The Fall of the Unfaithful City | Revelation 17 | A Warning Against False Security

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Where do we turn when what looks secure begins to fall apart? In this sermon from Revelation 17, Pastor Mark Groen explores a powerful vision of judgment and betrayal—Jerusalem clothed in beauty yet spiritually bankrupt, riding the beast of worldly power. Through vivid imagery and pastoral clarity, we are reminded of the danger of compromise, the certainty of God’s justice, and the hope we have in the Lamb who conquers.

Key Scripture: Revelation 17:1–18
Sermon Points:

📌 The Seduction of Compromise

📌 The Sovereignty of God in Judgment

📌 The Victory of the Lamb and the Identity of His People

📖 Click to Show the Transcript of this Sermon

Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week we dig into God's Word trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us. We all know the story of the Titanic. It was that ship that they said was unsinkable.

And it was an engineering marvel. It was luxurious. It was more than an ocean liner. It was actually a symbol of human innovation and excellence.

Some even said that even God himself could not sink the Titanic. But that's the reason that you and I know about the Titanic today, right? It probably would have been forgotten to history if it just would have made all of its voyages without sinking. We know the story.

It did sink, and because of that, we know it as one of the great tragedies of the early 20th century. When that iceberg tore along the side of that ship, all the pride and assurance that was found in human achievement sunk right along with the ship. The confidence most people had in the Titanic wasn't based on their understanding of its engineering or of its design. The reason they had confidence in that ship was because of its stature, because of its outward appearance.

Well, Revelation 17 shows us another kind of false security. It describes a city that is clothed in splendor. It's boasting in its religious identity. The city was secure in its temple and it was confident in the rituals and the traditions that were carried out there.

But behind the beauty was betrayal. Jerusalem had become unfaithful to God. They were trusting in the outward trappings of the covenant while they were rejecting the very God who had made the covenant with them. And so when judgment came, the fall was catastrophic.

And as we continue with John's vision from Revelation today, we're moving on from the pouring out of the bowls of wrath that we saw last week to one of the seven angels telling us about the judgment of the great city. And the language and imagery that is used in this chapter is harsh and it's blunt, but really it's helpful for us because it paints a clear picture. It pulls back the curtain and it shows us what compromise with the world really looks like.

It is seductive, it's powerful, and it's deadly. So Revelation 17 here starts off a new section for us, and we see this angel who's going to show John around, and the first thing that John sees is the judgment of the great harlot. Now, this is strong symbolism, but it's good symbolism for our minds because we can understand it, because often it gets really easy to get bogged down in Revelation. There is so much symbolism.

And because we have so many questions about what Revelation means, and because we have heard so much speculation from so many different angles throughout the course of our lives, we get confused. And like I said, we get bogged down in what does it mean. But when we slow down and we think about this image here, the message actually becomes clear for us. Now, perhaps when I read the passage earlier, you heard that word prostitute, and you were taken aback.

Not a word we use every day, but it's actually a really familiar picture for us in Scripture. God is the faithful husband, and His people are His bride. And throughout the story of Scripture, we are told that Israel is unfaithful, that they commit adultery with foreign gods. Think back to just a few weeks ago when we were in the book of Malachi before Easter.

We saw this same general idea that we're seeing here. And what we're building to in this chapter of Revelation, or what we have been building to really, is that this is the last straw. The unfaithfulness that is happening is so great that divorce is not only coming, it is justified. Because Israel is more than just a bride who has been unfaithful a time or two in a moment of passion.

She is a harlot who defiles herself willingly and repeatedly. And so the woman in the vision has committed sexual immorality with the kings of the earth. In other words, she has compromised herself to be in good standing with the powers of the world. And the consideration is not for faithfulness to the God who built up his people.

and holding to the standards that He has given them, but instead they have been seeking the favor of the world. And we get an idea that this is the state of the world when it says that the dwellers of the earth have become drunk. It has flowed down from the kings and the nations to the people that dwell in these nations. The inhabitants of the land are mirroring the compromise of their leaders.

And so as we transition to the next four verses, we see the vision becoming extremely vivid. And it starts with the idea of being carried away by the Spirit into a wilderness. Now, this change of location isn't random. When you stop and think about it, you can understand what's going on here.

This isn't just a change of scenery. Take a second and think about how wilderness is expressed in Scripture. You know other stories where people are in the wilderness. Specifically, during the Exodus, the people failed to trust God.

And what was their punishment? They were kept from the promised land. And they wandered in the wilderness until the rebellious generation dies off. It is not just the true story of their time of punishment out there, but it also represents something.

It shows that they're separated from God. They are being punished for the rebellion. This is judgment. And so wilderness conveys to us the idea of being absent from the presence of God.

