Last week in chapter twelve we were introduced to some new characters in our story, The Woman, The Dragon and The Male Child who we learned represented Israel, Satan and Jesus Christ our Messiah. We were given the birds eye perspective of the history of Israel, and Satan’s intent and continual efforts to destroy her and the child that she carried and in due time brought forth, Jesus Christ. Satan was not successful in his attempts to devour Jesus as soon as he was born, although he tried through Herod by killing every male child two years old and under throughout the region of Bethlehem. (Matthew 2:16) All throughout Jesus’ ministry to the Jews, Satan tried to destroy Jesus through temptation and through the Jews who sought an opportunity to kill him but were unsuccessful, Jesus either walked away right through their midst or walked away because the fear of the uprising of the people held the Pharisees back. Finally, the opportune time came, the time God himself appointed, through the person God had appointed, Judas Iscariot, who was willing to betray Jesus and given the opportunity did so.
The bible teaches us that God is continually looking for people who are willing to serve him. Psalms 14:2 says,
The Lord looks down from heaven
on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God. (Psa. 14:2)
For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chron. 16:9)
Over and over again we find great promises and blessings for those who seek the Lord and to do to the Lord’s will. Heaven is continually looking for an outlet to pour out it’s blessings through. Christianity is all about the Word of God becoming flesh in our lives and the Spirit of God working himself out among us through our worship of God, our loving others, forgiving others, showing mercy to others, caring for others, instructing others, helping others and so on. All of these bring life and support to others, building others up and not tearing them down.
This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority—the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down. (2 Cor. 13:10)
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Eph. 4:29)
Building others up is the work of the Spirit, tearing down and destroying is the work of Satan. Just as the Spirit of God is always looking for an outlet to work out God’s will and goodness through, Satan is also continually looking for an outlet to work out his evil intentions and will through to destroy and to bring about death. He is continually looking for people who are willing to work out his will and he has a large field to draw from.
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19)
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”(Genesis 6:5)
As we talked about last week, Satan is a spirit. He and his demons operate through this world through entering in and out of people moving them to do his will as in Judas Iscariot and by causing them to believe in Satan’s lies and deceptions and to obey them.
There is one sentence in your bible between chapters 12 and chapters 13 that shows Satan looking for such a person. Some bible versions have it as the last sentence of chapter 12 and others have it as the first sentence of chapter 13. You have to remember that in the original manuscripts there were no chapter divisions or verse divisions, these were added much later for easier reference. So sometimes we find paragraph breaks and chapter breaks where they should not be and they disturb the flow of thought.
At the end of chapter 12 in the ESV version it says:
“And he stood on the sand of the sea.”
If you are reading from an NIV you will find this sentence at the beginning of chapter 13 where they replaced the word he with dragon for easier interpretation of the pronoun he that is being referenced:
“The dragonstood on the shore of the sea.
However, if you are reading from a KJV you will read at the beginning of chapter 13:
And I stood upon the sand of the sea,
According to the earliest Greek manuscripts this Greek pronoun “I” should be a “he” which would refer to the dragon as mentioned in the previous verse and his position after being thrown down from heaven
So we see the dragon left standing on the seashore viewing the restless sea after being thrown down from heaven and he begins his search for a person who is will completely surrender himself to his control. The sea in ancient times was considered a place of chaos and terror because of its great depth and heavy surf. In ancient Hebrew pictographs, the symbol for sea was used within the word for terror because of this representation. The Old Testament speaks much of great sea monsters that lived in its dark depths, the leviathan.
There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. (Psa. 104:26)
In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. (Isa. 27:1)
In the book of Revelation, the sea is representative of people.
“Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. (Revelation 17:5)
The sea is a good symbol for nations and people because of their ever changing and restless nature. It’s a symbol of kingdoms that rise and fall. Out of the depth of the chaotic, restless sea, out of the midst of chaotic, restless people the devil rises up a man to do his will, known as the first beast or the Antichrist.
