The Beast and His Deceptions: Revelation 13:1-18 | The Mark of the Beast: What Really Matters

In a world filled with counterfeits, how can we discern what is true? Revelation 13 gives us a sobering vision of a beast that demands worship, representing the idolatrous power of worldly empires. But behind it all is Satan, the deceiver, working through false authority to lead people astray. The early church faced the temptation to bow to Rome, just as we face pressures today to conform to the world’s standards. This sermon challenges us to stand firm in Christ, refusing to worship the counterfeit king and instead remaining faithful to the true King, Jesus Christ.

🔹 Sermon Points:

1️⃣ The Beastly Power of Idolatrous Empire – How earthly powers seek worship and demand allegiance.

2️⃣ False Prophets and Deceptive Allegiance – How false religion legitimizes worldly authority and deceives people.

3️⃣ The Mark of the Beast vs. The Seal of God – Understanding what it truly means to be marked by Christ.

Transcript:

The United States Secret Service was formed in 1865. Now, it was not founded to track down criminals or to investigate crimes. The formation of the Secret Service actually happened because there was an unseen enemy that was causing considerable damage to the nation's economy. And that unseen enemy was counterfeit currency. It has actually been estimated that when the Civil War ended, nearly one-third of all of the money that was in circulation was fake. Now, you can see the problem that this would have been causing If you couldn't tell the difference between the real and the counterfeit, you could be deceived. If you put your trust in that fake money, and it was found out that it wasn't the real deal, what happens? You lose everything. Counterfeit money looks real, right? That's the point. It's designed to imitate the genuine article, and it foolels those who do not have an eye trained to see the differences. But for those who are trained, they can identify that what they are holding isn't worth the paper that it's printed on.

It's worth for us. Well, the passage that we have read for today from Revelation 13 speaks to us about a different counterfeit. Not money, but a counterfeit king, a counterfeit kingdom, and even counterfeit worship. The beast from the sea presents itself as powerful, presents itself as worthy of devotion, but it's nothing more than a deception. Like counterfeit money, those who place their trust in that deception, they will one day find out that it holds no value in the Kingdom of God. As we make our way through this passage, we will see how the first century world was tempted to worship the counterfeit power of Rome, how false religion propped up that system, and how people were marked to show who they were committed to. The question was, would they align themselves with this beast, this counterfeit, or would they align themselves with the truth in Christ? But it's important for us to understand this isn't just a history lesson. The reality is that false counterfeit power, false counterfeit worship, and people aligning themselves with deceptive powers still happens today. The question that I want us to be sitting with as we work through this passage today is a pretty simple question.

It's a complicated passage. There was a lot going on there. I want us to take that and push that to the side and to this one simple idea in the text here today. Will we give our hearts over to the counterfeit, to a fake king? Or will we be faithful? Will we remain true to the true king, our Lord Jesus Christ? That's the question I want going on as we work our way through the passage. There's so much in here, but I want that to be our focus. That's the point of the passage today. Are we going to hold fast to the truth, or will we be deceived by the counterfeit? As we land in this 13th chapter of Revelation, we find that John's vision, once again, has really vivid imagery for us. In the last chapter, we had that image of Satan as the dragon, the one who was cast out of heaven, and then went on to persecute the early church. Now, as I've mentioned many times while we've been in the Book of Revelation, I I would love to have insight into what John was seeing in his visions beyond the descriptions.

I would like to see the images he saw because I'm certain what he saw is beyond what my wildest imagination could come up with. That holds true as we come to this description today, as we get to the start of this chapter. This is really a terrifying picture that's painted for us here. A beast comes from the sea with 10 horns, seven heads. The 10 horns have crowns on them, but that isn't all. We see that the heads have blasphemous names on them. Now, throughout time, there has been a lot, and I mean a lot, of speculation on the significance of the seven hens. This isn't about chickens. I know egg prices are high, but this is not about Revelation predicting high egg prices. The seven heads and the Ten Horns. In our time in Revelation, we have been trying to stay away. As we've been working through Revelation together, we've been trying to stay away from useless speculation that doesn't do us any good. We're trying to stick with what we actually know. That's a good interpretive principle for the entire Bible, but it's particularly true in Revelation. The best way to understand these numbers of seven heads and 10 horns is to remember that the numbers of completeness and fullness in the Book of Revelation are seven and 10.

