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Sermon preached on Revelation 13 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/30/2025 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Last week we began an extended seven scene interlude with the first scene. We saw a dragon that represented Satan trying unsuccessfully to destroy Jesus when he was born into this world. Jesus victoriously overcame death and ascended up into heaven where Satan was defeated and cast out of heaven down to earth for a short time. The chapter ended telling us of how the dragon would make war against us Christians.
This chapter now gives us the next 2 scenes in this interlude, a scene for each beast. These beasts describe how the dragon is making war on us. Last chapter ended with the dragon standing on the edge of sea, and the next verse describes the first beast coming up from the sea. Clearly, these beasts are in service to this dragon which is the Devil.
Today’s chapter again covers the same 3.5 year time frame we’ve seen with the dragon last chapter, and the two witness the chapter before. Verse 5 says the beast from the sea exercises his authority for 42 months. This time frame again symbolically describes the period between Christ’s first and second comings. Here, we see the dragon’s influence behind these two beasts as he tries to fully conquer the saints. Yet, we know from last chapter, that the we will ultimately be victorious even though endurance, faith, and wisdom will be needed. Christians will overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony, not loving our lives even unto death.
A common question that is asked here is if this first beast represents the Antichrist. Let us note that only the letters of 1 and 2 John use the term antichrist. John tells us there that the Antichrist is coming and that many antichrists have already come. John distinguishes between a final Antichrist versus many antichrists that will precede such. In a similar way, Paul speaks in 2 Thessalonians of the Man of Lawlessness that will come at the end, but prior to such, he says the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Paul’s description of that Man of Lawlessness shares much in common with what we see in our passage today. So, John’s Antichrist and Paul’s Man of Lawlessness sound like they refer to the same thing, that there will come some final Satan-influenced ultimate opposition at the end, but before then their evil power will already begin to manifest itself. Consistent with this, Jesus prophesied in the Olivet Discourse that there would be coming false christs and false prophets who try to lead astray the saints. Indeed, today’s first beast is presented as a false, counterfeit Christ. And the second beast will later be called the false prophet three times in Revelation.
So is this first beast the final Antichrist? Since this chapter symbolically refers to a long time period, it would seem too simplistic to say he refers to just that final Man of Lawlessness. Rather, this first beast seems to embody all the many antichrists that are coming during this entire new covenant church age, which would also include final Antichrist at the end. So, I think it’s a both-and.
Before we consider each beast in detail, notice that that when we consider the two beasts alongside the dragon, they present what has been called the unholy trinity. They parody the true Trinity in their devilish alliance. The dragon, which is Satan, parodies the Father. The first beast, as an antichrist figure, parodies the Son, Jesus Christ. The second beast, also known as the false prophet, parodies the Holy Spirit, especially as we consider how the Spirit empowers the church’s prophetic witness. Our study of these two beasts with Satan behind them will give us opportunity to consider how such counterfeit trinitarian forces are operative today. In their lies and abuse of power, they feign divine authority, demand absolute allegiance, deploy deception, and coerce worship, all with Satan’s spiritual power behind it all.
Let’s turn now to consider in depth this first beast from the sea, verses 1-10. Cross-reference this with Revelation 11:7 which spoke about a beast rising from the abyss to make war on the two witnesses. Surely this is the same beast, with the abyss and the sea closely related in apocalyptic symbolism. This leviathan is then apocalyptically described in verses 1-2, making him sound especially like the dragon. They both having ten horns, seven heads, and multiple diadems. Yet, Satan the dragon wears the diadems on his heads, which represent his crafty shrewdness, while this beast wears them on his horns which represent his power. Maybe this suggests that Satan is the brains of this operation, but the beast is the brawn. The description of this leviathan is further described in verse 2 with features of a leopard, bear, and lion. Taken with the ten horns and the blasphemous names from verse 1, the description is clearly drawn from the four animals of the vision in Daniel 7. Daniel’s four beasts represented powerful pagan kingdoms that would rise up in the world. From the fourth would rise up additional kingdoms, one which would ultimately make war on the saints and blaspheme God before Christ returns and ushers in the final day of judgment. John here sees a beast that combines all that Daniel 7 beast imagery. This beast represents all these several kingdoms, leading up to and including that final climactic kingdom that would so blaspheme and conquer the saints. The very nature of such a composite beast would fit with the idea that the Antichrist is coming and already many antichrists have come. This composite beast symbolically portrays the spirit of lawlessness which is already at work and will be revealed all the more.