A beast is an apt description and symbol of this man because a beast is often used as a symbol of someone or something that is abnormally large and powerful. A cruel wicked and inhuman person we often call a cruel beast. Someone who has no virtue, no empathy, no understanding but is driven by animal like instincts for its own self, the fulfillment of its own appetite, lusts and impulses, without understanding or wisdom, wild and rebellious in nature, intended to be ruled over by man but at times dominating man instead. In Revelation 17, we will see a woman dressed in scarlet, representing the apostate harlot church riding this beast, initially directing and guiding it, which in the end turns against her and devours her jealous of her influence and power. Satan does not support and look out for his own, he destroys his helpers as he destroys all else. He stands for himself alone. This beast will not be dominated or domesticated by anyone even if they helped him to achieve his place of great influence and power. He wants to be the object of worship. He will not stand for the shadows very long. It is not his nature to be humble. He is proud, arrogant and loves the center of attention, to be worshipped.
Daniel 11 describes this antichrist when he says,
“Then the king will do whatever he wants. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and he will say outrageous things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, because what has been decreed will be accomplished.” (Daniel 11:36)
In Revelation 6:2, with the breaking of the first seal, we saw the beginning of the reign of the antichrist when John sees a saw a rider on a white horse who held a bow and was given a crown and who rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. This was the antichrist, riding out as the false messiah riding a white horse, imitating Christ. He proclaims peace and for a time there is prosperity under his reign. He holds a bow, which shows preparedness for war, he is known as a conqueror bent on conquest and he is given a crown, he did not have to seize it, he was given his authority.
Daniel 11:21-24 tells us that he gains his position of power through a crafty scheme by intrigue or flatteries. He is going to rise to power through his smooth talking tongue and schemes.
21 In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. 22 Armies shall be utterly swept away before him and broken, even the prince of the covenant. 23 And from the time that an alliance is made with him he shall act deceitfully, and he shall become strong with a small people. 24 Without warning he shall come into the richest partsof the province, and he shall do what neither his fathers nor his fathers’ fathers have done, scattering among them plunder, spoil, and goods. He shall devise plans against strongholds, but only for a time.
2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 also describes the beast, the antichrist as the man of lawlessness.
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
5 Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2 Thess. 2:1-12)
Who this man is we do not know. Is he alive in the world today? We do not know. It is not yet his time to be revealed but he will be revealed at the proper time. But we do know that the secret power of lawlessness is already at work in the world around us and there are many antichrists in the world today and their number is increasing.
Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18)
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. (1 John2:22)
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (1 John 4:3)
The Spirit of the antichrist has been and is in the world already. It is anyone who is against Jesus Christ. Anyone who is anti-Christ. The difference between this antichrist, and all the other antichrists that are currently in the world, is the great power and the position that he gains as influence and the fact that unlike all the other antichrists currently in the world, his power will be completely unrestrained for a time.
According 2 Thess. 1:3, the revealing of the Antichrist, the beast will not come until after the rebellion, after the falling away, also known as the great apostasy. An apostasy is a direct violation of the word of God and yet claims at the same time obedience to it. We are seeing this more and more as the word of God is twisted so that sinners can continue in their sin under the cloak of religion accepting it. Homosexuality. Same sex marriage. Abortion. All claim that it is their God given right, and it is done for the sake of love and tolerance. They cloak their sins to make them appear righteous. There will come a time an there is already coming a time when people will no longer want to hear what God has to say but only what tickles their ears.
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (2 Tim. 4:3)
More and more we are hearing about tolerance, religious diversity and pluralism. Can’t we all get along? Let’s put our doctrine aside, and just worry about what we do. It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you live right and do the right thing. The focus is on humanism, social services, tolerance, nice feel good messages which you hear in sermons and see all over Facebook with flowers wrapped around them. “If it makes you happy.” “Just believe in yourself.” “Don’t let anyone judge you.” “You were born this way.”
There is no more absolute truth as a standard to live by. Instead there is relativism which allows you to judge truth and whether it is relative to your situation or not and usually it is not relative at the moment of sin because it gives you an opportunity to excuse and reason it away. You do not judge absolute truth, it judges you. That is what it means to live under God’s word and not over it, trying to wield it as a god.
More and more we are moving towards a global perspective, a one world religion, an apostate church built on religious pluralism instead of the absolute truth of the word of God.
