-What animal do you see on the screen?
-Is this a picture of an old woman or a young lady?
-Last one: vase or face?
-Fun tricks! What we’re going to see in today’s text is that Satan is great at pulling optical illusions. Paul summarizes it well in 2 Cor. 11 “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.”
-Today’s text is a call for us to not be seduced by Satan’s schemes, to remain alert to his schemes, and to remember that the end of following him is destruction
READ/PRAY
- A Woman on a Beast (1-6)
-Recapitulation: repeating the same story from a different perspective, hence the 7 seals, trumpets, bowls are recounting the same event from different perspectives
-7th all recount lightning, thunder, earthquake, and hail. Exact same language in each section, as if they’re recounting the same event but focusing on different aspects of the end.
-Intro from Discipleship on the Edge
-As I said earlier, I think today’s text is the most explicit call to wake up and live differently because the world will continually, day after day work to seduce us with her charms.
-Friends, this is why it’s SO important to meet here every week. This gathering isn’t an optional add on for when you have free time, this is your lifeblood to remember what’s truly true, to be reminded that there are spiritual implications to everything we do. It’s so easy to question and doubt when you don’t have this, and even when you have this it’s easy to doubt!
-I wrestled through this in 2021. As I’ve shared I listen to a lot of podcasts, found one that had a lot of musicians that I like and listened to it. The problem was all of them were ex-vangelical and talking about deconstructing their faith, without any sense of rebuilding. Things at church were difficult in that season, we were adjusting to having 3 kids (laughable now) but I found myself starting to get disillusioned with the church. I’ve shared before the need to preach to yourself more than you listen to yourself, and I found myself listening a whole lot more than I was preaching! I’d think really dumb things like church doesn’t matter, God doesn’t care, His ways are harmful: guys I know better than that! What snapped me out of it was listening to one of those musicians again who shared a similar story of wrestling through dumb questions and he realized it was because he had been touring too much and not spending time with his church family. About this time a Psalm became a balm to me, Psalm 73. I share that because I want you to understand that we’ll all wrestle through seasons of doubts, and the temptation is to not tell anyone about them. Friends, bring them to the church! When you’re discouraged or doubting, bring it here!
-Graphic warning: John uses pretty strong language!
-“One of the 7 angels” reference back to last week
-Zooming in on the 7th bowl for these next 2 chapters, how the destruction of Babylon will take place
-This is also intentionally contrasted with another woman that we’ll get to in Rev. 21, but listen to the description there: Does that sound similar to anything we read this morning?
-John is contrasting the city of God against the city of man, described as women. One destined to last forever, one destined for destruction.
-Babylon is taken from Gen. 11 the tower of Babel where the goal was for the people to build a name for themselves, which is idolatry. Throughout history you see the city of man continually trying to go their own way and refuse to submit to God’s will for them.
-The imagery picks up in vs. 3
-The woman’s sitting on a beast that we saw in Rev. 13 (signified by the 7 heads and 10 horns, remember John doesn’t follow a linear approach to this story)
-At first blush she sounds beautiful, well dressed, well put together, but it’s all a façade. In her hand is a gross cup (Fear Factor, youth group games)
-Label on her forehead, just like we saw the mark of the beast in Rev. 13, not a literal mark, but a way of identifying their MO. This woman’s primary motivation is the mother of everything deranged on earth
-What’s in her cup is the blood of the saints, she keeps oppressing and killing them, just like a drunk person can’t stop drinking, she can’t stop killing them. A way of demonstrating the city of man: opposed to God and His people.
-John is amazed. The word he uses here for “greatly astonished” was used earlier in Rev. 13:3
-Just as I shared earlier, even John isn’t immune to the allure of the woman! She’s seductive, pulling people in, and it takes an angel to wake John up.
- The Beast Is… (7-14)
-Ever been zoning out and it takes someone pushing you or saying something repeatedly to get you to snap out? That’s what the angel does here.
-One of the few places in Revelation we get a description of what’s happening. Now, that explanation doesn’t fill every detail in, but it does give some clarity.
-Mystery in the NT isn’t the same way we use mystery today. Something previously concealed that’s now been revealed in God’s redemptive plan.
-The beast is trying but failing to copy Jesus’ atoning work. It was, currently isn’t, but is about to come up.
-Governments and regimes opposed to God and His work. At the time it was Rome, and it will continue coming back again and again. I really enjoy reading thrillers, got really into Tom Clancy, the threat of Communism, but then it seemed like communism died, but now we’ve got a whole new threat of totalitarian regimes in other parts of the world.
-Who’s astonished? (same word as before) those who have not been written in the book of life, aka those who are following the beast.
-Mind that has wisdom, just like Rev. 13
-Wisdom for what? To understand and live faithfully as someone who follows the Lamb instead of the beast. Again, the world is enticing, it looks beautiful but at the end of the day it only leads to death.
-7 heads are 7 mountains:
-Rome. Rome was built on 7 mountains, and now we see the woman sitting on them. And just to make it even more confusing they’re also 7 kings!
-But wait, we’re just getting started! Because 5 of the kings have fallen, the 6th us, and the other hasn’t come yet. No one has figured out what John’s referring to here. And then to get going even more, the beast that we’ve seen is an 8th that’s one of the 7, and pretty soon you start to think that John doesn’t even know how to count!
-Best explanation I read involves 2 previous ideas. First is the number 6 which is the number of man and falling short, which signifies that the current king continually falls short. Then the 8th is similar to Proverbs: 7 things I hate, 8 are an abomination, just a way of bringing emphasis to that one.