Notice that this beast parodies Jesus, looking the Christ when he is not. Verse 3 describes some mortal wounded that he has healed from, with verse 14 elaborating. The Greek wording is almost identical to how the Lamb was previously described as if slain. This beast looks as if slain, but is alive. Does this parody of Christ’s resurrection represent how Satan was already defeated last chapter by the cross of Christ yet here rises to make war on the saints through this beast? Or does this symbolically represent how in this age Satan-influenced powers at times look like they are defeated yet manage to rise back up, as strong as ever? All of this is surely in view here.
This beast also parodies Jesus in his authority. After the resurrection, Jesus proclaimed that he had been given all authority in both heaven and earth. Here, the dragon gives all the power and authority that he can give to this beast, verse 2. Verse 7 goes on to explain that such authority is over all the humans on this earth. The world powers represented by this beast will subjugate peoples in their authoritarian rule, a counterfeit and perverted expression of authority from what the true Christ wields.
This leviathan’s strong delusion will result in the world worshipping him and treating him as divine, saying “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” Such praise is fitting for God and his Christ, but not this false Christ. Yet, verse 4 reveals that many will willingly profess this. Verse 8 clarifies that the elect will not be fooled.
This leviathan section culminates in verse 7 describing how he will make war on the saints to conquer them. This is generally true throughout this period before Christ returns. However, chapter 11 suggested a final culmination of this at the very end, one final stand of Satan through the beast trying to fully destroy the church. Our ultimate salvation will then come through the return of Christ to deliver us.
This is sobering to think of how this best will afflict us, yet we might say it gets worse. If one beast wasn’t enough, let us now turn to consider this second beast, a beast from the land, verses 11-18. Notice how this behemoth is apocalyptically described in verse 11. Basically, it has features of both a lamb and a dragon. That the first beast looked like Jesus as the Lamb that was slain, so we could also say the first beast looked like a lamb. In other words, this behemoth looks both like the first beast and like the dragon. This reflects how this beast from the land proceeds from both the dragon and the first beast. He will serve them and draw people to the first beast and thus ultimately to Satan. Indeed, his authority is said in verse 12 to be derived from the first beast whose authority had been derived from the dragon. This second beast clearly completes the picture of the unholy trinity.
That picture continues as we see this beast from the land serve as a false prophet to the false christ, as I mentioned he’ll be called that three times later. In verse 12, he coerces people into the idolatrous worship of the beast through an image that he has them make. They are threatened death if they won’t worship the beast’s image. This is reminiscent of Daniel 3 with his three friends that Nebuchadnezzar threw into the fiery furnace because they refused to worship the golden image he setup. They exercised endurance and faith, trusting in God and refusing to worship the image.
We also see that as a false prophet, this behemoth exercises great signs. He as a counterfeit prophet calls fire down from heaven, a parody to the ministry of both Elijah and the two witnesses of chapter 11. He also is able to somehow get the image to have breath and speak, an attempt to silence God’s repeated rebuke that idols are lifeless, mute, and powerless false gods. This beast might use deception for his signs. He might also use the mighty spiritual power of Satan. No matter how the signs are performed, we remember the Bible’s repeated admonition that not even miraculous signs give warrant to embrace false religion. Any religion that contradicts God’s Holy Word must be rejected.
This behemoth continues his coercive false religion and parody of true religion with the mark of the beast in verse 16. He requires people of every status to be marked on their hands or foreheads. This parodies God’s seal put on the 144,000 that we will see again next chapter. It also parodies how in the old covenant God called people, figuratively speaking, to bind his law on their hands and foreheads. Likely, this mark doesn’t symbolically represent a literal mark, but some way in which people are being officially united to the beast and its worship and service. We see the coercive measures of the beast for those who won’t take this mark, that they end up getting financially cut off from society, not able to buy or sell. We see a little of this today in things like cancel culture efforts, or when either a Christian employee or business gets in trouble when they won’t violate their conscience in their work.
