Revelation 13:11

In Revelation 12–14, we have discovered that Revelation 12 pictures the Devil as a great dragon.

Here is a recap from last week.

Satan doesn’t work alone, he has two helpers. The first is the beast out of the sea, elsewhere known in Scripture as the Antichrist, characterized especially by direct opposition to the people of God, and the second beast is the false prophet.

The power of Satan expresses itself in antichrists in concrete historical opposition to God’s people.

Antichrist keeps recurring, with power to destroy, and just when you think you got rid of him, he comes out of the Abyss again.

Satan takes over the legitimate interests of the state until the state becomes Satan’s tool to oppose Christ. We saw already that:

The Antichrist is full of blasphemy

13:1 “And on each head a blasphemous name.”

The Antichrist commands wide allegiance.

Verses 7b and 8: “He was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation

There are only two groups here. At the end of the day, this beast is worshiped by everybody except for one group, those who worship the Lamb

Antichrist causes great suffering among the people of God.

verse 9: “He who has an ear, let him hear, It’s a strong, now here this, if you have any sense at all, if you’re listening at all, hear this. What do you listen to? “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.”

It’s very important to recognize that this is within the context of chapter 12. In chapter 12, the other children of the woman fly into the desert. The desert, on the one hand, is the place of testing, and all that, preparatory to getting to the Promised Land. On the other hand, God does protect his people.

Now the question arises, does this mean the protection is such that they really won’t suffer anything? Not according to this verse. According to this verse, a lot of them are going to get killed.

It begins to raise a theme that becomes stronger and stronger and stronger as the book goes along. It has been hinted at several times already.

Are we being protected from such things or protected in such things?

If you’re protected from such things, then ultimately they don’t happen to you. If you’re protected in such things, then you may suffer them and you may endure them, but you persevere and hang on and are faithful even while you suffer.

The Lord may spare us from all kinds of things as well, but at the end of the day, what you discover is that a great deal of the faithfulness in this book that is called for is faithfulness to persevere in there right in the midst of suffering. The theme gets stronger and stronger a as we go through Revelation. That theme is a common one in the New Testament.

Very often people quote, “More than conquerors.” Where does that phrase come from? Romans 8.

When we use it, often more than conquerors means something like, “Oh, I can live above it all. There are those Christians down there who get stuck in the mud every once in a while, but I am more than a conqueror. But in the context of Romans 8, it’s in the context of being harried like sheep, of being persecuted all day long, of being martyred, of being opposed, of being persecuted.

“No, but in all of these things we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us.” In all these things? In that sense, the conquering has to do with persevering, being willing to face persecution and death. More than conqueror has nothing to do with our psychological comfort zones, being able to live this “victorious Christian life” while everybody else is down there in sort of second-tier Christianity.

The precise shape of more than conqueror depends a great deal on the particular temptations we’re called upon to suffer, but in this context in chapter 13, the kind of afflictions this beast lashes out upon the people of God are, first and foremost, in terms of concrete, physical, malicious opposition that lead to martyrdom and death.

What is the proper response? “This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.” And not less than both. Faithfulness, yes, but that could be fickle faith, last for a while and be faithful for a while and not endure, but it’s supposed to be patient endurance as well. You endure and you are patient in it, It is a prolonged effort.

At the end of the day, humanity is here divided, especially in verse 8, between those belonging to the Lamb who was slain and those who follow the beast who slays and the dragon he serves. There is a fantastic contrast between the two leaders, the beast and the Antichrist, and the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world (verse 8). He is the one we must follow, precisely because we’re prepared to die. We follow a Lamb who was slain.

The Second Beast, the Beast from the Land

Revelation 13:11–18

“Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men.

Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.

He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.”

Satan does not work alone, he has two helpers. The first is the beast out of the sea, elsewhere known in Scripture as the Antichrist, characterized especially by direct opposition to the people of God, and now we come to the second beast

The power of Satan expresses itself in false prophets in concrete historical deception.

It’s important for us to identify this beast and his function. The first thing that is said about him is that he comes out of the earth.

This symbolism arises from three factors.

This passage from Job pictures two great beasts. People who interpret Job have a lot of debates going on about what kind of beast it refers to. One is called Behemoth, and the other is called Leviathan. One clearly is a land-based beast; the other is a sea-based beast.

In Second Temple Judaism, these creatures, Leviathan and Behemoth, whatever they are in the ancient world, become almost mythical creatures for their savagery, for their danger. That’s the kind of symbolism that’s picked up here.

At the end of chapter 12 and the beginning of chapter 13 the Devil, cast out of heaven, is now restricted to this earth, the land and the sea, and he calls forth helpers out of these domains.

Therefore, it’s not too surprising that after the sea monster there’s also a land monster.

We’ll see decisive evidence this beast is a false prophet; that is, he’s characterized by deception.

If in the mind of the ancient Jews the sea was the source of chaos, restlessness, surging confusion, and danger, by contrast, the earth appears to be stable, it doesn’t seem to be so dangerous. But that is precisely what makes this beast more dangerous, he doesn’t seem to be dangerous. In other words, that’s the very nature of deception itself.

The Devil does manifest himself in more than one mode, sometimes he’s described as a lion going about, seeking whom he may devour. Sometimes he’s portrayed as an angel of light, masquerading as an angel, deceiving if possible the very elect.

The heart of the matter is this beast is the satanically inspired power to deceive men and women in concrete historical terms.

Verse 14: “Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth.”