If the promised land and if the garden are the presence of God, then wilderness is being away from God. And like I said, this imagery is vivid out here in the wilderness. We see this woman riding on a terrible beast, and the beast is the Roman Empire. And we see this because it has blasphemous names, seven heads, ten horns, and the description is meant to give us a sense of power and terror that the Roman state carries.

And this woman is riding comfortably atop this vision of unholy might and power. This woman is wearing purple and scarlet. She's wearing expensive jewelry. And as we read this, we get the sense that the reason she is riding this powerful, menacing beast is because she has sold herself to the world.

We see the golden cup of abominations and impurities here, and that makes this all really clear for us. And so I mentioned before that this woman is Israel, and it becomes really clear with what is written on her head. And we see this here, Babylon, the great mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations. Now, I need to remind you here of the tragic idea that we've come across multiple times in Revelation, and it truly is tragic.

You feel the emotion of it when you read it here. The Babylon mentioned, written on her head here, is not the Persian city Babylon that was known for its immorality. Revelation lets us know that there's been this amazing, dreadful switch that has happened. Jerusalem is Babylon.

Why? Because it's rejected Jesus as the Messiah. And here we're reminded of what that means. It says that the woman is drunk with the blood of the saints, the ones who have been martyred for saying, Jesus is Lord, not Caesar.

And so the woman persecutes the church along with the authority and power of the Roman state. They are working together. That's why she's riding on this beast.

She has the power of persecution to the people of God in Christ Jesus. And we read that she's drunk on the power that this persecution has given her. And so John marvels at the image. We see that in this at the end of this section of this passage that we're looking at here.

He marvels at it, and it's a sobering image. The great city of God has defiled itself by rejecting God's Messiah. Just like the Titanic, the danger wasn't visible because the externals looked so good.

It looks secure. The city is strong. The temple is standing tall. The rituals are continuing as they have from generation to generation.

The Roman state is allowing us to keep our religious institution going. It all looks good. It's going to keep going. But all of this situation is built on betrayal.

And that kind of security is never real security, is it? The security they had was a house built on shifting sands, and it's all on the verge of sinking. And I've said a lot about what the vision means. And I've kind of gotten ahead of myself here, because in the next section, the angel actually interprets everything for John and reminds us of who is really in control.

The angel comments on John's amazement and wonders why he is marveling at this, and then he breaks it down, like, why are you marveling at this? Let me explain it to you. And there's a purpose behind this message. The beast the woman is riding is a symbol of the worldly power, specifically in its first century context, it's the Roman Empire.

And by describing it as was and is not and is to come, when I read that earlier, I bet you caught that. Was and is not and is to come. That's how God is described in Revelation, right? The one who is and was and is to come.

We're getting a sense here of the blasphemy of the beast and of the Roman state. This statement reminds us of who God is, but in the opposite, right? So talking about Rome this way helps you to feel just how contrary the secular pagan world is. The world is contrary to the things of God.

And all that's happening here is a mimic of the true God. But we see that it's a fraud, it's a counterfeit, it rises, it reigns for a while, but then its ultimate end is destruction. And we miss some of the significance of the way things are described here, just because we're not aware of the geography of Rome and most of its history.

So the seven heads here represent the seven hills of Rome and the seven kings. And there's debate over who exactly those seven rulers are. But dwelling on that misses the point. What we're meant to feel here in this passage is that their power is limited.

Their power seems absolute and strong, but they have limited time. And so the line here that I want us to focus on is this last line here. They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings. And those who are with Him are called and chosen and faithful.

We've seen a description of this unholy alliance of power and wealth. It was between the corrupted religion of Israel and between the Roman Empire, but it's going to fall. Why? Because the lamb is victorious.

There are all of these kings and there are rulers in the Roman state. It seems like they have the power. By us as human beings, when we look at the power of the institutions, what do we feel? We feel powerless.

And that's what we're meant to feel here. By the image of this beast and this woman. But who overcomes? Not just a lamb.

A lamb who was slain. Jesus is Lord of Lords, King of Kings. He will reign forever and ever. And we want to hang on to those words more than just a simple statement about who Jesus is.

We have to cling to these words because it talks about us. Those with Him are called and chosen and faithful. That is you. So while the beast looks powerful and the woman looks secure, the truth is their fall is coming and the victory of the lamb is actually what is secure.

That is the certain guarantee, and the people of God in Christ Jesus are right there with Him by His grace. They are the ones who are called. They are the ones who are chosen.

They are the ones who are faithful. And as we move to these last few verses, we see that this mood shifts again to judgment. We had the image of the woman and the beast, then a clear explanation of what it means. But now we see that the promised judgment finally comes into view here.

