Good morning.
How y'all doing today?
All right, I do know some are still on their way because of the
Ferocious hurricane that is lashing Southern California right now. I
Do know that there are some areas that were hard hit by the storm, but praise God
We're getting little more than our normal rain here. And so we're thankful to God for that
Yeah
But for those you that may be joining us here in the room for the first time or if you're joining us online for the first
Time we always like to start by saying welcome. We're so glad you're here to worship with us today at hosanna Christian fellowship. I
Am pastor Nathan and today we are gonna be introduced to the Antichrist
dun dun dun
Right boo
You know we have learned in Revelation
As we've been studying through that there's lots of symbolic language
lots of symbolism and
representation all meant to help us find the the meaning to to
interpret and understand the words of this prophecy that has been given to John the
Apostle and the last few chapters of Revelation as we've been studying through
Have have been a break in the action if you will a
parenthetical as we've been going through
The judgments we started with the seal judgments and we've been going through the trumpet judgments
And this is actually the second time that that John has taken a break from the action if you will as he's watching it
To then stop and and look at other things happening
Meanwhile or to look back at summaries of what has been taking place and really that's what this break has been
Is to give us a summary overview of events leading up to the seventh trumpet which
introduces the final seven judgments called the bowl judgments and
It's also been a summary
and a summary overview of events happening from the midpoint of the
Tribulation all the way to the end the last three and a half years of the tribulation period
Most recently in our studies we've seen the two witnesses murdered at the midpoint of tribulation
murdered for their
Proclamation of the gospel murdered for their witness their injurys
Lom and left to rot in the streets of Jerusalem while the entire world
Celebrated and gave gifts at their being murdered. We saw the seventh trumpet itself sounded
announcing the time of the great tribulation
Announcing the time leading all the way through the end in this last three and a half years
We saw the great symbolic display in heaven of the woman and the dragon and the child a son of the mother
And the child a symbolic picture if you will of Satan's hateful persecution of the nation of Israel
The Jewish people who are God's chosen people out of the earth
We saw then a picture of her giving birth to the Messiah into the world and Satan's attempt at
preventing that and all that that means in the big picture of God's plan and
Then we saw that Satan having failing to stop the Messiah from being born
shifted gears in an attempt to wipe out the entire
Jewish peoples to prevent God's promise of a coming messianic kingdom
Then we saw his final attempted overthrow his coup in heaven as he once again tried to
Conquer heaven itself and we saw how he was defeated by Michael the archangel and the rest of the angels there in heaven
Resulting in Satan being cast down to the earth realm
Permanently barred from heaven no longer able to accuse the brethren
But kept from doing so permanently at that point
And then we saw his very furious temper tantrum as
Then he turns to heavily persecute any and all who believe in Jesus for the last three and a half years of tribulation
Knowing that his time to do so is very very short
So now we arrive at chapter 13 of Revelation and as we read this chapter
We have to understand a very important point that just like God uses people
To accomplish his purposes here on earth Satan does likewise
Albeit in a twisted
counterfeit type of way
Two of the major primary people he uses are symbolically described for us throughout chapter 13 as
Seen by John the Apostle the first one is the Antichrist
Which we will start to look at today the second one is the Antichrist
Today the second one being the false prophet, which is the second half of chapter 13
But what we are seeing here what John is seeing here as he's taken a break from the action of the judgments fallen upon
The earth as we were getting a picture at the devil's devices
Satan's tools
Satan's schemes the schemes that he uses and we already know and we looked at last week that Satan is a liar
He is a liar. Jesus said so he is a liar
He is a deceiver and during the end times there will be a mass
Deception upon the earth like never seen before
But after having failed in his final coup of heaven
He is then gonna pull out all the stops
He is gonna pull out every trick he has and he's gonna push forth his masterpiece of falsehood in
a last-ditch effort
To force all of mankind to worship him above God to worship him instead of God
Which was and is his goal from the very beginning
Satan's masterpiece is a charismatic
dynamic
charming
politically savvy intelligent well-spoken man who at first
Seems to be exactly what mankind is needed a man who has all the answers a man who comes on the scene and brings peace
Peace in the impossible areas like the Middle East
Peace between the Jews and the Arabs nobody's been able to do such a thing
And yet this man will be able to do so and he will be just welcomed and applauded onto the stage by the world
But then at the midpoint of the tribulation he will seemingly suffer a fatal wound and
Apparently be brought back to life
resurrected miraculously
Miraculously in which he will then be put forth as a counterfeit Messiah a
counterfeit Jesus and instead of Jesus
Who instead of being holy and pure and just and perfect God Almighty as Jesus is
He will instead really be an ugly
wicked
nasty horrible evil beastly monstrosity
empowered enabled by Satan himself to further Satan schemes
So this morning we were gonna we will see some very specific things about this coming global leader from God's point of view
Things that highlight the character of the one who empowers him so that from today forward
We can continue to live as Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 2 11 not ignorant of the devil's schemes
But first we're gonna worship God
Praise his holy name because he's worth it. Amen. Let's pray God
We love you. We're so thankful God for who you are
Lord we know that your desire is for all man to be saved
Your desire is that we would all come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior
God you've had a plan from the very beginning to save mankind from himself
To save him from the penalty of the sin he has committed
But Lord there is a time coming in the future where your plans
