This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to our look at Revelation
chapter 13. We're going to focus on verses 1 to 4 today, but first I want to
take a broad look before we begin into this very important chapter. Revelation,
you might remember, is a book that is focused on worshipping God.

This chapter is focused on a different kind of worship. A group of people who
are worshipping a false beast, who are worshipping an evil one. As we walk
through this chapter, you're going to see that everything in this chapter is a
counterfeit.

It's a picture of a counterfeit world, a counterfeit God. Last week in
Revelation chapter 12, we saw the overall influence of evil in this world and we
answered the question from that chapter, why is there evil in the world? Why is
there evil in the world?

Because Satan is real. But also remember that God has not finished the story
there. God is going to deal with evil in the world.

Satan is real, but also God will not be defeated. But we're in the middle of
some of that right now and every victory has a battle that goes along with it
and we're in the midst of that battle. This week in chapter 13, we look at some
of the details about some of the evil that's in the world, some of the battle
that goes on.

In many ways, this is a dark chapter. As we walk through it and look at these
details, there are a lot of questions that this will bring up. I want us to take
a look at this this week.

We want to open up God's word, go through it verse by verse, and answer the
questions that are there. In many ways, this is the chapter that a lot of you
have been waiting for. This is the chapter that has the beast.

This is the chapter that has the mark of the beast. This is the chapter that has
the 666. As we look, remember, remember the difference between prophetic
revelation, prophetic interpretation, and prophetic speculation.

It's very important with this chapter. Prophetic revelation is what God has
clearly said. And some revelation, everybody agrees on.

Other revelation, all of it has to be interpreted. But other revelation, it's
interpreted different ways. Prophetic interpretation is the historic broadly
held opinion about what God has said.

Now, let me just say that if you have an opinion about something in God's word
that somebody has not come up with in 2000 years, you're just wrong. You're not
smarter than everybody in 2000 years. So there's something wrong with that
opinion.

Because I do believe in the power of God's church, of God's people to speak to
one another. But sometimes we have different opinions about a passage. We'll
look at that this week and be honest about that.

There's prophetic revelation. There's prophetic interpretation. As we've said
before, just reminding you, there's also prophetic speculation.

That's just personal ideas about present possibilities. As we look at Revelation
chapter 13, we'll see that it talks about two beasts. There's lots of ideas
about what those might be.

And many of them are speculative. It's okay to speculate as long as you realize
it's just speculation. It's not interpretation.

And we're going to try to draw the difference between those two and focus on
interpretation as we go through this this week. We're going to work hard this
week as we look at God's word. And I hope that you will go away from this
chapter knowing his word in a deeper and a better way.

In a way that gives you greater hope, greater confidence in God's future. In
Revelation chapter 13, there are two beasts. There's a beast that comes out of
the sea and a beast that rises out of the land.

And we're going to look at both of them. Beginning with the first beast,
Revelation chapter 13, verse one, the beast out of the sea. "And the dragon
stood on the shore of the sea.

And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads and
ten crowns on his horns. And on each head a blasphemous name.

" This beast out of the sea, that first verse begins the descriptions. What are
all these descriptions we're going to look at the next few days mean? In a
moment, the Bible's going to tell us that one of the heads of the beast seem to
have a fatal wound.

What is that fatal wound? Who gives the authority to this beast? In this
chapter, once again, we're going to see the 42 months or the three and a half
years mentioned again.

What is this about? Why does the Bible keep talking to us about this? Well,
let's begin to dig in.

In this first verse, we hear this picture of seven heads. And we hear this
picture of the crowns and the horns, ten crowns and horns. What do these
pictures mean in these scriptures?

Overall, as we said last week, it's a picture of human power. That's what the
horns and the hills that we're going to see later, that's what they represent.
That's what the animals we're going to see later represent.

But we're going to see also that this is power that set itself up against God.
Notice we just read on each head, each depiction of power, there was a
blasphemous name, not God's name, but a blasphemous name. Now let's just walk
into this a little bit more deeply.

Let's get more specific about this. What does this mean? There are three basic
interpretations people have had down the last 2,000 years.

Interpretation number one is that this is just about the government of Rome in
the day that it was written. The truth is you can read many, many commentaries
about the book of Revelation that have many, many different views about what
this means. But in every one of them, there is a good solid biblical sense that
Rome is involved somehow.

There's something about Rome and what happens here at the beginning that's
important. I don't believe it's all that's here, but it is important in what's
here. In later chapters, we're going to see that these heads represent hills and
Rome is a city that's built on seven hills.

It is making it pretty obvious here to these Christians who are being persecuted
by the Roman government, that the Roman government is an example of this kind of
power. There's no doubt about it. When you and I look at this, I believe that
it's an example of how God fulfills prophecy many times.

There are some who believe that this is only about Rome in the early days, but I
believe it's an example of how God fulfills prophecy. I'm one of those who
believes in prophetic fulfillment in the past and in the future. It certainly
happened with Jesus.

Some of the prophecies of his first coming when he was born in Bethlehem, they
were fulfilled in a smaller way in the day that that prophecy was written, only
fulfilled in the greatest way when Jesus finally came. These are the same kinds
of prophecies, I believe. Some of these prophecies were fulfilled in that day.

Rome did fall, but these prophecies are going to be fulfilled in a greater way
in the end. So the first idea is that it's all about Rome. I believe that it's
somewhat about Rome.