Essentially, what the text is telling us is that this beast has complete and comprehensive power in the world. That's the idea being expressed there. Yes, there's all kinds of speculation about what seven and 10 mean, but what we want to understand is regardless of all those things, for sure, what we know is that what is being expressed to us is that this beast has comprehensive and complete power in the world. This is conveyed to us in the description that we see here of the beast, because we see that it's like a leopard. It has bear's feet, it has a lion's mouth. To get an understanding of this, we need to once again make ourselves aware of the Old Testament illusions that are happening here. This has been happening throughout the book for us. Back in the Book of Daniel, there's a vision of four beings that represent evil imperial power. The description of this beast here gives us an idea of all four of those beings described by Daniel coming together once again for this comprehensive power in the world. It's like a composite beast made up of all those other beings. The idea is that all of these earthly empires, including the one that was presently in power, the Roman Empire, that these empires have stood against God, and they have stood against his people.

These earthly powers are opposed to the things of God. They are the enemy of God. We see this conveyed to us by the fact that we read that the dragon is the one that gave his power and this throne and gave this authority. Now, in the last chapter, Satan, the dragon, was persecuting the church, and we saw that his time was limited. And so what was he doing? He was trying to do as much damage to the church as possible. What we're seeing here is that having failed in this struggle in the heavenly places and having lost the battle, now the dragon is giving power and authority of persecution and suppression of the people of God to the earthly powers of this empire. The The dragon was doing some oppression, and now the beast is doing this. The dragon has given the beast power to persecute the people. And so what they're doing is carrying out this Satanic plan, and they're doing the evil of the dragon in the world. So as the vision continues, we see that one of the heads is given a mortal wound. Now, one of these agents of Satanic persecution is wounded, and there's no reason to assume that there is a specific king, a specific Emperor, or a ruler being referred to here.

What is most likely is that something occurs that causes a temporary loss of power in some area of the empire or in some region or realm of their authority. Then this healing causes the world to be amazed and marvel at the beast. As a result, what happens? The dragon is worshiped, and people say, who is like the beast and who can fight against it. I think we understand the idea being expressed to us here pretty well. There are those scenes in action movies, and particularly, I would say, superhero movies, where you think the bad guy is defeated, right? Finally, the bad guy is going to be dead. But they just keep on coming back. You think they're defeated and they come back. Now, imagine that scene, but the bad guy is the empire. Someone finally does something or something happens to strike a blow against this absolute power of the empire. But then suddenly, they are back to their previous level of power. What happens is people realize it's not worth fighting. We can't win this. I think you can easily feel the of this chapter and from the continued description that John gives us here of how this is standing in opposition to Christ, that this is opposing the things of God.

We see this opposition not just in the power and the persecution, but by the uttering of haughty and blasphemous words. For 42 months, this takes place. The proclaiming of the blasphemy just shows that they don't care about the things of God. God is an afterthought. What can God do is the idea being expressed here, that the beast is completely in opposition and doesn't care. The beast utters these blaspamies against God and against those who dwell in heaven. What we're meant to see and what we're meant to feel is that the opposition to the things of God and to the people of God is overwhelming. We also see that they not only have power over one tribe, but again, over every tribe, people, language, and nation. This is an absolute power. It isn't enough that they have this power and authority. What we see is the beast also has people who worship it. Now, this is one of those things, and I think I've mentioned this before in the past. This is really hard for us to understand. Worshiping the state or worshiping the Emperor, we don't really get that. As those who worship the Triune God, the one who is all powerful and transcendent, I think we really struggle to wrap our mind around the way people worshiped earthly rulers in the past.

