Beasts, Dragons, & Satan (Rev. 12-13)
Beasts, dragons, even Satan! In this message, we look at the work of evil creatures and how Christians can stand against them. We also consider why some churches undergo such great persecution while others languish in spiritual apathy.
Transcript
Today we’re gonna talk about the dragon, the Antichrist, and the mark of the beast. So, it’s gonna be a good one.
Chapter 12 begins section the middle section of Revelation, detailing the cosmic battle between God and the forces of evil. This got me thinking about how we defeat an enemy. And it reminded me of my most ambitious strategy back when I was a water polo coach.
We were one win away from making it to the playoffs, so,I packed up my video camera and notepad to scout our opponent.
By the end of that game, I knew how to defeat them. I had taken notes on their whole starting line-up.
So, I went back to my team, and I told the girls the whole thing: #4 is their fastest. Hang back on defense. #12 is their strongest shooter. Play tight on her. If you get #9, shot on them. She’s not good at defense. Etc., etc.
I walked into that game confident that we could take them. And as the teams lined up on, I realized something horrifying. They had all swapped numbers. My perfect plan was shattered. I instantly went from Batman to Robin.
Well, we ended up losing the game by 1 point, and I learned a valuable lesson: It’s not good enough just to have a strategy. You have to have a strategy that’ll work.
So, when it comes to battling evil, what’s a strategy that’ll work? Our world has a lot of different views of evil:
Evil is individual, personal
Evil is systemic
Evil is spiritual
Evil is part of the balance of the universe
There are plenty of ideas on how to address evil, but what will actually work?
Revelation 12 and 13 answer that question perhaps better than anywhere else in Scripture. But before we dive into the text, I want to introduce you to the players. Think of this as the ultimate Street Fighter battle. On one side, we have the Mother who is pregnant with the Child. And on the other side, we have the Dragon, the Sea Beast, and the Land Beast. These three represent an unholy trinity, an anti-trinity, that stands in opposition to the Father, Son, and Spirit.
Regardless, this does not look like it’s going to end well. A pregnant mom vs. three demonic monsters. Might as well just advance to the defeat screen. Or not… Let’s dive in.
1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
So, we have a celestial woman about to give birth, with a 7-headed dragon poised to eat the child the moment he’s born. But God saves the child and protects the mother.
John says that the woman, child, and dragon are signs or symbols. So, what do they represent?
The child is Jesus. He’s the only one that holds the iron scepter, like a king, and is taken up to God’s throne, like the divine Messiah.
Next is the women. Most Catholics say this is Mary. She is, after all, the mother of Jesus. But remember that Revelation draws more heavily on the Old Testament than the New Testament. She actually is the nation of Israel. In fact, in the Old Testament, Israel is repeatedly compared to a pregnant woman, as this nation gave birth to Jesus—the Root of David from the tribe of Judah.
Next is the dragon. Thankfully, John explains this symbol just a few verses later: The great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. (12:9) The dragon represents Satan.
The rest of chapter 12 tells of two great battles. First, there was a war in heaven between the archangel Michael and his angels and the dragon Satan and his evil spirits. Satan is defeated and cast down to the earth.
That creates the second war, this time on earth. Again, the woman Israel and child Jesus are rescued by God. Then, this happens: Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. That’s us. That’s believers. Satan is waging war against Christians in the Church.
So, how do believers battle this evil dragon? In these chapters, we’re going to see 5 answers to that question. I call it the playbook for resisting evil. And, trust me, this one is much better than mine from water polo.
Why do we need a playbook for resisting evil? Because Christians spend too much trying to identify evil and not enough time trying to resist evil. Who’s the antichrist? What’s the mark of the beast? How about, instead, we learn how God has empowered us to resist evil?
After Satan is defeated in heaven, the angels sing a hymn of praise that contains this line about believers and Satan: They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. The blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
Here we get our first two strategies in our playbook.
The finished work of Jesus
Your testimony
We are not told to defeat the devil. Our job is to return again and again to the source of our victory: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, on the cross. Our primary strategy in spiritual warfare must be to rely on the centrality of the cross and rest in Christ’s finished work.
How do you know you’re doing that? You have a story to tell about what Jesus has done in your life. That’s your testimony. Telling your testimony reminds you and others of God’s power to change lives, and that strengthens you to resist evil.
