Bible Talks - Traditional Church (Sunday 8am)
Series: Letters from Heaven · Talk No. 6
Beware of imitations
Sunday, 27 August 2006
1. Beware of imitations
Milli Vanilli. The mere mention of the name still calls up the same derision it did when the dance-pop duo's career came to a sudden and ignominious end: In 1990, Two years after their first appearance, they won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. But not long after the Grammy, they were revealed as fakers and frauds. A blatant marketing scam. Their story has been retold countless times: after selling millions of records, Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan were revealed to be models who publicly lip-synced to tracks recorded by anonymous studio vocalists. They became the first act ever stripped of a Grammy award and came to symbolize everything people disliked about dance-pop.
There is nothing worse than getting caught by a fake or a counterfeit. There is nothing worse then buying something you think is the genuine article but then finding it is a counterfeit or not the real thing. Like the minister of a church not far from here who bought his rather sick computer to me to be fixed. It turned out the root of the problem was the counterfeit copy of Windows XP that was loaded.
You hear stories about counterfeit things all the time.
And what stands at the heart of this passage tonight is the idea of counterfeit. And as we will see it is a counterfeit that the world seems all too willing to buy.
2. A Battle in Heaven
Back to that shortly, because the section opens with another vision of heaven.
What we have in chapter 12 & 13 is central to the book of Revelation in a few ways.
It is central because it is in the middle of the book.
But it is also central in that it points out probably the most important theme in the book.
The chapter starts and we are shown that there is a battle in heaven.
But lets look at the main characters: There is:
a. A woman.
She has a crown with twelve stars on it.
She is pregnant and about to give birth.
We are not told exactly who she is – but she is clearly about to give birth to Jesus.
I don’t think we are supposed to see this as Mary.
I think she represents Israel – crown with 12 stars/12 tribes - but there is nothing in the text that makes that clear. And in the end it is not that important.
What is important it that she gives birth to a male son.
He will rule over the nations with an iron sceptre (quoting from Psalm 2).
Its clear we are supposed to see this as Jesus.
I mean, look at what they sing in heaven after his birth:
Revelation 12:10 “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.”
Next, we have the:
b. Red dragon
A terrifying sight: 7 heads, 10 horns and 7 crowns.
He is clearly at war with God and with heaven – but also at war with creation: His tail sweeps away 1/3 of the stars.
The dragon wants to devour the child that is about to be born.
When the dragon is defeated he is cast down to earth.
No need to speculate or guess who this is – we are told:
Revelation 12:9 “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”
The dragon represents the devil. And he is at war with God and his purposes.
He is cast out of heaven so he now wages war on God’s people.
He pursued the woman – but God protected her. So what does the dragon do next?
He goes off to make war against those who trust in Jesus.
Revelation 12:17 “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
Satan is at war with god’s people.
3. A Future Event?
Now that fact should not surprise us. And we shouldn’t think that this war will be some future event. Nor should we think that this war only happens in major conflicts or major times of crisis.
This is again the world we live in.
That is what John is being shown in this vision. And that is what we are being shown.
At a very simple level chapters 12 & 13 reminds us that as Christians we are engaged in a spiritual battle.
We are up against Satan.
But before we go any further turn over in your Bible to Ephesians.
People have this idea of the dragon or the beasts that follow in chapter 13are to be seen an individual or an institution.
That it’s the Emperor Nero or George Bush or Osama bin Laden, or the United Nations or G8, etc.
But in Ephesians 2 Paul makes it clear that the beast is already at work as he was writing in the 1st century.
Ephesians 2:1-2 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient”.
The Bible is clear.
There are two kinds of people in this world.
Those who are part of God’s kingdom through Jesus and those who are part of Satan’s kingdom.
Don’t misunderstand what I am saying.
That is not to say that all those who are not in God’s kingdom are all out using Ojai boards or sacrificing chickens or joining witches covens. There are some fine upstanding members of our society who will not be part of God’s kingdom.
But that doesn’t alter the fact:
If you have not acknowledged Jesus as your king then you are not a part of his kingdom.
And there’s no neutrality in this situation.
In WWII, Switzerland was a neutral country. It fought neither with the allies nor with the German/Italian alliance.
There is no Switzerland in this war.
You are either part of the kingdom of Jesus or you are part of the kingdom of his enemy – Satan.
What we’re seeing here in Revelation isn’t some future event that’s going to happen.
This is what the world is like now!
We live in a world where Satan is at war. And Paul puts it even more clearly at the end of Ephesians.
We need to be ready because Satan is already at war with those who are part of God’s kingdom, who have their trust in Jesus.
Read Ephesians 6:10-12 “finally, be strong in the lord and in his mighty power. put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
But before we can figure out how to defend ourselves we need to see exactly how Satan wages war.
So...
4. How Does Satan Wage War?
Enter the counterfeit beast.
Satan has been cast down from heaven. He is on the earth making war against God’s people and the inhabitants of this earth. And look at what we see at the beginning of chapter 13:
Satan is standing on the sea shore and the 1st beast come up out of the sea. The beast is under the authority of the dragon.
Now look carefully at what this beast is like:
10 Horns & 7 heads – in many ways, he is just like the dragon.
Given the dragon’s throne, authority & power
Men worship the dragon & the beast
The beast has a blasphemous name
Has what appears to be a fatal wound that has been healed – we are told that 3 times in the passage.
The whole world is astonished by the fatal wound and the fact he is alive.
He has authority over every tribe, people language and nation.
People sing the praises of the beast: “who is like the beast”
Who does it bring to mind when you hear that description?
One of the things that is stressed is the fatal wound – this beast looks like it has died and come to life again.