But the key to this, the key to understanding, is to remember that they never really believed that he was a capital G God, but that were a God. They weren't worshiping the Caesar because they thought the Caesar was the creator of all things. In their pagan religion, life sprang up out of everything. It wasn't that there was this transcendent creator out there and Caesar was him. They were a God. But it's also important for us to remember that the demanding of this worship was about control. It was a means of keeping power over people. Because by forcing people to confess Caesar is Lord, they were causing them not to say that their own God was only Lord. It was bringing them in to the fold of the Empire. It was bringing them under the subjection of the state. Well, the problem that the Roman Empire had with Jewish people first and with Christian folk later is that they wouldn't do this. That's why there was always this sense of tension in the region of Israel, because there wasn't the submission to the Imperial cult. They would not say Caesar is Lord exclusively. They wouldn't say it at all.

Now, at the time that Revelation was likely written, Nero was receiving this type of worship. The Imperial State was receiving this worship. The Senate was worshiping the Caesar, and the people were worshiping the Caesar. It was what you did. It was how things worked in the Empire. But we read here that those whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life will not worship the beast. They will only confess that Jesus is Lord. You get what's being said here, that Jesus is the genuine article. The empire is the counterfeit. It's propped up by the deception of the beast. To submit to the Imperial cult is easy. It's what you're supposed to do. You will receive no persecution if you say Caesar is Lord. Sounds easy enough. It's just words, right? That's all we have to do. But we know that what the conviction of the believers in the first century was, is that they could not say that Caesar was Lord, Jesus alone was Lord. To endure to the end against the powers that be in the state that requires endurance and faithfulness. But we read that it will be worth it to endure to the end, that there is this call to endurance.

As we've seen so far in Revelation 13, there is this vivid picture of this beast from the sea, a terrifying manifestation of a worldly power that is setting itself against God, demanding worship and enforcing an allegiance to it. Now, the beast represents the idolatrous Imperial system that was ruling in the first century world. We see that it's propped up by the power of the dragon, Satan. Now, the Empire's authority seemed completely unshakable. It's power so great that the people who came in contact with this, like we saw, they said, Who is like the beast? Who can fight against the beast? We will give in. We will give up, and we will say, Caesar is Lord. But we move on to the next part of the vision. John's vision here doesn't stop. As we continue to verse 11, we are introduced to another figure, a second beast. This one rises not from the sea, but from the earth. And this beast has a different function. Whereas the first beast wields political and military might, the second beast we find is a deceiver. It appears gentle, it appears to be even religious in nature, yet it speaks with the voice of the dragon.

Its role is to validate and reinforce the authority of the first beast and lead people to false worship. That is the goal here. To forsake Jesus as Lord, the beast wants you to say Caesar is Lord. This description of this second beast isn't nearly as elaborate. There's really some easy ways to picture this one a little bit better. We have a second beast coming out of the land, not the sea, just to It's like a lamb. I got an image there. It speaks like a dragon. I don't know what a dragon sounds like, but I can work with that. Not quite as elaborate as the first beast. But what we see is that this beast is an agent or it's a representative of the the first beast, and he encourages the inhabitants of the Earth to worship the first beast. What we see then is that this beast is a servant of the empire. Now, in the context of the first century, we have historical evidence that resembles what we see here in verse 12, because representatives of the empire tried to force Christians to participate in the imperial cult. There's a well-known letter from Pliny to Trajan that tells us how they used capital punishment on Christians who persisted in their faith.

They were killing Christians who would not give up the truth that Jesus is Lord not Caesar. As we continue through this vision, it's important that we keep in front of us this idea of this forced worship of the beast. This is a battle between the one true God and the counterfeit. So the question for the readers of this book in the first century, and for us today, is this, who will we worship? Will we stay faithful to the one true God, or will we succumb to the demands of the counterfeit gods of the world. Now, the pressure would have been oppressive and persistent in the first century. They were leaning on them hard. But it's important that we think about this. There are times where we may be demanded the same in our time. Not in the same way, but the world will come at us and desire for us to forsake Christ. We're called to stay faithful. I bring this up as we come to verse 13, because the vision escalates with signs and wonders for the purpose of deception. The power that is shown here is for the purpose of deceiving so that people would worship the beast instead of the one true God.

