Missions Paul

There may be sounds that remind you of what went wrong for you. Sounds of what you have lost. Sounds of your failure. Sounds of your missed opportunities. Sounds of your own impetuousness. Sounds of your regrets that groan from deep within. The sound of pain which may not have literal sound but rages inside as thoughts of a lost loved one, a failed relationship, the brokenness of a beautiful story churn and break your heart.

I’m tired of the sound from earth with its boasting of what they have achieved or what they are going to be or do next. I’m tired of politics and programmes to strengthen a cause that is for our benefit. I’m tired of the sound of heartache of another famine in Somalia. I’m tired of the sound of the 40,000 migrants so far this year, crossing the English Channel, risking their lives in small boats. I’m tired of the sound of sleepy Christians whilst the dragon is at work.

However 1 hour ago and for the first time, I became a grandfather! A little girl was born into this world with a sound that we will gladly get to know all too well in the coming days! Not all of earth’s sounds are desperate ones! Though on the video call she looked very peaceful indeed!

But I want to tell you there is a sound of heaven which is far more important than any sound of the earth.

“And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.” (Revelation 14 v 2)

I want to hear the sound of heaven. I want earth to hear heaven’s sound.

I have heard the sound of Niagara Falls where it was pointless to speak because of being drowned out by the intense, powerful rushing water. But it pales into insignificance with the rushing water sound of heaven. Remember in chapter 1, “his voice was like the sound of rushing waters”? We the redeemed begin to sound like Jesus!

Remember the sound from the throne in chapters 4, 8 and 11? Heaven’s drum-kit, this loud peal of thunder but mixed in with melodious harpists playing their harps. This united version of sound is not far from us.

Heaven is not in some far off place. It is however within reach of visibility. It is just next door so not surprising that it is possible to hear the sound.

And what do we hear? An intense and powerful force that cannot be silenced nor conquered and which drowns out the blasphemous sounds from the dragon on the earth. But it is a creative, purposeful and melodious sound as those harps are being heard. There is order, this is not chaos; it is a sound that is understood. There is beauty and authority.

Be careful what you listen to today. Make sure it is the sound from heaven and that may well be from a beautiful girl on her first day on earth!

Often when we play out of position we are not as effective. There is a place for us to live our lives and it is right next to our leader, Jesus Christ. The closer we are to Him the more we will know we are victorious. It becomes very difficult to be pessimistic, negative and defeated when you are with Jesus!

As we have already seen, Psalm 2 was understood as a Messianic prophecy especially for those persecuted. Everyone knew the Psalm. They imagined God laughing in the face of the enemy of our life because no matter what is happening He is still in control of our lives with a greater authority than what is coming against us, for He is the King of all Kings.

We turn the chapter pleased to be coming away from the dragon and his two beasts. Here we are:

“Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.” (Revelation 14 v 1)

We have something new. But it has references with the old, namely Psalm 2 for that is what the first readers would focus on. “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” (Psalm 2:6)

In the context of man’s rebellion, the 666 mark of the beast and the attacks of the dragon John sees Jesus. Where is He?

He sees Jesus on God’s mountain, Zion, the king of all nations. How? Not because of the image of the lion though that is what He is. But the lamb. The 144,000 who we have also seen in chapter 7 are with Him. We already know this is the symbolic number for all the redeemed, for you and me.

We stand with the Lamb in the place of victory. We are with him. We are marked with Him and for Him and the Father. No circumstance or any person does not determine our victorious position but who we are standing with does!

The mark of the Lamb and the Father is within you today. You are His. You stand with Him. Therefore, your position is that of victory, it can be no other.

So this number 666:

Is trying to be what you are not;

Is trying to blend in to the culture;

Is trying to justify your compromise which comes from a corrupted heart.

And here is the final thought:

666 is trying to offer utopia but it will never get there, it always falls short.

“This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.” (Revelation 13 v 18)

666 is not the Pope. Martin Luther, Ronal Reagan, a bar code, a social security number or any of the endless definites that people assume.

But it could be (but not exclusively) Antiochus IV Epiphanes (look him up!), Caligula, Nero, Domitian …. Hitler! (The point is those followers of Jesus going through hell because of an Anti-Christ figure are right in saying 666 is that individual) Maybe the readers of John’s vision know exactly who the 666 was referring to. Maybe it was an individual like a Nero or Domitian.