That's one interpretation. A second interpretation that people have of what is
this beast is that it's about any power of any age. It sets itself up as
anti-God in the world, as any ruler, whether it's Rome or Nazi Germany or
anything in between, that sets itself up as a power that sets itself up against
God.

Obviously, any power that's anti-God is a beast in one sense, but to me that's
too broad. There are some though who believe that that's what this is talking
about. Good, strong, solid believers who have believed that down through the
last 2,000 years.

There is a third interpretation, and that is the interpretation that this is a
great final ruler of the world that seems to fit in this chapter. There are
indications of this government or this person who will rule the world, this
person who we have called the Antichrist. Not called that here, but we've called
the Antichrist.

The name Antichrist isn't found anywhere in the book of Revelation. It's found
in other books in the New Testament. That's why I believe that there will be
such a person.

John in his letters talks about the fact that there will be many Antichrists.
Paul talks about a man of lawlessness who will someday come. And again and again
there is this indication of some great final ruler.

Now which one is right? Is it Rome? Is it any power that sets itself up against
God as a great final ruler?

Which one of these do you choose? Believe it or not, I believe you can be
faithful to God's word and choose all three. There is truth in all three of
these.

It is true that in Rome you can see in the early days of Christianity a power
working to destroy the first century Christians. You can't miss it. So there was
hope that was given to these people as they read these words.

It is also true that you can see in any government that's ever existed that has
oppressed those who believe in the truth a beast. You can see indications of
evil. So there's hope given to those of any generation who read these words.

It is also true that God's indicated to us that someday what began in the first
century and has continued to become greater and greater in all of the centuries
is going to be culminated in one great final world ruler. That ruler, that
rulership is going to set itself up against God and his people. That shouldn't
surprise us.

It's what happened at the beginning. It's what's happened all along. It
shouldn't surprise us that it's what's going to happen at the end.

So I believe that in one sense all three of these are true. It was Rome. You and
I can learn from that today.

It's also obviously a great final world ruler. Revelation isn't the only place
that talks about that. Now if you drill down into this a little bit further, you
drill down into the exact pictures you see, okay, there's 10 heads and there's
these horns and what does that represent?

Do the 10 heads represent something more than complete rule? Many people think
that they do. That's why these verses are so important to so many as they study
the book of Revelation.

They think it means 10 great world rulers, leaders at the end and the seven
kingdoms maybe out of which these leaders will grow. That could be true but now
we're heading a little bit towards speculation. We need to know, you need to
know there's vast disagreement about what these kingdoms might be and what these
nations might be.

It's tough to find any two Christians who agree on this one. They did agree for
a while when the European Economic Union had 10 countries in it. Everybody said,
"Oh, that's it.

Now we've got it settled. " But then they added more countries and it messed up
everybody's theology, everybody's prophetic theology. There are so many
different ideas about what these 10 rulers could be and what these kingdoms
could be.

And all these different ideas indicate to me whenever I'm studying God's word,
when everybody has a different idea that these are just man's ideas. When
everyone has a different idea, guess where the ideas are probably coming from.
Now, is it okay to speculate?

Yes. But if it's interpretation, if the Holy Spirit's speaking to us and saying
there is evil in this world and it's represented in the governments of this
world, you can see that. Then we all interpret it the same.

Then we all see that. Is it okay to have opinions about this? Of course it is.

But sometimes it's just a waste of time. Let's just be honest. If I get too
caught up in the opinions and I miss the truth, it's obviously a waste of time.

And I would rather focus on the defeat of evil in the world today than try to
figure out who these 10 countries may or may not be. When that happens, it'll be
clear and they will be defeated. To whatever believers are on the earth at that
time, it will be clear and they will have hope.

We all have ideas about the Bible and what's going to happen in the end. And
there's vast disagreement about some of the timing and the details. And we see a
lot of that in this chapter.

That shouldn't bother us. Jesus said he didn't know the day or the hour, but
only the Father who is in heaven. If we don't know the day or the hour, it
shouldn't bother us because Jesus said he didn't know the day or the hour.

Should it make us feel like we're not studying God's word hard enough if we
can't figure out what Jesus said he couldn't figure out? Of course not. We
shouldn't try to figure it out.

Now, having said that, could this be an indication of something God wants us to
understand? Of course. Horns usually indicate leaders.

But there's just an indication. We don't know the end of that yet. And when
looking at what God is saying to us here, you want to not miss the Old Testament
picture.

You want to not miss the pictures that come from the Old Testament. We're going
to focus on that some tomorrow, what God is showing us here. The picture of how
God is going to bring about the great final world victory over evil.

The point that I want to end with is you cannot limit God's truth to the past or
to the future. If you miss the point that these verses gave hope to the
believers who suffered persecution from Rome, you have missed the point. If you
miss the point that this book, that these verses have continued to give hope to
believers suffering from their government for the past 2,000 years, you have
missed the point.

And if I miss the point that a great leader will arise as the world comes to the
end, who'll be worshiped and then destroyed, I've missed the point. Let's pray
together. Lord, help us to see the point, the point of hope that you want to
give hope into our lives, that instead of allowing the unfolding of your plan to
destroy your hope, we should realize that you're in control.

We should realize that you're never going to forsake those who are yours, that
your promise is going to hold true. And thank you for the promises that are
contained in the Book of Revelation, the promises to your people. In your name,
we praise you.

Amen.