Now let’s move to chapter 13. Here we are first introduced to the Beast of the Sea: “1 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.”
These are all images of kingly power and authority, but it’s all distorted, blasphemous. It’s like the Upside-Down in Stranger Things—similar, but corrupted and evil.
This beast is the opposite of Christ. It’s the anti-Lamb
He’s filled with pride.
He spews blasphemous words.
He wages war against believers, even killing them.
People follow him because of his power and authority
They worship him, saying, “Who is like the beast?” That’s what the angels said of the Lamb.
He even has a mortal head wound that healed. It’s like an anti-resurrection.
Everything about him is anti-Lamb or anti-Christ. This beast is, in fact, representative of the antichrist. Although Revelation never actually uses that word, other descriptions in the Bible seem to match this one. This antichrist is against everything about Jesus and the Church, and people all around the world follow him. Except some. Verse 8 says this: “8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.”
In the face of evil, persecution, even death, here’s what God says to his Church: “10 This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.”
This gives us two more strategies for resisting evil:
Patient endurance
Faithfulness during suffering
In other words, don’t give up. You will experience suffering, sickness, and loss. But the recurring refrain in Revelation is “stay faithful to Jesus.”
Next, we meet the Beast from the Land: “11 Then I saw a second beast coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon…. it performed great signs…it deceived the inhabitants of the earth…”
Here we have another anti-Lamb, who set up an idol of the first beast, the antichrist, for people to worship and even executed those who refused. Now, here is where it gets interesting… “16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.”
Let’s talk about the mark of the beast and the number of the beast. 666 is probably the most notorious number in human history. What does it mean? First off, remember that Revelation uses numbers symbolically. 6 represents sin and 7 represents divine perfection. 777 is the most perfect, representing God. So, 666 is the most sinful. It is literally an anti-God. And that fits these chapters. So far, we’ve had an anti-Trinity, anti-Lamb, anti-Resurrection, anti-Christ. Now we have the anti-God.
Throughout history, there have been a lot of attempts to assign 666 to everybody from popes to presidents, just like Christians have accused people of being the anti-Christ. But, in my opinion, all of that is so unimportant. And in a little bit, I’ll tell you why.
What is the mark of the beast? There is no shortage of memes and YouTube Christians who will tell you absolutely ridiculous things about the mark of the beast. But for first-century Christians who knew their Old Testament, it was very obvious.
I’ll start by telling you what the mark of the beast is not.
It’s not an RFID chip implanted in your hand.
It is not Bill Gates and 5G wireless.
And it is not the Covid vaccine.
These are all absurd. Please do not read, watch, or believe any of that garbage. That is not how good and evil work in Scripture. It’s not like the Devil is sitting back saying, “Ha! You got the vaccine. Now you’re a Satanist.”
The reason these are so ludicrous is that the answer is right there in the Bible. In fact, it’s from the most important prayer in the Old Testament and we read it earlier in service. The mark of the beast is the anti-Shema: Love the Lord your God… These commandments that I give you…Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Sound familiar? Same as the mark of the beast—the hand or forehead. It is the anti-Shema.
The mark of the beast is not some secret conspiracy to trick Christians into worshiping Satan. It’s a choice of allegiance, of trust. Who do you follow? God or Satan?
This sounds like an obvious question, but it’s actually not. Remember that the beast, the anti-Christ is a deceiver, and people will love and adore him. It’s actually a very hard question. That’s why this passage ends with the encouragement, “This calls for wisdom.”
That’s our last strategy for resisting evil—wisdom to defy deception. This is a strategy that Christians are failing. Did you know that, on social media, evangelical Christians were found to be the most gullible? Christians are more likely than any other subgroup to believe in conspiracy theories. The Church needs wisdom. You need wisdom because there are lies you’re believing that are destroying you from the inside out.
We need wisdom to defy deception no more than ever.
This choice of allegiance— the Lamb or the Beast—isn’t just something that happened in the end times. It’s a decision you make every single day.
You wake up and choose who’s mark you’re going to wear?
What will you place on your forehead and your hands.
Who will drive your thoughts and your actions?
Resist evil. Trust in the Lamb. He is the only one worthy.