This beast of the earth who mimics the Holy Spirit ( ‘the seven Spirits of God’ meaning perfect and complete) is seen throughout the history of the world as incomplete and not perfect in anyway. The number 3 is also the number of completeness. So perhaps John is saying this beast of the earth may promise everything, tempt with utopia, but will always deliver short of that. The beast of the earth is totally imperfect, completely incomplete and falls short not once, not twice but continually and totally, hence three times!

So this number 666:

Is trying to be what you are not;

Is trying to blend in to the culture; and …

Is trying to justify your compromise which comes from a corrupted heart.

“It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.” (Revelation 13 v 16-17)

This is not a tattoo!

This is not an insertion of a microchip by Bill Gates into a Covid vaccine!

But Just as Christ is ‘in us’ meaning His nature, His character, His image is sealed in us by the Holy Spirit who lives and empowers our lives then so too, the nature, character and image of the second beast is within the soul of the world, its rationale, its attitude, spirit, decisions and responses. As the mark of Christ is working in our lives so the mark of the beast is corrupting our lives.

So if you have the mark of Christ and if you refuse to be corrupted by the beast of the earth then you will suffer.

It might be difficult to understand the pressure on those first Christians who were being pressurised to offer the right sacrifices or bow to the right image before they could trade or even enter the market place to buy.

Do I earn money (and the money in my pocket has ‘Caesar the son of god’ printed on the coins) and feed my family or do I compromise my worship of Jesus? Do I starve or do I sacrifice to idols?

But what of us? Will this become even worse for us as time goes by?

Already our faith comes away from singing hymns in religious buildings and is being worked out in this dragon-beast empowered world when we will face similar perhaps more subtle but nonetheless challenging questions of compromise. Do we let our hearts become corrupted to survive this world? That’s the purpose of 666.

We know the Holy Spirit gives breath to the worship of Jesus Christ. We understand that sentence and we are more than thankful for the truth of it. With that in mind we now see a further activity of the beast of the earth and importantly what is behind the number 666.

As we read the verses look at how much this second beast is focused on image. Travel to India and you become very much aware of Murti puja which is the key Hindu practice of worshipping sacred images of god/s and divine personalities. 

“Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. ¹⁵ The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.” (Revelation 13 v 14-15)

At the time of John’s vision we know through early historical writings that images were created not by the state but by religious priests in honour of the state and the emperors and they would use apparatus to make these images move and even have sounds come from them in order to deceive people to worship the political power. Why? Maybe for peace and accommodating the empire camped all over their land. Maybe for rewards and favours. Maybe that they too were deceived to do so.

666: is trying to blend in to the culture.

• This is done by teaching and prophecy

Remember the false apostles of the Church in Ephesus? (2:2) Then the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans in the Church at Pergamum (2:14-15) and infamous Jezebel of Thyatira (2:20-24). How does this apply to us?

1. Anything that says you can be a Christian as well as being this and that.
2. Jesus Christ plus emperor worship, idolatry and whatever else culture offers. Put your Buddha statue and your cross next to each other and worship both. (note: both are wrong, we worship Jesus)
3. The church must become culturally relevant and acceptable and that might mean re-interpreting what the Bible says and finding a new value system; the world has changed now; it is culture over the Bible. (The world hasn’t changed for this to happen: it was happening in John’s day)

• This is done with the threat of punishment.

There are countless stories of persecution today and the majority come from the religion, group or state that the believer is converted from or within but who refuses to continue to bow down to its rules of worship.

Carrying the name Christian is enough for many to be tortured and killed without question especially under Islamic militant rule and civil war.

What are the threats to Christians in your own nation? To you? If you don’t compromise? We may think of only physical persecution. However it might come economically. We might find we lose our jobs, our promotions, churches may lose their charitable status and tax-exemptions. We will see this in the next verses tomorrow.

So here is another landmark moment in arriving at what Revelation is often known for, a number.

What is it? Should we look out for it? Should we be afraid?

Over the next few days we will slow this passage down and try to understand and as usual in my very non-academic and very much ordinary approach! But let’s read the whole passage as a second beast emerges.

“Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. ¹³ And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. ¹⁴ Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. ¹⁵ The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. ¹⁶ It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. ¹⁸ This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.”  (Revelation13 v 11-18)

1. 666 is trying to be what you’re not, v11-13.
2. It wasn’t the Trinity though it looked like a version of it.
   1. The dragon (God the Father); the sea beast (God the Son, the Lamb); the earth beast (God the Spirit).
   1. The earth beast moves the earth to worship the sea beast (as God the Spirit does towards God the Son).
   1. The earth beast (the Spirit) looks like and operates with the same authority as the sea beast (the Son with the lamb’s horns) but sounded like the dragon (the Father)
3. It pointed to a resurrection but it was only a healing.
   1. The fatal wound may have been healed but the point is it has not conquered death. Jesus died but He will never die again.
4. It looks like the power of God but these signs lead people away from God.
   1. Elijah called fire down from heaven. And “It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes.” Joshua 24:17

When you see a mimicry of the truth of the Bible; when you see a force which is a wonder but not the Way; when you see worship; everything that is trying to be what it isn’t is 666.

Actress Megan Fox has 20.6 million Instagram followers. Recently she posted a picture of her in a very scantily dressed pose, receiving communion from her boyfriend, musician Machine Gun Kelly who is dressed as a priest. The caption reads, “On Sundays we take communion.” If this isn’t blasphemy and a mockery of Jesus and our most central Christian message then I’m not sure what is! Where does this blasphemous idea come from?

“The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. ⁶ It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling-place and those who live in heaven. ⁷ It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. ⁸ All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast – all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. ⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear. ‘If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed^[ with the sword, with the sword they will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.” (Revelation 13 v 5-10)

How do we live in such a non-Christian world with blasphemy all around us?

Don’t fear this blasphemous beast: No one has authority without it being given by God (v5, 7). Remember if God was still in charge when His Son was crucified then it shows that at no time no matter how anti-Christian this world gets is He not holding ultimate authority.

Don’t fear this blasphemous beast: He has an allotted time and a limited season (v5). This is a symbolic time as we have seen for the trampling of the Holy City, the time of the 2 false prophets and the time of protection for the woman from the dragon. It is simply a time of testing. But it is for a time.

Don’t fear this blasphemous beast: Your name is written in the book of Life, you will make it (v8). In order to make it then we must follow the story of the Lamb, it is His book of Life, His way and His power. It is a mystery revealed. There is no other way.

Don’t fear this blasphemous beast: Just respond to God’s call (v9). We must listen to the Spirit. We must live our lives on what He says.

Don’t fear this blasphemous beast: Be patient under suffering (v10). Remember we fight not as the world fights but with patient endurance.

Our dreams and visions are in the context of real events and real people but mixed in with lots of strange imagery at times! Just try listening to your friend tell you their dream last night!

John is seeing his vision unfold in the context of being fully aware of a story about an Emperor, Nero..

“One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. People 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 wage war against it?” (Revelation 13 v 3-4)

The worst head of the beast from the sea (the Roman Empire in the time of John) has to be Nero. No one was as wicked and as determined to persecute the Christians as Nero. There are many gruesome stories such as to lighten his garden landscape he would burn Christians on poles. He committed suicide in AD68, “a fatal wound”.

But by the time of this vision many believe he remained alive. In fact there had been many claiming to be Nero in return. Immediately after his death someone claimed that he was a resurrected Nero, one during the reign of Titus and then prior to this vision during the reign of Domitian, Nero makes another return.

Even in the Jewish/Christian world the belief that Nero would return was prevalent so that the name became synonymous with the anti-Christ.

Are you feeling you have heard this story somewhere else? Of course! It is a parody of Jesus Christ who will return soon, though there have been many false Messiahs saying he has done so already.

The dragon only imitates or tries to do so.

We have already seen the beast resembles animals and Jesus is the Lion-Lamb.

The beast from the sea is a 10 horned beast and the Lamb has seven horns.

One of the heads seemed to have had a fatal wound and the Lamb looked as if it had been slain.

The world worship with the question ‘who is like the beast?’ and yet God’s people for generations have asked “Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Exodus 15:11)

Soon we will read in verse 7, “And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation” and John saw around the throne the 4 living creatures and 24 elders singing “and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

What about the second question? Who can wage war against it?” We know the answer and again eventually will get to this verse in 19:16, “On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.”