will be complete
Lord where this age of church grace will be completed and over
And we know God that it's during this time the devil is gonna just
Do everything he can to stop you
He is gonna do everything he can to to present himself as the instead of you
God that's what he's tried to do this whole time
But Lord, we know there's a time coming where he would be more overt more public about it God and we know
That there is a man coming that the Bible teaches us about known as the Antichrist
Who is gonna be a part of the schemes and a tool of the devil to deceive the entire world
And Lord, although we don't believe the church will be here during this tribulation time God
We still are shown and told the future that we would be aware of the devil's schemes even now
Because the devil is a schemer now. He is a deceiver now. He puts forth counterfeit
everything now
To get us now to be people who disobey God
But Lord, we see these things also that we would be able to warn people of the judgment to come
That they would cling to you now for salvation and not wait until the time of your judgment
Lord in all of this you are holy
You are just you are perfect. You are almighty. You are magnificent. You are love you are light
God you are everything you have always been and always will be
And so Lord, we want to worship you now
We want to prepare our hearts Lord for your teaching and your word and we just want you to know how much we desperately love you God
We thank you. It's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. All right
Um, I did want to make a slight clarification there. We need three bodies in our in our student ministry stuff
We need one body for the zero to two, which is the baby someone to be in our nursery to help
With the child care there. We need another body in our pre-k, which is the two to four
area and then we also need uh someone for our sensory room and so
If you're interested or any of that if you have questions again, you can see Christianity
Down the street or you could contact the church offices and we'll be able to get those questions answered for you
And then I did want to say a big thank you to all of the volunteers who helped us with our outreach on thursday
Thank you so much
We we we do this this giveaway
It's a community giveaway twice a year just so that we could show the city of bellflower that we love them
We care about them. And so we set up here during the street fest
And I don't know four or five hundred people at least came through came by our church got some free goods and we got the opportunity
To share and administer to them and love on them. And so
But it's a big effort and so all of you that helped with that. Thank you so much
It was very fruitful and um, yeah, just pray for everybody that came through we want them to know jesus if they don't
And uh, that's really what it's all about. So
All right. We are in revelation chalice
And read with me in verse one
It says and I saw a beast coming up out of the sea
It had ten horns and seven heads
On its horns were ten crowns and on its heads were blasphemous names
So this vision that john is seeing that we have recorded here
As the book of revelation most recently he has been seeing these signs in heaven these great symbolic signs these
These displays of the woman and the the dragon and the child and then the war and all of this stuff
And he's been watching what's taking place in the heavens
But now his vision switches from having heaven in view to now looking back down upon the sea
To see what is taking place on the earth and it tells us there that he saw a beast coming up out of the sea
Now again, um, we can't forget that we're still seeing a great sign here
All right
We're still in the midst of a great symbolic display meaning that the images that we're going to be seeing throughout this chapter
Are symbolic they're symbolic of actual realities
And so we're seeing a great sign here
So the images that we're going to be seeing throughout this chapter are symbolic they're symbolic of actual realities and so
So we have to interpret things that way now when he sees this beast coming up out of the sea
The sea for jewish people in biblical times was regarded as a wild
Untamed frightening thing
That's how they viewed the ocean a lot of us today were like, oh, I love the ocean
I love going swimming in the sea that it as long as it's not filthy and dirty at the time, right?
And uh, and we love the ocean but but in the ancient jewish mind
The sea was considered this unruly thing that that seemed to just resist god
And that was really how they they they came to understand it in a symbolic sense because they were wary
Of the sea in jewish writings and especially throughout the old testament
We see that the sea was a figure of evil and chaos
It represented that which seemed to resist god because the sea seemed to be something that tried to resist god
Although it didn't successfully do so
We see this in places like psalm chapter 74 verse 12
Where it says god my king is from ancient times performing saving acts on the earth
You divided the sea with your strength
You smashed the heads of the sea monsters in the water
And so again that picture that that the sea is a is a picture of something standing against god
Psalms chapter 89 says lord god of armies who is strong like you
Your faithfulness surrounds you you rule the raging sea when its waves surge
You still them
And then so biblically the the sea
And then by extension the that which was considered wicked
These were two pictures that were often associated with the Gentile nations
Because the Gentile nations were collectively understood as those who weren't god's people
Those who didn't belong to god and so in isaiah 57
It says but the wicked are like the storm tossed sea for it cannot be still in its water churns up mire and muck
And then again in isaiah 17 ah the roar of many peoples
They roar like the roaring of the seas
The raging of the nations they rage like the rumble of rushing water
And that phrase the nations was something biblically that referred to all the Gentile nations
And so we see this picture of of how the sea was was identified in in the jewish mind
And so when he said I saw a beast rising up out of the sea
Symbolically what john is saying here is from this place
That is identified with evil and chaos and resisting god
Or really from this sea of wicked humanity
This place that is full of people who don't belong to god who aren't god
Who aren't gods from that place?
rises up a beast
And so the word beast there also ties into this same unruly nature of what he is seeing here because
The word beast in the original language is a wild untamed savage or dangerous animal, right?