If Satan is the counterfeit god then this 1st beast is the counterfeit Jesus!
Just about every element of the beasts character is some copy of Jesus:
Jesus has been given his father’s authority.
Jesus and the father are worshipped.
Jesus has the name that is above all names.
Jesus is the one who died and rose again.
Jesus has authority over people from every tribe, people language and nation
And what about the 2nd beast – the one that comes from out of the earth? I think we have a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit.
Look at what this 2nd beast does:
Exercises authority on behalf of the 1st Beast.
Encourages people to worship the 1st beast.
Performs miraculous signs.
What we have here is almost the unholy trinity:
Instead of Father Son and Holy Spirit we have dragon, beast & beast.
The counterfeit is an alternative to be worshipped rather than God. I don’t think we have to directly identify the beasts in the vision.
I don’t think we have to see it as a person or an institution.
The beast is anything that commands our worship.
It may be a statue of the Roman Emperor who wants to be viewed as God. It may have been the other religions in the world of that day. It may be the idolatry we see in some religions.
But it may also be something as simple as money:
As Jesus says: “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” Matthew 6:24
The beast will take the form of anything that we are tempted to place above God in our lives.
And what do we worship?
We will tend to worship those things that offers us security and hope in life.
We will follow those things that we think are worth trusting and committing our life to.
We will make sacrifices for those things that we think will best serve us.
It may be false religions that are in view when we see the beast.
But it could also be simply the materialism that we have around us.
In an email from Mark and Carol Grieves in South Africa, they told me: One of the things that you really notice in South Africa –especially a place like Johannesburg - is the high levels of security. They visited a place in Johannesburg that had a 2 meter high fence with spikes and then electric wires running around the top of that. The neighbours chip in to pay for a security guard to drive around the neighbourhood every night. And they spoke to the minister of one of the churches there.
He had just spent 10 weeks in Australia doing some study and a few other things. He said: ‘There is no way I would want my kids growing up in Australia’. Mark and Carol were a little stunned by the statement and asked the obvious question: Why?
He said: It would be so hard for them to keep pressing on as Christians when you are surrounded by that kind of wealth and materialism.
That is one way Satan is at war with us.
he will encourage us to worship something other than God on his throne – other than the Lamb.
So what are you going to be tempted to worship and trust in?
What are you going to be tempted to devote your life to?
You only have to look at most of the world to see that his plan is having some success.
Everyone worships something.
Everyone finds their hope and security in something.
And if it is not God you are worshipping and if it is not his son Jesus that you are trusting with you whole life – then you are in the wrong camp.
5. The Mark of the Beast
Now, we couldn’t look at this passage without talking about the mark of the beast.
So what about this best known symbol in the letter?
Everyone wants to make a big deal out of this.
They see the mark as bar codes, bank cards, micro chips that will be planted under on our heads or hands. But I think it is a simple thing to figure out.
But go back chapter 7 for a moment.
Read Revelation 7:3 “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” God has put his mark on his people.
Now go over to chapter 14. Immediately after we read about the mark of the beast in chapter 13 we read this:
Revelation 14:1 “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.”
You never seem of hear people talk about what this mark is.
Why aren’t we desperately trying to find this mark and put it on our foreheads?
Because it is not a literal mark.
It is an image – remember: this is apocalyptic language.
The mark is a mark of ownership.
It comes back to what I said before: Everyone in this world belongs to someone.
You either belong to God or you don’t.
The whole thing about not being able to trade without the mark seems to me to be saying that you wont fit in – you wont be able to operate in the world unless you worship the things that this world worships.
Sometimes that will be more concrete than others.
The original readers of this letter would not have been able to trade effectively unless they were willing to worship the emperor.
But I think it is equally hard today to make it in business when your boss knows that you are a Christian and you are not willing to give yourself completely to your career.
And you will be viewed as an oddity by your neighbours when you don’t worship the same things they do.
So to finish up, let me summarise a couple of ideas that we can take on board:
6. Patient Endurance & Faithfulness
There is an expression that comes up a few times in this passage. You find it for the first time when we see who Satan is going to fight against:
Revelation 12:17 “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
He is waging war against those who obey the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
And then we read this in 13:10 & 14:12
Revelation 13:10b “…This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.”
And 14:12 “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.”
Patient endurance and obedience is going to be a conscious choice – something that we will have to continue to work at.
And it means avoiding those imitations, those counterfeits
It will mean that we don’t get sucked into worshipping the counterfeits that are out there.
We need to be on our guard.
Let me ask again:
What counterfeits do you think pose the greatest danger to you as a Christian?
What things keep demanding your allegiance?
What things keep demanding that you make them #1 in your life?
What is it that you are tempted to worship above God?
There was a remarkable story that came out of the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968.
It was the Marathon. John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania started the Olympic marathon with all the other runners but finished it alone. He fell during the race and injured his knee. The rest of the pack got away from him – but he kept running.
He entered the stadium over an hour after the winner had crossed the line. He finished the race last. There were very few spectators in the stands as Akhwari crossed the finish line bandaged and bruised.
He was asked by a reporter later why he did not just quit seeing that he had no chance of winning the race.
Akhwari was a little confused by the question and he answered: ‘My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me here to finish.’
We have been called to finish.
We have been called by our God to show great patience and careful endurance. We have been called by our God to be obedient and faithful in waging the spiritual war with Satan.
We have a God who is worthy of our worship.
We have a God who has done more for us than we could ever have asked for.
We have the promise of forgiveness and eternal life that is worth the battle with the evil one.
Let’s actively encourage and build each other up as we fight that war together.