In sum, I hope you recognize how Satan is using these two beasts to make war on the saints through his evil influence on this world. The Devil through his agents looks to gain control of world institutions and uses them to afflict Christians while trying to deceive the rest into false religion. We can find this expressed through political, economic, governmental, religious, and other powers. This vision especially expresses how all those forms of world power unite together in service of Satan. Just like ancient Rome self-deified their emperors and controlled so much of society, yet today we see such devilish efforts to control so much of society’s power. This passage helps us to see that this is all part of the Devil’s war on the saints. It is also an expression of his wrath because he is a defeated enemy and in his fury he doesn’t want to accept defeat.
In our last point for today, I want us to see how both sections on these beasts ends with a call to discern what we are seeing here and to consider how to respond. We’ll see the need for endurance and faith and the need for wisdom. The section on the first beast ends in verses 9-10. There is a call to hear for those with ears to hear. That reminds us back to the opening letters to the churches that had that same line as it called each church to overcome in Christ. This also reminds us of predestination, since only the elect have such ears. We recognize that God is in control and things are happening according to his plan, even when Satan makes war on us. God is in control and we need to trust his plan.
Verse 10 then says, poetically, “If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain.” This quotes the prophet Jeremiah when he predicted Babylon was going to conquer Israel, capture them, and kill many of them. That was God’s chastening on wayward Israel as a nation. Yet, there were also faithful saints in that nation that got captured along with godless Israelites and brought back to Babylon. Saints like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
These faithful saints needed to have endurance and faith while they suffered in captivity. Revelation make that application to us today. Verse 10 says, “Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.” We may be ordained today to suffer in captivity or death, like Daniel and friends did. If we would overcome, we must endure in faith, not loving our lives even unto death, but holding fast to our confession of Christ.
We see a similar call at the end of the section on the second beast, in verse 18. There it says let the one with understanding calculate the number of the beast. That language of understanding again reminds me of all the Daniel references in this chapter because Daniel 1 begins by saying how Daniel had understanding to interpret dreams. We are being called to interpret what this beast is. In chapter 15 it will explain that the number of the beast is the number of his name. In other words, this section calls us to interpret the beast’s identity. It then explains that its identify is the number of man and thus is 666.
Much debate has surrounded this identification and number, with a lot of effort put toward what’s known as “gematria” which is a practice of numerology where roughly letters are assigned numerical values that can be added up to produce a number. A popular suggestion today is if your transliterate Neron Caesar into Hebrew and then calculate the numerology you get 666. But there are actually all sorts of interesting names you can compute using various numerology efforts. I think the issue is that gematria is not the answer. No clear use of gematria can be found anywhere in the Bible. I think the answer is quite simple. We should approach this number symbolically as we’ve repeatedly done through these apocalyptic visions. Once you do that, it is easy to understand why 666 could be used to describe the number of man. Clearly, Revelation paints 7 as a number symbolizing completion and perfection – just think of the seven seals and the seven trumpets, for starters. God is certainly a 7. To be emphatic, he’s a 777. In contrast, wicked man has fallen short of the glory of God and is a 6, not a 7. To be emphatic, he is a 666. That triple emphasis is all the more fitting here with this unholy trinity. Man’s number here emphasizes his fallen, imperfect state.
Understand then, this then identifies this beast for us. At the end of the day, he’s only human. Yes, the beast is empowered by Satan. Yes, the beast represents more than just a single human but various lawless human powers. But the beast is not divine but mortal. If he was divine, we should worship him. If he is human pretending to be divine we must oppose him. Do you see why wisdom then is needed? That’s how this section ends, saying here calls for wisdom. If you have the wisdom and understanding that recognizes the beast is human not divine, you can say what Psalm 118:6 says. It says, “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Or Psalm 56:11, “In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?” What can man do to us? What can this beast do to us? “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Mt. 10:28).
Any false Christ that comes is just part of fallen man, at the end of the day. He is not worthy of your worship or devotion. Likewise, don’t believe any false prophet. Here is the wisdom of the saints to recognize the false christs and the false prophets, just as Jesus warned us about. Instead of worshipping what is false, let us be faithful witnesses to the blood of the true lamb, Jesus our Lord. If your hope is founded on Jesus, not even Satan himself will be able to conquer you.
Next chapter we’ll move farther in this vision cycle to see what comes after the symbolic 3.5 years of demonic affliction. Jesus will return and pour judgment on this world and save us unto glory. While we will need endurance, faith, and wisdom to endure this demonic war on us, Revelation will continue to encourage us of the ultimate victory we will have at Christ’s return.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