We don’t do fake, imitation and any parody of Jesus. We don’t bow our knee to any kind of emperor. We worship the Emperor of all Emperors, Jesus!

So as disciples of Jesus we remain committed to Him and we worship Him alone! This is perhaps what John is hearing also.

Soon we will be reading the beast of the land but for now we focus on the beast of the sea. It looks exactly like the dragon, 7 heads and 10 horns with a crown on each horn. The dragon and 2 beasts form a trinity.

The dragon is chasing the offspring of the Women, you and me. This is where we are right now, the world we live in. The dragon is using the empires of the world to put pressure upon the Church. Our nations are becoming even more godless. As it was in John’s day so in ours.

What is John seeing and why?

“The dragonstood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.” (Revelation 13 v 1-2)

As we have already discovered, John is seeing what Daniel saw in his exile, 600 years before Jesus in chapter 7. Again the connection is very close. Daniel’s beasts are a winged lion, a bear, a leopard and a 4^th greater beast than all the previous ones.

So though the first beast of Daniel is most probably the empire that put Daniel and Gods people in exile, namely King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and then moving into subsequent empires of Medes, Persians and the Greeks. The empire that John and God’s people are struggling under is the Roman Empire. Rome was built on 7 hills it was known as the city of 7 hills and the 7 headed beast from the sea is probably a reference to this.

Rome’s Emperors were anti- Christ. Augustus (27 BC- 14 AD) demanded worship to him. Caligula (37-41 AD) demanded to be known as god. It was Nero (54-68 AD) who was the worst, blasphemous to the extreme! By the time of John, the Emperor, Domitian (81-96 AD) wanted the whole world to worship him as God.

These Christians lived in a culture soaked with a system and values far-removed from their lives. “Saviour, lord, god or son of god” were titles banded around for men who wanted to be treated as divine, celebrity cult-like figures. They knew the penalties for not complying. It isn’t hard for Christians in North Korea and other anti-Christ regimes to understand this, they are in it right now. In fact maybe you will agree that even in the West some governments are also rising with their blasphemies.

Behind it all, “The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority”. The dragon or Satan lies behind the scenes of these anti-Christ empires and governments. There is an unseen manipulative agenda by the dragon to move you from your worship of Jesus Christ. We must not be oblivious and simply rollover when we are being silenced or being led into more secularism. We must not get caught up in the hedonistic desire for more.

One final thought. On each head of the beast was a blasphemous name, that’s what John saw. The dragon’s beast comes with blasphemy and this doesn’t mean that he commits blasphemy against Almighty God through Empires and governments. It can also mean he uses blasphemy as a way to attack the followers of Jesus.

It seems more Christians are being killed under blasphemy laws than for any other reason. That is certainly view of the Christian Association of Nigeria (check them out online) who say that blasphemy is even being charged against women who refuse sexual advances from men of another religion!

What are we to make of all this? Revelation 13 is going to be tough reading. But it will open our eyes and call for us to be aware and alert that all is not what it seems. Let’s not be taken in. Let’s pause and ask who is manipulating, who is behind the scenes, who is lurking in the shadows. As time goes on this is going to intensify for us in the West. For much of the rest of our Christian family it already is. They are already facing the beast every day.

Little interesting variant here. Some translations have John standing on the sea shore at the end of chapter 12 and some have the dragon standing on the shore at the start of chapter 13.

“The dragonstood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.” (Revelation 13 v 1)

“And he stoodon the sand of the sea. And I saw …” (Revelation 12 v 17 – 18 v 1 ESV)

“And I stood upon the sand of the sea … (Revelation 13 v 1 KJV)

There is no doubt that the sea brought fear and terror to the hearts and minds of the first century Jew. The sea was chaotic, unpredictable and steeped in their culture was the understanding that monsters lived there, something we will see on the next few days in our readings.

But who is standing on the shore of the sea? Is it the dragon or is it John? Should it be ‘he stood’ or ‘I stood’? No one knows but perhaps the truth is it is actually both.

The devil stands poised to attack us at every turn. He is ready to launch fear at you. He is relentless.

However, we also stand ready, alert, not unaware of his schemes, facing our fears and we do so knowing we face a defeated dragon.