So this wild untamed
Unruly thing rises up out of the sea of wild untamed unruly people
And it's called a beast
Now notice john calls this figure a beast and not a dragon
If you remember from the previous chapter the dragon represented satan
We were actually told very directly that the dragon was satan
But this creature the beast represents something distinct from satan. It's not satan. It's something different now
In the book of revelation we see that this term beast this idea of the beast refers to two entities
um in revelation
on one hand sometimes the beast refers to a
coalition of nations that rises to power during the end times
And what we refer to as the one world government that is referred to as a beast
And then we also see that there is a specific individual this highly charismatic political leader who leads this one world government
also
referred to as the beast and so let's look at the description of this beast and come to what I believe is the
The the the symbolic interpretation of what he's referring to here. He says this beast has 10 horns and seven
heads
Now again, although this beast is very distinct from the dragon that we saw in chapter 12
This beast is still very closely identified with the dragon
If you remember back in revelation 12 verse 3 it said then another sign appeared in heaven
There was a great fiery red dragon having seven heads
And ten horns the exact same language
But there's differences that we're going to get to in a moment
But the idea here is the beast is like the dragon
But isn't the same as the dragon and so that idea of seven heads if you remember the number seven
Biblically is symbolic of completeness
It's often used to be something symbolic of totality
And then heads the idea of heads is the the place of authority or the place of intellect
And so the idea of this beast having seven heads is that it's representing something of complete
And and total authority in its scope
And then the horns horns biblically are often symbolic of strength and power
The idea is that if you saw a bull with two horns, it was a very powerful creature
Well imagine a creature with ten horns, right that much more strong that much more powerful
And so the idea here is that this beast is a is a picture of of um
Substantial intellect and strength and power and authority that this beast comes with
Now the likeness to satan is one of the reasons why we identify this beast with the antichrist
The word antichrist incidentally doesn't appear in the book of revelation anywhere
So for those of you that are going to be like the antichrist isn't in revelation
You're right. It's not it's elsewhere
Actually, the word antichrist only appears five times in four verses
in the entire bible
But one of the biggest examples or the greatest examples of this is in first john chapter 2 verse 18
John says children it is the last hour and as you have heard that antichrist is coming
And he goes on to say but many antichrists have already come and we've talked about that in past studies where there have been precursors
Of of what the devil is going to try and do during tribulation throughout history
There have been people throughout history who've tried to wipe out the jews hitler as an example a precursor
Of what the antichrist is going to be doing during the end times
But in first john john is referring to a very specific individual that antichrist is coming
There is a person an individual that is referred to as the antichrist and the antichrist has captured the
Imagination of many people over over the years and over the decades, you know
But sadly what most know about the antichrist in the world today
Probably comes from movies, right?
There's there's some 40 different hollywood movies that have had the antichrist as their main protagonist
If you do some research on it, but they're always wrong depictions. All right, there are always hollywood depictions of the antichrist
But that's what a lot of people think when they think of antichrist. Oh, I saw a movie about him once well
How about we read the bible? Okay, so
The word antichrist, what does it mean? Well, well the first part of that is anti christ
That phrase anti that that that that first part of the word
means instead of
Antichrist instead of christ and so that's who the antichrist is
He is the instead of christ. He will look wonderful and
Charming and he will be successful and influential and you know to the world
He will appear to be the ultimate victor the ultimate winner
And and he will want us to think that he is good
And benevolent and truthful and and powerful. He he the antichrist will want us to think that he is everything jesus is
He is everything jesus is but
Without any of the standards or requirements of jesus
He's the instead of jesus and
Really, this is part of the devil's schemes. This is an important lesson for us to learn today through this
That one of the devil's schemes is to present instead of jesus's in in every way you could think of
In second crinthians chapter 11 verse 14. It says for satan disguises himself as an angel of light
Right if satan showed up in our lives and presented the the the foul ugliness of sin to us and said look at how
Gross this is and look at how it's going to ruin your life and look at how it's going to destroy your relationships and look
Look at yeah, don't you want it?
