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It’s a Given
Revelation 13:5-10
September 6, 2020
Lord’s Day Worship
Sean Higgins
The sermon starts around 19:40 in the audio file.
Or, Why the Saints Will Endure the Beast
It is always instructive to see how God handles things. By that I don’t mean how He reacts, I mean how He has organized things in order to show off various aspects of His character, including His wisdom and His patience. If the virtue of endurance had its origin and essence in you, how would you communicate that to others so that they would know it at a deeper level than the two-dimensions of a printed page? You’d probably want to demonstrate it, and for that you’d need something to endure.
The starting point for this discussion is the sovereignty of God. It is not an academic specialty or a polemical fight, it is a pastoral encouragement for every believer’s fight for faith and endurance. The life of a disciple of Christ is costly; it will cost you your life, in one way or in thousands. God made it to be like this. Our need to endure is a given, at least if we want to worship God in His beautiful steadfastness as well as take on His image. James said that when steadfastness has its full effect in us, then we lack nothing.
In the final days, of which we are getting a taste of these days, the world will be driven by the dragon, his agent the beast, and a prophet who is also referred to as a beast. It’s more than interesting, it’s instructive how the Almighty and the Lamb, and their Spirit, deal with the unholy trinity.
No other being in the universe deserves praise like God, no other being in the universe knows when He’s not getting the praise He deserves, and no other being in the universe has the authority to judge the blasphemers. God Himself is the legislator, judge, and executor (not necessarily mapping to members of the Trinity). Why doesn’t He do something about the beast?
It’s not that He doesn’t have the forces. The dragon has been beaten at everything he tried in chapter 12. Having been thrown out of heaven and frustrated in his attempts to attack the woman, the dragon sets up his own messiah-like figure, the final embodiment of the antichrist, who poses as a king. In Revelation 13:1-4 we saw the parody, the numerous ways the beast plays at taking the Lamb’s place. But isn’t the Father’s aim to make much of His Son? How could the Father let this imposter go on? Again, why doesn’t He do something about the beast?
He does. He gives the beast everything he’s got.
The battle between good and evil is not a fair fight, and it’s not because evil cheats. It’s because evil has to steal ideas and borrow strength from the God of good just to fight the good. Evil isn’t autonomous. Evil can’t create or sustain itself. Evil needs good to pervert, and it needs approval to do its perverting. How humiliating.
In Revelation 13:1-4 the beast imitates the Lamb’s glory, and in verses 5-8, the beast receives glory, but the perspective reveals that its only because it’s been delegated to him by God, with limits. Four times John says “it was given” to the beast. Then in verses 9-10 we’ll see how the saints are called to respond, not just to the beast, but to this revelation.
Given to Blaspheme God (verses 5-6)
There’s not just a relationship between the beast and the dragon, Satan, the beast also has a relationship to the state. In the early verses of the chapter we see the many-headed, multi-horned view of of the beast, and in chapter 17 we’ll be told how the heads relate to a number of kings. One of the activities of those rebel rulers is blasphemy, they take names that don’t belong to them. In verse 5 the embodiment of the beast has a big mouth.
5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter [...]
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By Trinity Evangel ChurchRevelation 13:5-10
September 6, 2020
Lord’s Day Worship
Sean Higgins
The sermon starts around 19:40 in the audio file.
Or, Why the Saints Will Endure the Beast
It is always instructive to see how God handles things. By that I don’t mean how He reacts, I mean how He has organized things in order to show off various aspects of His character, including His wisdom and His patience. If the virtue of endurance had its origin and essence in you, how would you communicate that to others so that they would know it at a deeper level than the two-dimensions of a printed page? You’d probably want to demonstrate it, and for that you’d need something to endure.
The starting point for this discussion is the sovereignty of God. It is not an academic specialty or a polemical fight, it is a pastoral encouragement for every believer’s fight for faith and endurance. The life of a disciple of Christ is costly; it will cost you your life, in one way or in thousands. God made it to be like this. Our need to endure is a given, at least if we want to worship God in His beautiful steadfastness as well as take on His image. James said that when steadfastness has its full effect in us, then we lack nothing.
In the final days, of which we are getting a taste of these days, the world will be driven by the dragon, his agent the beast, and a prophet who is also referred to as a beast. It’s more than interesting, it’s instructive how the Almighty and the Lamb, and their Spirit, deal with the unholy trinity.
No other being in the universe deserves praise like God, no other being in the universe knows when He’s not getting the praise He deserves, and no other being in the universe has the authority to judge the blasphemers. God Himself is the legislator, judge, and executor (not necessarily mapping to members of the Trinity). Why doesn’t He do something about the beast?
It’s not that He doesn’t have the forces. The dragon has been beaten at everything he tried in chapter 12. Having been thrown out of heaven and frustrated in his attempts to attack the woman, the dragon sets up his own messiah-like figure, the final embodiment of the antichrist, who poses as a king. In Revelation 13:1-4 we saw the parody, the numerous ways the beast plays at taking the Lamb’s place. But isn’t the Father’s aim to make much of His Son? How could the Father let this imposter go on? Again, why doesn’t He do something about the beast?
He does. He gives the beast everything he’s got.
The battle between good and evil is not a fair fight, and it’s not because evil cheats. It’s because evil has to steal ideas and borrow strength from the God of good just to fight the good. Evil isn’t autonomous. Evil can’t create or sustain itself. Evil needs good to pervert, and it needs approval to do its perverting. How humiliating.
In Revelation 13:1-4 the beast imitates the Lamb’s glory, and in verses 5-8, the beast receives glory, but the perspective reveals that its only because it’s been delegated to him by God, with limits. Four times John says “it was given” to the beast. Then in verses 9-10 we’ll see how the saints are called to respond, not just to the beast, but to this revelation.
Given to Blaspheme God (verses 5-6)
There’s not just a relationship between the beast and the dragon, Satan, the beast also has a relationship to the state. In the early verses of the chapter we see the many-headed, multi-horned view of of the beast, and in chapter 17 we’ll be told how the heads relate to a number of kings. One of the activities of those rebel rulers is blasphemy, they take names that don’t belong to them. In verse 5 the embodiment of the beast has a big mouth.
5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter [...]