-Next verse we have 10 more kings who will serve for a short time.
-Has no 1st century parallel, so most likely referring to the complete turning away from God in preparation for His return as the world draws near to the end. It seems that what John goes on to say validates this interpretation.
-They have 1 purpose, they go to make war against the Lamb. That’s coming up, but just bear in mind each time it talks about this coming war is there’s a ton of buildup and when the final showdown happens there’s no war! Jesus shows up, speaks and wins, which is what John says here.
-The world will continue fighting against Jesus, but what they don’t realize is Jesus has already won. He’s already sitting on His throne, He’s already ruling and reigning, but He’s waiting until history has been completed to come back. He’s Lord above any other lord and King above any other competing king.
- The Woman Is… (15-18)
-Even more explanation of the vision: the waters the woman sits on covers the world. No one is exempt from the influence of this woman. Anywhere you have people you’ll have the pull of the woman.
-And here’s the irony. While it initially looked like the woman was ruling over the beast by riding on them, that’s shown to be a farce because they turn around and destroy her. Her clothes will be ripped off, they’ll eat her flesh, and then burn her carcass. It’s gross! But it’s also a picture of how evil always, always, ALWAYS will turn in on itself. It’s never satisfied, it never rest, and it will continually seek to exert its’ control further and further. You can see this in literally any totalitarian government in the world!
-Think of Russia with Putin. With all the bodies left in his wake how feasible would it be for him to step down? That’s a death sentence for him! Or Kim Jong-Un in North Korea, he claims to be a god. How likely would a transfer of power be from him? How long would he live if he willingly resigned? And on and on we could go throughout history.
-Yet who’s still in control? God. Everyone is still culpable for their choices and actions, yet God can still work to carry out his plans.
-How does that work? I don’t know. I’ve done a fair amount of reading and research on this topic, and I want to be very careful to not go further than the Bible goes in discussing the things of the Lord.
-Somehow and some way God is in complete control such that nothing can stand in the way of His ultimate plans. And at the same time, humans are responsible moral creatures who can willingly choose actions and activities that have real consequences. We’re not robots forced to choose things we wouldn’t willingly pursue. And I would argue that we’re at another mystery that we get to spend eternity discussing without the same sinful constraints we have here! I love the word paradox when we talk about some of these things. According to google, a paradox is: “a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.” When we reach a paradox we’re reminded that God’s ways aren’t our ways and His thoughts aren’t our thoughts, so our response should be to fall on our faces in worship of Him.
-Jesus being fully God and fully man. God being 3 persons and 1 God. God being completely sovereign and humans being willingly able to choose sin or obedience to God. Paradox, a reminder for us to worship Him.
-Finally the woman is solidified: the great city (Rome, Babylon, Washington DC, New York City, London, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai) All of the cities on this side of eternity will be marked by the allure of this sinful woman. Opposed to God, hating His people, doing everything they can to take more and more power.
-Think of what cities are: mass densities of people. One of the first things we learn about people in the Bible is people are sinners. So if you take a bunch of sinners and throw them together in 1 location, what do you think the consequence of that is going to be? Lots and lots of sin. You see that reality all over in the Bible!
-But the craziest thing about that reality is in the new heavens and earth God’s people live together in a city, New Jerusalem, a city where this woman will have no power or influence, where the effects of sin are non-existent. Can you imagine that? I struggle to even process something like that! I’ve been to some pretty cool cities and all of them have sinful pulls in them.
-The unfortunate thing is it’s not just cities that are marked by sin, even if you move to the middle of Antarctica and live alone, this prostitute will still find you because you’re still with you, and I hate to tell you but you’re a sinner. And this is where we once again get to the good news of Revelation: you don’t need to stay there!
-Once again, the message we’re seeing in Revelation is the reminder that there are 2 ways to live, in the city of man (Babylon) or the city of God. Both of the stories of these cities originate in Genesis and continue fighting against each other throughout history. The dragon (the old serpent) leads 1 city, and God leads the other city.
-And right now these 2 cities look like they’re in competition with each other, and many times it looks like the city of man is winning, doesn’t it? We hear of pastors falling out of ministry (again), we hear story after story of people deconstructing their faith, of Christian influence waning.
-Yet at the same time, I keep hearing more stories of revival and renewal breaking out across the world. Football players at THE Ohio State meeting for testimonies and prayer, 10,000 students at Univ. of Arkansas met for a night of prayer and baptisms, University of South Carolina, TX A&M Corpus Christi. Friends even when it feels like the world is getting worse, God is still on the move and at work! The city of God continues breaking in against the city of man, and it requires us being faithful to continue bringing the light into the darkness, to remember that we are first and foremost citizens of heaven and to live differently because of that.
-What does that look like?
1- Walk by faith and not by sight. Remember that this woman looks attractive and appealing. Even John was tempted by her!
2- Be ok living differently than your friends and neighbors. We have different goals, we’re living as citizens of a different kingdom which means we need to look, act, and think differently than many of the people we’re rubbing shoulders with on a regular basis. Work hard, but don’t let your work define you. Steward your possessions, but don’t let them control you. Care for your kids but remember they’re first and foremost God’s and not yours.
3- Practice the regular gifts of grace God has given (Bible, prayer, church) Bible is God’s very Word, He still speaks to us in and through His Word. Prayer is us responding to Him, speaking back. Church is the new nation that we belong to, our citizenship is in Heaven and church is a glimpse of that reality where we’re brought into and invested in people that we wouldn’t naturally get along with (different ages)
Pastor Mike's Musings 