We'd be like, oh, I don't think so, dude
But he disguises things as something else
He disguises himself as something else
He disguises things as something else
He disguises false religions as oh, that's just an alternative to christianity, but it gets you to the same place. No, they don't
And so the antichrist is going to paint himself and it's really satan's
Devices to paint himself and his servants and his temptations all in the most appealing way
To paint them all in their best light to only focus on the temporary pleasures or the temporary
Upsides to to what we would call upsides if you will in in sin
Not that there are any upsides, but we sure think there are
He'll say look you you you don't need
God
You don't need his way. There are other options
You can have and do this
Instead of what god wants and still be good and holy and righteous
You don't have to follow the bible. You don't have to listen to him and and and and you could still be a good person
You could still be holy you could still be right
And sadly the bible calls that the world falling under his sway
And as we will see they'll even worship this false jesus in adoration
But eventually as we are learning through revelation eventually this facade will drop the mask will come off and we will see that
As much as jesus's character and personality is beautiful
We will see that the character and personality of the antichrist will be ugly and repulsive and evil that of the devil
As much as jesus only spoke truth the antichrist will only speak the truth
The antichrist will only speak lies
And so the beast here that we're seeing in revelation 13. It's it's a picture of his character
It's a picture of the nature of this leader
Now although he was commonly referred to as the antichrist
Scripture gives many other names and titles for this individual in daniel chapter 7 verse 8
He's referred to as the little horn and we'll talk about that in a moment in daniel chapter 8 verse 23
He's called the ruthless king in daniel 9 26. He's called the coming ruler
In daniel 11 36 through 45. He's the king who will do whatever he wants and magnify himself above all
In second thessalonians 2 3 he's called the man of lawlessness
And the man doomed to destruction
And he is the one that the devil is going to raise up who ends up leading and heading
This one world government that is to come in the tribulation times
And you know that whole concept the talk of globalism has been all over the news for a while now
And there's constantly these groups that talk about we need to globalize our economy
We need to globalize our currency. We need to globalize our right. It's it's people been talking about it for a long time
So it's not something that's like oh, that's just crazy talk. It's like no, that's that's the direction we're going
Now we get to verse 2
Oh, sorry. No, we're not in verse 2 yet
So we we have this individual who's going to lead and head this government and then it tells us there in revelation 13 that on these 10
Horns sit 10 crowns. Okay. Now. This is another detail that differentiates the beast from the dragon
Please pay attention back in chapter 12 of revelation. It said that the dragon had seven heads and on those seven heads were seven crowns
but here
There's 10 horns and on the 10 horns or 10 crowns
So there's a difference between the beast and the dragon now whereas the dragon had these seven crowns
On the seven heads representing again that symbolic picture of seven his complete authority in the scope of his schemes
And the real complete authority that satan's going to exercise on earth during this time with the beast since the
crowns are sitting on the horns
The symbolic picture of strength and not the heads the picture of authority and intellect
The picture here of this beast is that he is going to have complete strength when it comes to the exercising
of his rulership on the earth
And so this idea of these 10 crowns on the 10 horns and the following descriptions that we get in the last or in verse 2
Link this beast to a vision that the prophet daniel had in daniel chapter 7 and really give us some insight
Into these crowns and horns and what it means in light of prophecy so verse 2 of revelation 13
The beast I saw was like a leopard its feet were like a bear's and its mouth was like a lion's mouth
Now you'll notice there, and we've pointed this out a few times a revelation that word like
Did you see that?
It was like a leopard
Its feet were like a bear's and so
Again this super weird strange description this weird looking beast that john is seeing here, but it's
Symbolic it's all symbolic of realities and so what john is seeing here is a is a vision
Very similar to the vision that daniel was given in daniel chapter 7 and so
We're going to be jumping through verses here to try and understand what the symbolism means so
buckle up
Hang on and I take notes if you need to okay
Now let's go to daniel chapter 7 if you want to turn there or open it up on your app
We're going to look at some issues of daniel 7 and how they tie here to revelation in helping us identify who this beast is
Now if you haven't noticed
Daniel is a wonderful book to study in parallel with revelation all right
So if you're studying revelation along with us
I encourage you to crack open the book of daniel and study it together
You'll be real blessed with that but in daniel chapter 7
God gave daniel a vision
of four huge beasts that came up out of the sea
And these four beasts were a lion
a bear
a leopard
Which is what we just saw in revelation and then something else something indescribable something
Monstrous and and what we are told in daniel because an angel
Did come to daniel say hey daniel let me interpret what these weird visions are for you
Okay, because daniel was like oh, it's kind of freaky. What does it mean and god's like i'll tell you so
We get the benefit of getting those interpretations and daniel we read that these four beasts that he saw were were were a succession of kingdoms
That these four beasts represented world governing empires that would come upon the earth from daniel's time all the way through the end of history
And we get this interpretation in daniel 7 verses 15 through 28
I'm not going to read it all but that is where daniel is given the interpretation
Of the vision that he saw here in these four beasts
But specifically what he is told there in verse 7 of daniel verse 17 of daniel 7
He is told that those four individual beasts are four kings who will rise from the earth
Now the word kings there is also by extension kingdom
So it's kings and their kingdoms that rise from the earth and so he saw a lion
And it represented a kingdom now for you history buffs during daniel's time