This is another instance where it would be helpful for us to think back to an Old Testament story. There's a bit of an illusion here that reinforces what we see in Galatians. Think back to the magicians of Egypt who were charged with replicating some of the miracles on a small scale that Moses was doing to show the authority of God during the Exodus. That's the same idea here. God does great things, but we can do great things, too. You need to believe what we are telling you. Regardless of what these signs and wonders that are being done here by the beast, I want to focus on the purpose of them. It's to deceive. That's very clear. The purpose of deceiving people, keeping them from God. All of this, including the statement about giving breath to the image of the beast is for the purpose of getting people to worship this image of the beast. Now, I have to say that the hardest part of preparing to preach through Revelation, and particularly this passage, is to navigate through the different interpretations of all these different passages. This one's particularly hard. There are so many different perspectives, so many different approaches, because apocalypse Elyptic language can be cryptic, especially when you're removed from it by nearly 2,000 years.

This is why, as we come to this part of the passage, we're going to do what we've been trying to do through the whole book. We're going to try to keep focused on the big picture. That big picture is that no matter what happens, we keep our eyes on Jesus. Whatever this image was or is, we need to stay focused on the true God, not the counterfeit. Whether it's the first century or the 21st, the people of God are called to resist false worship, and we're called to give all devotion to the one true God who has saved us by his grace. That is the focus here. This becomes very true as we get to a very well-known part of the Book of Revelation in the next few verses. Unless you've been living under a rock, you're your entire life or you haven't been paying attention, you have heard speculation about the beast and about the mark of the beast. Honestly, I cannot keep track of all of There's a speculation that I've seen about these few verses. I'm interested to see, to read your faces as I mention a couple of them here. These are some suggestions of what I've heard the mark of the beast might be.

Upc Loads. Anybody else heard that one? Microchip implants. Okay, I got a lot of eyes went up on that one. All of this is suggested. This might be the mark of the beast. Well, what I want us to come away from this passage with is not the nature of the mark or worthless speculation about it. But what's the point? What was the purpose of the mark? The purpose is to to force compliance in worshiping the counterfeit. Now, whether this was something that took place in the first century, that they received a mark in the ancient Roman Empire, or whether it's something that people will see in the future, The big point here is to stay faithful. Even when they try to destroy your life, that's the point of the mark. It was to destroy their lives. They couldn't purchase without it. They were trying to starve them into worshiping Caesar. That's the point of the mark. It isn't about, Oh, no, don't receive the mark, and then you'll go to hell. That wasn't the point. The point was to force compliance. See, this chapter is about the level of persecution that Christians face. There is weight to this.

They are trying to get the Christians to say Caesar is Lord, to worship a counterfeit by not allowing them by. We know what that means. It wasn't because they couldn't go get a PlayStation. It was so they couldn't eat. It was so a father would say Caesar is Lord because his children were starving. That was the point of the mark. The weight here is great. Feel the weight in this chapter. The temptation was not just social pressure. Oh, you'll be scorned for not being a part of the Imperial cult. The temptation that they would have faced and that perhaps we could face. I'm not saying we will, I'm not saying we won't. But the temptation that you could face, and there are believers right now in the world somewhere who are feeling this persecution. The temptation that they face is whether or not they can feed their family and maintain their life. The imagery in this vision, what we're meant to understand is the complete oppression in order to push the people of God to agree to worship a counterfeit. That's what's going on in this chapter. Before we close up, before we We stand upon the application of this, we need to address a big one here, right?

