suicide. We can buy pieces of the Berlin Wall, the epitome of Marxist-Leninist attempts at world domination and destruction of Christianity. Never forget who wins in the end.

Beast. The question remains of a final beast who will arise before the judgment, a beast who will be the sum total of all the others. John calls for wisdom. Jesus spoke of this present age as birth pains, indicating great travail before the end. The seal and trumpet judgments intensify as the end draws near. The Roman Empire of John’s day may be a foreshadowing of a horrible and final beast yet to come, a global empire which will persecute the church before the return of Christ when Satan is released from the abyss at the end of 1,000 years, which Paul describes as a time of wide-spread apostasy (2 Th 2:1-12), characterized by Satanic deception and appearance of the man of lawlessness, the ultimate Nero, symbolically come back to life.

No fear. We need not fear the beast. Our victory is assured through the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14; 12:11). While men worship the Dragon, and while the beast wages war on the saints, let us fight with the weapons God has given us–the law and the gospel. Instead of living in fear, let us sing the song of victory in Rev 5:12-13, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”

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