He was there in the babylonian empire and the babylonian empire was known
To be very fierce and very ferocious and had authority like a lion
Right, but the kingdom that came after
The babylonian empire was the medo persian empire, which was represented by the bear
Now you think of a bear you think of a large kind of slow moving lumbering but incredibly powerful
A powerful creature with this just slow crushing power and that was actually characteristic of the medo persian empire
After the medo persian empire came alexander the great and the greek empire, which is represented by the leopard
And when you think of a leopard you think of a very quick and agile creature
And that's what alexander the great was known for he had an army that swept the whole earth in no time
As the story is told after he conquered the final kingdom. It says that alexander the great cried because there were no other kingdoms to conquer
And then daniel saw this fourth horrific indescribable terrifying dominating destructive beast that was to come
And we understand that that is representative of the roman empire which came after the greek empire
So what john now is seeing in revelation 13 is he's seeing a
One beast that has characteristics of all of these beasts, but he sees the beast in reverse order
He sees the leopard and then he sees the bear and then he sees the lion, but they're all this amalgamation in one creature
And so the picture is that he sees the lion
And so the great empire is going to come with one empire that has the characteristics of all of them
That there will be a coming empire on the earth that is swift and agile and strong and powerful and fierce and ferocious
This is what john is seeing in revelation with this beast rising up out of the sea of humanity
So now that's now let's tie in the ten horns and the ten crowns
So back to the great empire
And the lion the ten horns and the ten crowns so back in daniel chapter seven
verse six
He is told that the fourth beast that he saw right he saw the lion
He saw the bear he saw the leopard then he sees this fourth beast. He is told that that fourth beast had ten
horns
And again daniel was pretty distressed over this really strange vision. He's seeing a matter of fact. It says he was terrified there
and then in verse 19
It says that daniel he says I wanted to be clear about the fourth beast
And in this horn situation like I wanted to be really clear about this
This is really strange and so in verse 23 of daniel 7 he's given the interpretation
An angel speaks to him and says this is what the angel said
The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth
Different from all the other kingdoms. It will devour the whole earth
trample it down
And crush it
The ten horns are ten kings who will rise from this kingdom
So the ten horns and the ten crowns that we see in revelation
That this beast had
are ten kingdoms
Ten nations and their rulers and that's where we get the concept that in the end times there is going to be a coalition
There are going to be ten different nations that rise up and form one world government one powerful government that will then
Trample the earth as it says and crush it
Now some people refer to this final world kingdom this one world government that's going to come on the earth during the tribulation period
They refer to it as the revived
roman empire
And there's reasons for that one of those reasons comes from daniel chapter two
All right, we've referenced this in a past study, but in daniel chapter two king nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a huge statue
That then daniel interpreted for him and in this dream
It was a statue that had a head of gold and then it had chest and arms of silver
Stomach and thighs of bronze legs of iron and then its feet were a mixture of iron iron and clay with
ten toes
And in that vision nebuchadnezzar saw a stone come from heaven and strike this statue at its feet to strike the feet that iron
And clay with the ten toes and it then destroyed the entire statue
And then that stone from heaven became a a big mountain
And so daniel then interprets this whole dream for him and says look that statue is a picture of the coming kingdoms upon the earth
Starting with babylonian nebuchadnezzar's empire and so he said nebuchadnezzar you're the head of gold
Your empire the babylonian empire is the head of gold, but then after that
Will come an empire that's slightly less powerful than you
Silver instead of gold and that was the medo persian empire and then after that will come another empire. That's
Slightly less powerful and that would be the greek empire and then after that would come another empire
That would be as strong as iron right the legs of iron and that was the roman empire
So in his vision we see three kingdoms that are each succeeded by a fourth. That's what daniel saw in chapter two
That's what he saw in chapter seven
Where he saw the lion kingdom
And then it was supplanted by a bear kingdom and then a leopard kingdom and then this fourth kingdom, right?
So that all lines up with daniel chapter seven three beasts then a fourth
beast in his vision then conquers
Conquers the world and then is conquered by and in the interpretation
That final kingdom is conquered by the messiah who then sets up his messianic kingdom and rules forever
The roman empire though if that's the fourth kingdom the roman empire fell a long time ago
And I think you and I agree that we don't see a messianic kingdom
Ruling the earth today do we?
Well was daniel wrong or did he mess up the vision
well, no
Because if you go back to daniel two
What we saw was head of gold babaloon empire chest of silver medo persian empire
the abdomen
Of bronze that was the greek empire then you had the legs of iron the roman empire, but guess what came after that
the feet that were a mixture of iron and clay with ten toes
And so this what we're seeing here is something a kingdom that comes later after the roman empire
And remember each one of these represent empires that ruled the entire planet
They ruled the entire planet and since the roman empire we haven't really had any empire
Our kingdom on the earth that ruled the entire planet quite like these other empires did
But one will be coming in the future
And that's why people call it a revived roman empire
Because it's going to be roman-esque
It's going to be iron, but it's going to be mixed with clay so it's going to have elements of what the roman empire was
But it's going to be slightly different, but it's still going to have the characteristics that it's going to have
So that ties Daniel's vision of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 back to revelation chapter 13
Did you follow that?
