The Counterfeit Christ – 24

Revelation 13:1-10

What is a counterfeit? It’s something that is fake that tries to pass for something that is real. It is a cheap imitation. (Mission trip to NYC…going to China town…people opening up a back wall of their store full of counterfeit purses.) (Can you tell the difference in these air Jordans? Counterfeits look real, and it can be hard to figure out what is the real thing or not. But counterfeits never hold up like the real thing.)

Tonight, we are going to see a counterfeit that is going to rise at the end of days, a counterfeit Christ…the antichrist. “The word antichrist does not appear a single time in Revelation. In the Apocalypse he is called “the beast.” Elsewhere in Scripture he is called the little horn (Dan 7:8), the prince (ruler) who is to come (Dan 9:26), the lawless one or man of sin (2 Thess 2:3-8), and the antichrist (1 John 2:18, 22; 2 John 7). The word antichrist means “one who is against Christ” or “one who is in the place of Christ.” Both are true. The beast is an antimessiah. He is in a war against Christ even as he attempts to replace the true Christ.”[1]

As we work our way through this passage tonight, we’re going to see different ways that Satan, through the antichrist, seeks to be a counterfeit messiah and bring about a counterfeit kingdom. Like always, we’re going to major on the majors and minor on the minors. We could speculate all day long on who we think the antichrist will be. I don’t think that’s what God wants us to do. I agree with Danny Akin on this who says this text isn’t written so we will speculate as to who the antichrist is, but he says “I think God’s design is to instruct us now and in every generation concerning what antichrists do and how they work as they are empowered and deployed by that dragon (13:2), Satan himself.”[2] “Satan is a powerful deceiver, and we need to be able to tell the difference between the real Jesus and the fake Jesus that Satan will use to deceive the world.”[3]

Part of this counterfeit we see tonight is even seen in the major end times players we see come out in this chapter. Satan is there on the beach, the antichrist beast is the focus of verse 1-10, and the false prophet beast is the focus of verses 11-18. Akin says, “Joined at the hip with the dragon, they constitute nothing less than a counterfeit trinity! Satan counterfeits God the father. Antichrist counterfeits God the Son. The false prophet counterfeits God the Holy Spirit.”[4]

So, I want to ask you right off the bat, “Are you certain that your idea of who Jesus is matches who he is in reality? How do you know that Satan has not deceived you into following some imitation of Jesus?”[5]

Revelation 13:1-2

We see the beast immediately rise out of the sea. The sea was often associated with evil in the ancient world. It has been referred to as “the reservoir of chaos.”[6] We see right off the bat just how evil he is, not only rising out of the sea, but with blasphemous names on its heads, visibly mocking the one true God.

Satan seeks to advance his kingdom. Later in Revelation, in chapter 17, the beast’s seven heads and ten horns will be interpreted as seven kings and ten kings (vs 10, 12). How the antichrist is described here comes from the way he is described in the Old Testament book of Daniel, chapter 7. In Daniel 7:17, it says, “These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth.” And in Daniel 7:24, it says, “As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise…” Just as Jesus seeks to bring about his kingdom, Satan seeks to bring about his. And he does it through people. People are led astray by people. People we view as important and popular and powerful. You do that with people you know. I’m sure you’ve done something stupid because someone told you. They had power over you and so you followed them.

Satan seeks to advance his kingdom through people. We see that at play just this week. If you haven’