And so what happens next? His betrayal. We're told by the angel that the waters where the woman is seated are a multitude of nations and languages. In other words, her influence is over many people.

But we find that it doesn't last for very long. Everything was good. The woman is arrayed in beautiful purple and scarlet. She's riding a beast.

She is sitting pretty, but it's all going to collapse. And the plot twist here shouldn't surprise us at all, because the type of security that the woman has, built on betrayal, it's always fragile. And we see that she goes from being adorned with beauty, the scarlet, the purple, the jewelry, a golden cup. She has it all.

But suddenly, how does it switch? She's desolate and naked, and the beast devours her and burns her with fire. She once was supported by the Roman state, but now they hate her. But the text is quick to let us in.

on why this is happening. This is not a random betrayal. This is the plan of God. Verse 17 makes it clear.

God is in control. He is sovereignly orchestrating all of this. This is not chaos. This is justice on the ones who have been drunk on the blood of those who confess that Jesus is Lord.

To enact this justice, God uses the very powers that Israel compromised with to get that power and influence. So what we've been seeing is summed up in a concise and clear way for us with that final verse. We are told that the woman is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth. The city that has become Babylon is being judged.

The people have rejected the covenant that God made with them. They have prostituted themselves and now final proceedings of the divorce of the faithful God from the adulterous Israel are taking place. They not only rejected Jesus as Messiah, they partnered with the political power to oppress His people. And the outward beauty of the city and the temple and all the pageantry that happened there, all that religious show was hiding the ugly reality of inward betrayal.

And so what I want us to see more than anything from this chapter is how the root story in the book of Revelation remains the same. The Lamb is victorious. Despite tribulation and persecution, the Anthem of Heaven is continuing to play in the background of this book. That Anthem of Heaven.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. The song that was sung to His glory early in Revelation is still echoing through the pages as we read it because his victory is secure, and so is the victory of those who belong to him. So let's quickly take the themes from this chapter, and I want us to consider some practical ways that it applies to us today.

The first thing that I want us to remember is we're going to be tempted by false security in our lives. External appearances are an easy way to deceive people. For us, we might trust in our religious identity or our cultural respectability, and we see this as success. But we have to be sure that we do not let size, influence, or a polished external appearance deceive us.

So the question this should cause us to ask is, what is our trust rooted in? Is our trust rooted in the appearance of godliness? Or is our trust rooted in Christ alone? The Lamb is victorious, not the harlot.

Pursue the Lamb who was slain, not the attractiveness and the seduction of the world. Second, rest in the sovereignty of God that we see in this passage. The destruction of Jerusalem that came in the year 70, and the destruction of the temple that happened then was not random chaos. God was in control.

It seemed as though oppression and evil were going to go without judgment. But God sees the injustices of the world and the persecution of His people. And so when you and I see the evil in the world, remember this passage and the previous chapters as well. God is in control.

When the world looks hopeless, don't panic. Don't despair. Your God is in control. And He will set all things to right.

He will work justice in His time. The call to us then is to be faithful to the One who has saved us. Be faithful to the One who has made us His people. And the way that we do that is to keep verse 14 before our mind.

From all the language in the book of Revelation that is confusing to us, and even in chapter 17 with images of a woman riding a ten-horned beast with ten heads. All of this can become confusing, but in the middle of that, in verse 14, we see such a great truth that you have to keep in front of your minds as we sojourn in this world as servants of God. Because whether it's the first century or the 21st century, The enemies of God are going to make war on the Lamb. They will.

They hate Him. But there's no need to fear. The Lamb will conquer, for He is overcome. He is King of kings and Lord of lords.

And we who are His people are called and we are chosen and we are faithful. In a world of uncertainty, it's my prayer that we will leave here today with this identity. That we will let the victory of Christ be what defines us. Because we too easily put our trust in the external things.

But the identity that we have in Christ is where our true security is found. We are called, we are chosen, and He makes us faithful. So may we rest on that truth, may we cling to that truth with a certain knowledge that God is glorified in the salvation of His people. Amen.

Let us pray. Gracious and merciful God, we thank You for Your Word and the picture that it paints for us of the victory of the Lamb. We thank You that in Christ we know that You are victorious over all things. We thank you that we have this image that we can see, this image of power of the world, the seduction of the world.

And when we see those things in our lives, we feel helpless. But the book of Revelation tells us about a lamb, a creature that is small and not a creature of war, but a sacrifice, a suffering king who rises up and defends His people. Despite the power of the world, we know that the Lamb has overcome.

And we pray that as His people, we would daily be reminded that in Christ we are called, we are chosen, we are faithful. May we stand with that identity. And may Christ be glorified in the lives of Your people. It's in His name that we pray.

Amen. Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website, edgertonfrc.org.

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