Okay, it's a lot of bouncing around and stuff, but I hope you see the picture here
So the idea is that although the roman empire the first roman empire fell
And incidentally the roman empire wasn't conquered like the Babylonian empire the Roman empire was
The greek empire it just simply collapsed under its own weight right if you understand history
The roman empire just got so big and so corrupt that it just collapsed right so it wasn't actually conquered or destroyed
It just fell apart
And so people didn't think that that roman empire or what that roman empire represented is going to come back
Resume in some way in the future and be a part of the roman empire
What roman empire represented is going to come back resume in some way in the future and be like the original
But slightly different with the same similar characteristics, but
As Daniel saw in the vision of the statue that that final world empire
Will ultimately be conquered by Jesus Christ
The stone from heaven will come and destroy all of it and then
We know at the end of tribulation he will set up his messianic kingdom and rule forever more
So it all ties together
All of that to say this
In that context the beast that we're looking at here in revelation 13
Refers to this one world government that has characteristics of all the previous world empires
But this government will be led and headed by a singular individual
Let's go back to the horns
Daniel chapter 7 verse 8
While I was considering the horns
Suddenly another horn a little one came up among them
And three of the first ten horns were up or three of the first ten were uprooted before it and suddenly in this horn
This little horn that rises up amongst the ten were eyes like the eyes of a human and a mouth that was speaking arrogantly
Move forward to gent Daniel 720
Daniel says I also wanted to know about the ten horns on the head of the fourth beast
And about the other horn that came up before which three of the original ten fell the horn that had eyes
And a mouth that spoke arrogantly that looked bigger than the others
So in Daniel 724 he gets the interpretation about this little horn
The angel says the ten horns are ten kings who will rise from this final kingdom
And then another king different from the previous ones will rise after them
And subdue three of the kings
So when we put all this together what we see is that during the tribulation time there will be ten leaders ten kings
Of ten nations that that will form a coalition but amongst that group will rise up another leader
Another king who is greater and he will dispose of three of the ten
Don't know for sure what that means possibly taking over three of these nations that are part of this coalition
But then he will rise up and end up leading the entire coalition by himself
And this horn incidentally had the eyes of a human
And a mouth that was speaking arrogantly
That word arrogantly means self-exalting
So when we go who's the little horn in Daniel?
Well that ties us back to second thessalonians chapter 2 verse 4
That is describing for us the man of lawlessness
It's describing for us this man doomed to destruction and it says he
Not it he opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship
So that he sits in god's temple
Proclaiming that he himself is god
And we've read for reference that a number of times as jesus described this
This event in matthew 24 called the abomination of desolation where this man
Will then enter god's temple and sit on the throne in god's temple and say i'm god worship me as he is
Filled and inspired and and and just motivated by satan himself. And so this this opposing this
standing against god
This blasphemous stance we see this back in revelation chapter 13 verse 1 because it said that on the seven heads
were blasphemous names
And so again seven heads covered in blasphemous names, it's just an idea of the total and complete blasphemy
That this man has and brings against god
so
the beast
In my interpretation here what I see here is he both
represents
this final worldwide
totalitarian government
It both represents that and the one who leads it
That's what I see here in revelation
Incidentally, this shouldn't be something difficult for us to accept. All right that something could represent two things simultaneously
Specifically when it comes to kingdoms and leaders because any empire any major world power is often
associated
Are identified with or represented by its leader. That's a common thing
When you think of adolf hitler, what do you think of the
When you think of adolf hitler, what do you think of?
nazis
nazi germany
When you think of nazi germany, what do you think of adolf hitler?
So there's an identification between the the person and the kingdom the person ruling in the kingdom
They rule the two are virtually the same in that idea
And so I don't think it's difficult for us to see this beast here both representing the government the worldwide government and the one who leads
it however, I do see that this beast
best reflects an individual first
For a lot of reasons one in verse four. It says that the people of earth earth worship the beast
And people don't typically worship empires and governments
Nor do they worship successions of governments over history. They worship people
And that's common throughout history that you'll see people come to worship rulers of kingdoms
Another reason is that later on in chapter 13?
There's an image of the beast that is set up and the whole world is commanded by the false prophet to worship it
And again, that makes more sense if if this image is of a person rather than a government, right?
In revelation chapter 13 18
I think this is one of the most powerful reasons that this is primarily represents the person who also represents the government
is
Is revelation 13 18 it says this calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast
because it is the number of a
person
Its number is 666
And so the beast we're told has a name expressed by a particular number and it says it's the number of a person
Additionally, the beast is ultimately damned and cast into the lake of fire where he will continue to suffer
We'll read about that later in revelation, but systems and governments are not cast into the lake of fire people are
So I do believe that this beast first represents an individual represents a man represents this coming world ruler
The antichrist who is going to come and exalt himself above all but by extension
It also represents the oppressive destructive terrifying powerful world kingdom that he will be head of
Good
All right a lot of information here. All right verse two
We're moving ahead
The dragon gave the beast his power his throne in great authority
So it tells us again
There's a differentiation between the dragon and the beast and it tells us where the beast got his power the source of his success
The source of of all that he's able to do is satan
So it's satan expressing his desires expressing his will expressing his authority through this man
through this man
So satan is working through the antichrist on the earth to to gain control of everything, right?
Now you remember back in revelation 12. We talked about the beast had seven heads and seven crowns
Seven being symbolic of completeness. And so satan is is working to have complete and total authority
Here's an interesting detail although the dragon had seven crowns on his seven heads the antichrist
It said had ten crowns on ten horns. Well, the antichrist is empowered by satan
And as we saw in daniel the antichrist is the one who rises up among the ten horns and the ten crowns, right?
And then it said that he subdued or disposed of three of those tens
And then ends up three of those ten and ends up leading the entire world
coalition coalition as satan's representative
Well 10 minus 3 is what?
Seven so satan ends up in total control either way, right?
