Alpha and Omega, Part 39, Revelation Part 16
Satan’s Deceptive Religious Leader: The False Prophet
Revelation 13:11-18
Introduction
- Been studying Revelation together, to understand God’s plan for creation
-- REM: Redemption of sin is granted through Jesus; and yes, we have a choice
- Last time, we discussed the arrival of the Antichrist and his purposes
-- He is shown to be Satan’s deadly political leader – a global leader of 10 nations
-- We also discussed his rise to power and how he gains control:
• He will secure power because of the Earth’s ungodly people (v4)
• He will secure power through military and economic strength (v4)
• He will secure his power through false hope and blasphemy (v5)
- His dominion and rule will only be because God allows it to happen, because,
-- RE: Antichrist is part of God’s judgment for our unrepentant wickedness (sin)
- Today we will examine his partner in the last days: The False Prophet
-- His purpose is simple: to rally the nations to worship the Antichrist
- Know this: the Antichrist will have a big problem that he must solve
-- Humanity does not willingly submit to authority – esp. spiritual authority
-- Not front-page news: we know what’s wrong, yet we do it anyway
-- But we are inclined to accept things that we find personally appealing, so,
-- What could possibly bring them all together and allow him to control it all?
- Read Revelation 13:11-18 / Pray for discernment
- TR: This is a key chapter of Revelation
-- It covers the depth of Satan’s wickedness, his vengeful plan against humanity
-- What it MUST do for us: Serve as a reminder to run to God’s salvation
Point 1 – The False Prophet’s Origin and Description
- He comes out of the earth, rising to power like the Antichrist did (v11)
-- Meaning: He will (also) come from the people who are living on the earth
-- This is the same pool of people who will see the Antichrist come from them
- He appears as a lamb; w/ two horns who looks peaceful; Greek: arnion; a lamb
• Appears innocent, harmless, meek – a pacifist who is not threatening
• Presents as a follower of God – religious and ceremonially clean, BUT,
• He will speak like the dragon – his words will be what show him as unholy
- He is called a false prophet because:
• He will not be teaching the word of God, but the submission to Antichrist
• He will not speak in favor of God, but for humanity to adore the Antichrist
• He will not promote Jesus Christ, he demands the worship of the Antichrist
- APP: In simple terms: The 2nd beast is a spokesman, the best salesman ever!
-- He is a great motivator to draw people in, and then force global obedience
-- He presents a “unifying value”, something the world can follow easily
-- However, his unity causes humanity to choose to worship evil over good
- After this passage he is continually called “the False Prophet”
-- Rev 16:13, Rev 19:20, Rev 20:10 all confirm this title bestowed on him
- But see this – he is not “new” to religion, he actually comes FROM religion
-- Know this and let this sink in: He will be a religious world leader
-- He may be someone who once professed to follow God or Christ
-- He may even be a man who claims to follow Christ (as a minister or …)
-- Get this: You can claim to follow Jesus and go to hell too (Depart from me…)
- Now, hold onto yourself, because this is NOT a new revelation of the faith!
-- We’ve already seen this and have been warned that this already happens:
-- Paul: 2 Corinthians 11:10-15, “As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, no one in all of Greece will ever stop me from boasting about this. Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows that I do. But I will continue doing what I have always done. (watch this) This will undercut those who are looking for an opportunity to boast that their work is just like ours. These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.”
-- John: 2 John 1:7, “I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.” Lesson: Be sure WHO you are following!!
-- APP: Don’t follow a man, follow Christ! If man is not following, it’ll show!
Point 2 – The Objectives of the False Prophet
- There are two critical things to see in understanding how he does what he does:
1. He will exercise (because he has) the power of the Antichrist (v12)
- As a “prophet”, he will appear to be one who exercises God’s authority
-- Again, he will be a religious leader – but one who does not lead people to Christ!
-- His “proof of holiness” will be in his ability to do great things (unhuman)
2. Instead of preaching truth, he will lead a false (anti-God) religion
- How? Through persuasion & the appearance of being holy (it’s about the show)
-- He’ll be a man who is able to easily persuade others to accept a fake gospel
-- Consider: How many TODAY teach the word of man vs. the Word of God?
-- Know this: It’s the wretchedness of man that leads us away from God’s word
- This is why we (I) must approach the Bible with fear and trembling – be certain!!
-- Paul slammed this home in Galatians 1:6-10, “I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.”
-- Are you willing to call out a false Gospel and back it up? Paul was, I am …
- We can, from the false prophet’s position / influence, draw several conclusions:
• He will hold some high position in religion
• He will be very influential and probably known worldwide
• He will be very charismatic: he’s able to speak & draw people to himself
- But his focus will ONLY be: To secure the world’s loyalty to the Antichrist
- How does he do this? Much like all politically influential leaders do:
• He will use his office to rally support for the Antichrist
• He will focus worship (devotion / loyalty) of the people on the Antichrist
- CHALLENGE: Are WE loyal to Christ, or to our own idea of religion?
-- Do we submit to Christ, and his leadership – or do things our own way?
-- APP: If our worship is about our feeling - this is what he will capitalize on!
-- F.P. will use our loyalties to what we think is Godly to sway humanity to Satan!
- BIG: This is no different than today: Does temptation decide your actions?
-- Does your desire to “do your own thing” lead you to deny Christ’s commands?
-- Get close to home: Does your idea of God determine if/where you go to church?
- Get really personal: Know this … if you go to, or even if you leave, a church because of what people have done … then your trust is in people and not in God!
-- It is exactly this kind of thinking that allows evil to gain a foothold in your life!
- The False Prophet will draw mankind to the Antichrist using the same lies
-- He is an evil & opportunistic man who will count on your ego to motivate you
-- He will call us to loyalty through our pride, then demand that we submit
- BIG APP: THIS is how the Antichrist solves the problem of worldwide loyalty
-- He uses a religious leader to play to our ego, and draw mankind into himself
-- Then, he demands their worship when we are so far in that escape is impossible
- TR: So, you might ask, “What does he “do” to easily convince mankind?”
-- Think on this: Most people cannot agree on where to go for dinner! So how?
Point 3 – The Deceptions of the False Prophet
- The actions of the False Prophet are seen in four distinct shams:
1. He will perform miraculous signs (v13)
- He will have the power to call down fire from the skies, to perform miracles
-- It is very similar to the miracles of the OT, and of the 2 witnesses seen in Ch. 11
-- This duplication of actions will help convince others that he is other-worldly
-- To the world, he will “look godly” – and have the chops to back his words up
2. He will establish a universal religion (v14-15)
- He will demand and bring others to worship the beast and his image
-- Fact: Every generation has it’s dictators who demand allegiance (N. Korea)
-- These leaders demand their people wholly follow them else be punished
- Rome did the very same thing – they demanded the adoration of Caesar
-- It was taught that as their Emperor, he was worthy of all their love & praise
- However, the False Prophet uses religion to bring about a state of peace
-- There is a global unity that comes from his works and brings others together
-- Surely, only someone with god-like powers could unify the world, right?
3. He institutes religious persecution of non-followers (v15)
- If focus is placed on the Antichrist – this means other religions are illegal
-- If you want to make someone worship you, the playbook for evil is simple
-- You must punish those who worship something else (make examples of them)
- Rome had its citizens worship once a year – he will demand it constantly
-- He will even give life to a statue with the power to speak to man
-- THINK: What kind of supernatural task must this be that a statue can talk??
- But see the implications: you must worship his statue like it is God!
-- And if you don’t, the penalty is straight forward: execution
-- A believer of Christ could not do this – which will reveal people’s true heart
-- If you are able to fall on your knees and worship a statue – you are not Christ’s
- Now, how do you control so many to do exactly what you want?
-- How about not being able to survive in any form on this Earth without him!
4. He creates economic controls to secure your obedience (v16-17)
- Some sort of a mark will be given on either your head or your right hand
-- This will signify your CHOOSING (submitting) to follow the Antichrist
-- Refusal to take this mark means more than just death by the way …
-- It means that you can no longer function in the new global community
- BTW: Please stop thinking that microchips are the “sign of the beast”
-- Please don’t buy into the noise on the internet that this is a sign of his arrival
-- And please don’t think you can be “tricked” into accepting his mark
-- At no time have you been presented with a choice to worship him or die
-- And at Seasons, we’ve spent WAY too much time unpacking this factually
-- PTL: None of the events past Rev Ch 3 have happened! (stop it) – that’s free
- Consider: without his mark you no longer have the ability to buy food
-- You will no longer have the ability to work to get money for things you need
- This mark will be your global identity … and without it, you will be an outcast
-- Any person found without this mark will be a traitor to this “new society”
- There is a number given to the Antichrist, one that represents him (Wed eve too)
-- It is a human number, but one that defines him fully: his number is 666 (v18)
- We know that “7” is the number of perfection, and this is just short of that
-- This is a man’s number, a number that represents how imperfect he is
-- In the Antichrist, this is found in spades … REM: he is a liar and a deceiver
-- He is a man on a mission of destruction – a mission to hurt God through man
- See this: From his resurrecting in Rev 13:3, to now, he is imitating God
-- He imitates a resurrection, acts godly, performs miracles, which causes worship
-- He is so desperate to be accepted that he does the things of God to fool us
-- REM: His desire is to hurt God, to get back at God, so he attacks humanity
-- Why? For being cast out of Heaven – and the False Prophet is his spokesman
- Once we understand who he is – and know his actions, we have a choice to make
BIG IDEA
- It is the choice that is as old as time … “Who will you serve?”
-- Will you submit to Christ and choose to be rescued from what is coming?
-- Or … will you be faced with the ultimate choice of worshiping evil?
- We (Christians) are not permitted, even now, to mince words on this
-- God is not playing let’s make a deal … he says (paraphrase) this is the deal!
-- Romans 10:13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
- If you are not calling on Jesus, or have not, the last 2 sermons have introduced you to the representatives of your “god” … the Antichrist and the False Prophet
- Who will you choose to follow? If I could scare you I would … this is it!
- Let’s pray together … salvation, acceptance of Jesus, obedience to God