The language is probably drawn from the same sort of teaching Jesus himself gave in the Sermon on the Mount. “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” There are some attacks on the church that are really nasty that will land you in prison or see you executed, but there are others that come along and say, Well, I’m so glad you’re a Christian; now there’s a deeper truth you also need to learn.

Which then begins to take you gently away from the gospel. When the text says this beast speaks like a dragon in verses 11–12, in the light of the entire picture probably not the roar of the Dragon but that he’s the Dragon’s mouthpiece. He leads the whole world astray.

This beast is labeled the false prophet. Revelation 16:13: “Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.” That’s the Dragon, the beast (that is, the first beast), and the false prophet.

Chapter 19:20 “But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf.” That’s exactly what that second beast had done. He had performed the miraculous signs on behalf of the first beast. Again in 20:10: “And the Devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

This is the unholy triumvirate of the Devil, the first beast, and now the second beast, who is the false prophet, are finally disposed of. The very terminology, false prophet, suggests deception. That’s what false prophets do, they deceive you, they lead you astray.

The false prophet serves Antichrist, who serves Satan, an unholy triumvirate.

This false prophet, this second beast, “He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.”

For anyone who has read what else John has written, including John’s gospel, you cannot help but think of the Trinity.

The Father sends the Son. The Son displays the glory of the Father. The Son obeys the Father. Then the Son, in his departure, is succeeded by the Holy Spirit, whose whole function is to bring glory to the Son.

Here we have, Satan sends the first beast, and the second beast comes along and tries to bring glory to the first beast. He wants all the world to worship the first beast. What you have in this chapter is a constant aping of the Trinity, which is a way of saying there is an alternative god structure set up. It’s the very nature of idolatry.

The false prophet glorifies the Antichrist as the Holy Spirit is sent to glorify the Son. That which opposes God often does so by secretly trying to take God’s place. That which opposes God may not necessarily do so by confronting him directly but sometimes by trying to take his place. That is, at the end of the day, the essence of idolatry. You replace God with something that is non-god and make it god.

That’s why Paul can say covetousness is idolatry. If you want something badly enough, then for you that’s god. If you want it badly enough so that you bend all of your energies and life resources and desires and hopes and time and money toward it, that’s, for you, god.

The false prophet is full of deceptive power.

13:13ff “He performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men.” It doesn’t say the signs were false and thus he deceived them, but that he performed signs and deceived them with his untruth.

Remember the confrontation between Moses and the magicians of Egypt. The magicians of Egypt were able to do quite a lot and thus justify themselves and the superiority of Pharaoh and his court. “He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.”

This was part of the standard tricks of paganism in the first century. There were a lot of magicians who were traveling around. We’re returning to that today.

Think about how popular astrology has become again or new forms of spirituality, which depend far more on magic and non-scientific (“the force”) than anything else. Now we’ve lost the rationality of belief in God, we’re returning in Western culture to a belief in magic and judging it to be equally true with any other form of truth. We’re returning to all the appeal of ancient paganism, shortcuts to access to God.

The older this world gets in the Western world, the more appealing this sort of thing becomes again.

If you read this in the 1950s, you’d think, “Who could believe in stuff like this?” Today it’s everywhere

There are more witch’s covens in Ithaca New York than there are churches, this in the heart of the scientific Western world. You have to understand that these things have their own appeal in all kinds of areas.

Sometimes there is some element in it that we don’t pretend to understand, but sometimes there is just plain deception.

You see, here is a young fellow who’s a missionary. He studied the Bible. He’s serious about his work. The Devil isn’t going to come and say to him, “Why don’t you buy into New Age spirituality?

Why don’t you love the Devil? Why don’t you reject the truth of the gospel?” He’s not going to say that, because it’s not going to get him anywhere. The Devil is not stupid.

The Devil is far more likely to say, “I know your sins have been forgiven by the cross. That’s pretty nice, but clearly the cross has not dealt with your deepest emotional needs. Here is a technique we can adjust a wee bit for your Christian conscience’s sake, and this emotional technique will give you a kind of healing that the gospel itself doesn’t give you.”

Thus, you think you’re still on train with the gospel, but what, in fact, has happened is you’ve been sidetracked about five degrees. As time progresses, the separation gets larger and larger and larger, and it’ll get even larger when you start passing it on to the next generation and they start passing it on to the next generation, so now salvation will be something that just sort of gives you an escape ticket out of hell, but the real emotional cleansing comes from the rebirthing technique in American pop psychology. Now do you smell the sulfur?

Look around the world, brothers and sisters in Christ. There are an awful lot of things going on that are aimed at deceiving us in one fashion or another

Then what will you do with passages that keep saying something like, “By this shall all men know that you’re my disciples, if you love one another”?

Spirituality is like that today. Whether your spirituality is formed out of a Buddhist worldview or crystals or wearing a special copper bracelet around your wrist or it comes from meditation.… It doesn’t matter what you meditate on. It can be a form of yoga meditation, where you meditate on a black dot in the middle of a white frame and concentrate on it as your legs are in contorting positions, and you sort of contemplate it for half an hour and thus you feel very relaxed.

Spirituality in the Bible is bound up with having the Spirit, and having the Spirit in the Bible is bound up with changed behavior, loving people for Christ’s sake, cherishing the truth. Meditation in the Bible is bound up with thinking God’s thoughts after him, turning them over in your mind, hiding his Word in your heart, that you may not sin against him.

Something like spirituality has now become so widespread you can be ever so spiritual and not even be a Christian. Paul says it’s by faith in Christ that we have the Spirit, and if we do not have the Spirit, we are not of him. There’s a deep antithesis that is bound up with the cross with what the gospel is about.