It's just an interesting little picture of satan's working in schemes. And so verse 3
One of the heads appeared to be fatally wounded, but its fatal wound was healed
And the whole earth was amazed and followed the beast
So it wasn't just political science
And the whole world was amazed and followed the beast
So it wasn't just political savvy and charisma and intellect
That this man had the antichrist that that that solidified his ultimate control over the earth
It just told us that the dragon the the satan himself is the one who gave him authority and power
But we have this detail here, which is very interesting, right?
John sees on this beast one of the heads of this beast
Into that but but one of the heads looks to have a fatal mortal wound that word fatal wound there
It means a deadly life terminating injury involving a cut or a break in the skin
That's what that word means in the original language
So john sees that one of the heads of this beast has this this life terminating wound
But then he says the fatal wound was healed
And what is the result?
The whole world was amazed and followed the beast. What is this speaking of?
Well, there's a few prominent ideas here
And i'll share all of them with you
The first idea of what this is referring to or what this is symbolic of
Is the idea that the antichrist right around the midpoint of tribulation is killed in some fashion
Some think that due to the language of the fatal wound that he was assassinated that he took a bullet wound to the head is how some
Interpret this but but regardless of the type of wound that the antichrist actually died
But then he was resurrected he came back to life
And people who who who see that as the interpretation of this point to the fact that it was a fatal wound, right?
It was a life terminating wound that was then
Healed now the challenges to this that people have is like well if the antichrist did die and he was resurrected who brought him back to life?
Did the devil bring him back to life?
Satan doesn't have that power
Satan does not have the power to resurrect anybody. I mean if he did have the power to resurrect evil leaders
Why didn't you resurrect hitler?
Why didn't you resurrect caesar? Why didn't you resurrect who knows right?
So they go satan doesn't have that power and then people go well
God allowed satan to have the power to resurrect the antichrist this one time
Or they say god himself resurrected the antichrist because he was just simply reinforcing mankind's desire to not believe in god
And we saw something similar to this in pharaoh right where it tells us in scripture that god hardened pharaoh's heart
Like pharaoh refused to believe in god and so the language there implies that god said okay if you don't want to believe in me
I'm going to make sure that you get what you want and you can't believe in me
That's again another bible study but
That idea that that god gave satan the power or allowed him the power to resurrect or god himself resurrected the antichrist
We see both of these possibilities in second thessalonians chapter 2 verse 9 and this is what it says there
The coming of the lawless one is based on satan's working
with every kind of miracle both signs and wonders
Serving the lie
And so people go see satan was able to work the miracle of resurrecting the antichrist
And then verse 10 it says with every wicked deception among those who are perishing
They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved
So they look at that and they go god allowed satan to work this miracle for the point of serving the lie his deception upon mankind
Others go why would god do that right? But if you read along in verse 11 it says for this reason god
Sends them a strong delusion
So that they might believe the lie so that all will be condemned those who did not believe the truth
But delighted in unrighteousness and so people read that verse and go
God resurrected the antichrist to then enforce those who didn't want to believe
So that's one interpretation of what revelation 13 3 is antichrist really died and there was a real resurrection
The second interpretation is that since satan can't resurrect and some that go then god absolutely wouldn't resurrect
That this resurrection is a fake. It's a staged resurrection of the antichrist
Those that that support that viewpoint to the word appear
There you see in revelation 13 3 it says one of the heads appeared to be fatally wounded
And so they interpret that word is that he didn't really die
It just looked like he did and since satan is a deceiver and a liar
And and you know, it's a ruse that he pulls over mankind
But it's a ruse that works and it fits kind of the mo of satan
Or people go that the man the antichrist did in turn
Or people go that the man the antichrist did indeed die
But then satan possessed his body and thus it looked like the antichrist was resurrected
But the antichrist was actually really dead. It was just satan possessing him
And that fits mo 2 because if you go to second thessalonians 2 4 it says the antichrist sits in god's temple proclaiming that he
Himself is god and that's satan speaking
Challenge with that is the beast or the antichrist according to revelation
He doesn't actually perish until the second coming which is at the end of tribulation
Revelation 19 says that the beast representing the antichrist was thrown alive into the lake of fire
And then after that in revelation chapter 20 you have satan who is the dragon bound in the abyss for a thousand years
Not in the lake of fire at that point and so people go not sure
Then there's a third interpretation of this which is people who want to superimpose
People who want to super symbolize the whole thing and that interpretation says that the beast we're looking at in revelation 13 is not the antichrist at all
He only and solely represents an empire and so he is the this head that is killed and brought back to life
It's the idea that the roman empire died and now the roman empire has come back to life during the tribulation period
And so this comes from the idea that the seven heads represent seven major world empires in history
Right you go back you got egypt and assyria and babalon in the medo persian in the greek and the roman empire that's six
And then you have what they call is the revived roman empire the seventh during this time
But even in that some people say so that this antichrist though this ruler that we can't you know refute
He has seen in scripture this ruler of this empire
It's not a person who actually died and came back to life
But he's going to be presented to the world as a reincarnated caesar or a reincarnated world leader who was once dead
But look he's alive again. He's reincarnated. So that's the third idea
So let's explore all three in detail no it's 1114 and uh
So um we don't have time to explore all the pros and cons of each of these
For now I will say this that I don't have a definitive stance
I'm not a hundred percent sure which of those interpretations are exactly it although I think one or two are most likely
and um
Because the events that that are seen there it says they're there the world is amazed
They're presented as a miraculous event that the world is like whoa
And then we're going to see in later verses is that not only did they follow the beast but they end up worshipping him
What does that tell us that that something is going to happen that causes this?
Atheistic agnostic there is no god. There is no religion get rid of it world
To suddenly become super spiritual and worship
this beast
And I think that can only happen if something that is or at least appears miraculous happens before them
And so that's what I think this is pointing to is that something is going to happen or presents itself as a miracle
And that follows satan's emo, right?
We know that satan loves to counterfeit anything that god does
We know that satan does that that's one of his aspects
And so the presentation of the antichrist is simply him trying to counterfeit jesus, right?
The antichrist is the instead of jesus you don't need jesus, but here's a guy that looks just like him
So you get everything you want without uh any of the obligations
And it's right in line with his schemes
It would be right in line with satan's schemes in my understanding to try and then pass off a counterfeit resurrection, too
Right if he's trying to present a counterfeit jesus. Well, what better way to do that than to present a counterfeit resurrection
All to get people to ultimately worship him as god instead of jesus
And this ties into especially when you look at the idea of satan is is putting forth a counterfeit trinity here
See we understand that we have god the father and god the son and god the holy spirit and they're three distinct persons
But they are one god together, right and satan's like I could do that
And so satan is the dragon in the place of the father and he puts forward the antichrist instead of jesus
And then we're going to see later presents the false prophet instead of the holy spirit
So
I hope to get through 10 verses today. We made it through three
Okay progress progress
But next time we will continue to look at the beast
The beast from the sea the antichrist and the world government that he represents in all of his efforts during the great tribulation
Specifically as he goes out to enforce worship of himself and then aggressively aggressively persecute
Those that would dare believe in jesus during his apparent worship
Those that would dare believe in jesus during his apparent worldwide reign
Of terror his control over everything and then we're also going to see the response to the world of his presence
And then we're going to see a a big warning for those who think that oh i'm just going to wait
Until tribulation to believe in jesus
But that's next week today we're going to close and worship god
We're so grateful to the lord for revealing the future to us that we would be prepared
That we would be armed with the knowledge to warn people
But I think one of the biggest things to get out of this today is just an understanding
Whether it's a reminder or a revelation to you today of the schemes of the devil
The devil loves to counterfeit what god does present it as something that god is and try and trick you to see you into following it
And that's why we're called to be people who study the word of god because we need to study it so we know
When something is being presented as counterfeit and we can say that doesn't sound right. That's false
When people are coming into our lives and saying oh no, i'm a christian too. I represent god
But hey, this is this is what the bible really says we need to
To know the schemes of the devil to recognize those things so we could go. No, that's that's not right. That's counterfeit
The devil's good at what he does people he is really good at it
And there are thousands and millions worldwide that are deceived into false religions
Deceived to follow false gods
And there are people who genuinely think I have salvation in this false thing
We know the truth we know the truth
We have prophecy we have archaeology we have all this stuff that backs up what the word says to to present it as it is it is true
And we're called to go out and share this message with people as much as we can
To warn them about the judgment to come that they too would come to know jesus christ as lord and savior. Amen
All right, let's pray father
God we thank you again for your word. We thank you lord for what you're
Giving us
Lord, I pray god that we would we would see
What it is you were communicating to john as you gave him this this this prophecy this revelation lord this vision
Lord that we would step back in in in see satan for the beast that he is the dragon that he is
The the the destructive horrible force that he is lord and then everything he does
And everything he uses lord that we would see the ugliness of it god as we are seeing here this
This world leader he's going to bring on the stage presented as this as this horrific beast
And the control in the universe is this
And the control and the influence that he is going to try and exert and actually successfully exert for a time over the earth lord
It is this horrible monster
And lord we wouldn't ever
Ever forget
The evil that our enemy is the wickedness that our enemy is
That we would ever forget his schemes and his goals and his desires to trick us
to fool us that
Lord, we wouldn't get caught up in lies that that people who have already been deceived and led astray
Well, well, they're just believing what they want. But lord, we would say no we we we need to share truth with them lovingly
Compassionately lord
But that god we would have the heart for the loss that you have as you look upon this earth
And you see how many people are led into falsehoods by the enemy god that they're that they're straight up deceived by the enemy god
That they're that they're straight up deceived lord. We know it breaks your heart god that our heart would break too
And that god we would be people that that intentionally shine the light of the gospel in this time now while we can lord
We would shine the light of truth and hope that god we would present you in our actions and our behavior and our words and everything
God that people would be drawn to the truth of who you are and drawn towards salvation
Because lord without you at his judgment and we know that
But god even in that we praise you
We know your judgments are true are just
And we thank you god that we are saved from the judgment to come
We praise you for that
And we praise you lord for the opportunity to be used of you in this world today
That god you choose to work through us your people
To share the truth of who you are with a lost and dying world help us to do that more help us to do that
Faithfully help us to do that diligently and boldly and confidently
God we love you and we thank you. It's in jesus name. We pray amen. Let's worship