We need to address this number of the beast. If you're my age, you probably remember black metal albums with 666 on the cover. There's people who freak out when their grocery bill comes up to $6. 66. What's the deal with this number? Well, we read here that it is a man, and his number is 666. For the record, it's not 666, it's 666. It's a total. And once again, this is something where speculation has run rampant. I've even seen a social media post saying that a energy drink logo looks like the three sixes in the Hebrew language, and so this energy drink is of the devil. Well, for the record, in Hebrew, the number 666 is not three sixes. Looks nothing like it. If you like that energy drink and you stop drinking it because that social media post, fill yourself with caffeine. You don't need to worry about it. But anyway, My point in bringing that up is that sensational speculation about all of this is once again fruitless. Now, throughout history, it has been pretty widely accepted accepted that this is referring to Nero. In Hebrew, letters have a numerical value. It's not like our modern system where we have letters and then we have ordinals, we have numbers.

In Hebrew, particular letters are assigned a value, and they're expressed through the alphabet, not through numbers. In Hebrew, Nero Caesar totals up to 666. Everything Everything else in the Book of Revelation, there are numerous ideas on the significance of this, some saying that there isn't meaning beyond the first century, and other people say this means that someone like Nero will rise up in the future. There's all kinds of different levels of interpretation. But once again, for us in the 21st century, trying to speculate isn't the point. Revelation is actually doing something for us here that is important for every Christian in every age. It is calling us to stay faithful when hardship, tribulation, and persecution comes. Our brothers and sisters in the first century were being called to be faithful in the midst of the crushing power of the state coming down upon them, trying to keep them from being able to eat, from buying and selling. They were called to stand firm when arguably one of the most horrible figures in history. If you know anything about Nero, he is top three easy, right? He is bringing oppression on them. Regardless of the power of the state, regardless of the person who is doing it, they were called to be faithful even when they couldn't purchase the necessity these of life.

Whether tribulation such as is described here in this chapter falls upon us or not, we are called to be faithful servants of Jesus. We are called to worship him and him alone, not the counterfeit. And so as we come to a close of looking at this passage, I think the challenge before us is clear. The world is filled with counterfeits. False Kings, false kings, false kingdom, false worship. And the beast of Revelation 13 is also not just a figure from history. It also reminds us of the recurring pattern of human rebellion against God. Throughout history, earthly powers have sought to take the place of God. They have demanded ultimate allegiance. It happened in Rome, It has happened countless times since the Roman Empire. It is still happening today. And so the question for us is not simply, who was the beast or what is the mark? The real question that we should have from this chapter is, where is our allegiance? Who are we faithful to? Because every generation is going to face temptations to bow before a counterfeit. The pressure may not come in the form of an imperial decree, demanding worship of an Emperor, but the forces of deception and the forces of compromise are just as real.

Governments, ideologies, movements, and even cultural values can subtly demand our worship. They call us to conform. They call us to place our trust in power structures rather than in Christ. And so we must ask ourselves, are we worshiping the true king? Or have we, in some way, without realizing it, given our hearts over to a counterfeit? Do we find our security in the power of this world, its wealth, its influence, its approval? Or do we stand firm in our faith, even if it would cost us everything? Because faith does cost something. In verse 10, of Revelation says this. Verse 10 of Revelation 13 says this, Here is a call for the endurance in faith of the saints. That's called today to endure, to remain faithful, to resist the counterfeit, to worship the true and living God. And so, sisters and brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the world will try to shape you into its image, but you belong to Christ. You are sealed by his spirit, marked not by the beast. You are marked by the blood of the Lamb. That is your mark. So the call for us is to stand firm. Do not bow, do not give in, worship Christ alone.

He is the true King, and his kingdom will never fail. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious and merciful God, God, we thank you for the call of your word on our lives. We pray that we would be motivated to hear this call to remain faithful in the face of the greatest powers, and we would be convicted to prepare ourselves for remaining faithful no matter what the hardship might be. We come before you, and we pray that we would look to the lamb, that we would be that we have been marked by his blood, that we belong to you because of what was done to save us from sin, death, hell, and the devil. It's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen.