Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

last week we started an intro into the systems that will be in place that will help to set up or establish the anti-Christ during the tribulation period.

And we spoke about the fact that throughout history, when you have seen men come into power and conquer land, their are systems in place before hand that help the person get into that position of power.

many times throughout history it has been a religious system or a political system that have been a big help to establish men… and at times it has been both the religious system and a political system that that been been the help.

as we discussed the anti-christ coming into power, we talked about that this is the case for him.

There will be both a religious and political system that is put in place that will actually help the anti-christ come into power.

and this is what we will talk about in chp.

17., the religious system and its fall and in chapter 18 we will see the political and economic system.

Religious System

Now you remember that we talked about in Rev. 4:1, we see a transition.

We see the church is raptured at that point and no longer is it the church age but the start of the tribulation period.

and we talked about last week how the church is that which actually is restraining the complete takeover of satan, and the pouring out of complete wickedness and evil.

not just the church in it’s own power, but 2 Thes.

2:3-8 , tells us that the Holy Spirit is the one who restrains him, and that the Anti-christ cannot come into power into until the holy spirit is taken out of the way.

or the Holy spirit working through the church is what is restraining the full work of Satan and the rise of the anti-christ and once the church is removed in the rapture and the Holy Spirit is not working through the church, it will open the door leaving a vacuum that will be filled with this religious system.

Babylon

now we talked about what John saw in verse 1 &2 .

An angle called John to come with him and he would show him the “great Harlot” and the judgement to come

and we talked about who this great harlot was.

so this woman was the city of babylon.

Now we talked about the fact that John was not specifically speaking about the city of babylon, but those that were connected to her, those that had a connection to the city.

much like “hollywood”.

We use that city to describe not a real city, but to speak of those that are associated with the city.

Babylon was a city where all of the false religion and idolatry started.

The place where a counterfeit religion would be established by Satan in order to draw people into compromise and to draw people away from worshiping the one true living God.

and we looked at this in detail last week as our intro.

We spoke about Nimrod and Babylonian religion and there are many roots of compromise and false religion even today that stem from the Babylonian religion.

Transition

This is where the word “harlot” fits in.

That word speaks of someone who goes outside of the approved married relationship to give their love and affection to someone other than their husband.

this is what you would call spiritual adultery or a spiritual harlot.

This is what the Babylonian religion was, this false and counterfit religion.

So this city that John sees, is in reference to the false religious system that will be establish during the tribulation period.

Possibly a combination of many religions becoming unified as one.

A one world religion.

This establishes the Anti-christ into power.

now we took the time to address how this temptation is not just something that existing in the past, it is not something that will only exist in the future, but this is a dangerous temptation that is even at work today.

Satan is trying hard to deceive you and i into believing a lie.

Trying to get us to compromise and to add and mix different things into our faith, worldly practices.

He understands that if he can get you and i to neglect our faith and to buy into the narrative of the culture, he can get us little by little to have spiritual erosion, which leads to compromise which leads to spiritual death.

spiritual neglect, will lead to spiritual erosion, which leads to spiritual compromise, which leads to spiritual death.

We have seen this take place in church history as we discussed last week with the Catholic Church.

but you see evidences of this same thing in some of the churches of our day.

Pastors who have compromised in the pulpit, in their moral standards.

Even worse, you see this in the lives of Christians , even Christians we know.

The willingness to compromise in our beliefs and biblical standards for the sake of buying into the approved cultural narrative.

READ CHP.

I. JOHN’S VISION (V.

3-6)

Now we are going to do things a bit differently than we are used to.

We are going to jump around in this chapter from verse to verse because in this section, John will see and describe what he is seeing with the woman.

But then later on he will actually get a breakdown of what the vision he is see is.

so in some sense, it will make it easier for us to know what John is talking about because he will also describe it.

So the first thing we want to look at is the description of the beast.

A. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BEAST (V. 3, 7-12)

we are told that this woman the great harlot is sitting on a beast.

We already know who the woman is, now lets look at who the beast is.

in Rev. 13 we see this picture of a beast who rises out of the sea.

This beast we are told is the Anti-Christ who receives power from Satan.

And John will describe what he saw and you can see from Rev. 13 that who he is talking about , it the Anti-Christ.

THE BEAST IS BEING RIDDEN BY THE GREAT HARLOT (V. 3)

It is interesting to see that this woman riding the beast.

She appears to be controlling the beast.

Remember this is the religious system that has helped to set up the anti-christ into power.

So in some way, i’m sure there is a feeling of having some sort of control of this man.

Yet we will see that this will all change.

2. THE BEAST IS FULL OF NAMES OF BLASPHEMY (V.3)

the anti-christ will speak blasphemies against God, which means that he will speak against God, he will speak things that are offensive and evil against God.

a. Anti-Christ Declares Himself God

this is describing what the anti-christ will do after the 3 1/2 years of some what peace.

He will enter the temple and declare himself to be God and to be worshiped as God, the abomination of desolation .

Daniel 9 and Matt.

24 would make reference to this.

there is no greater blasphemy, than to declare yourself God.

This is completely offensive to God.

b.

Anti-Christ Speaks against Heaven

the Anti- Christ will speak evil against all things that pertain to God, against the temple , and those who dwell in heaven.

Just offensive speak against all things that are of God.

in Ps. 73 it says this about the wicked

The scoffer and wicked person is a prideful person.

A person who believes that they do not need God, a person who can often times make themselves believe that they are their own God.... thinking that they are in charge of their own lives....

this is the speech and the talk that you will even hear today.

People who will make fun of God, who will question God, who speak offensively.... this all comes from pride.

interesting that pride is the very sin that brought Satan down from Heaven, this is what you see at work in the anti-christ

3. ANTI-CHRIST HAS 7 HEADS AND 10 HORNS (V. 3, 7-12)

READ V.3..... 7-11

a. 7 HORNS (V.3,7,9-11)

now verse 9-11 gives us insight into what these 7 heads are or what their meaning is .

it tells us that these 7 heads are 7 mountains on which the woman sits (v.

9) .

it is believed that what this is speaking of is the 7 hills on which the City Rome is built on.

This is very possible that this is what it is describing.

we are also told that the 7 heads are the 7 kings (v.10) .

we are told that there were 5 kings that are no longer… or they died.

there is who is, one who is to come which would be the anti-christ who makes it 7.

there are different takes on who these kings exactly are. the two best descriptions i saw was that these could be either the 7 Roman emperors who were in power.

When John wrote this , there had been 5 who had died already.

One who was ruling during John day, Domitian.

And one to come, which would be the anti-chirst.

Now (v.

11) speaks of the one who was , and is no more, he is the eighth and is of the 7th.