Book of Revelation Explained 43: A Beast Rising From the Sea

[Music] [Music] now I'm really excited that we're at chapter 13 because in chapter 13 the Antichrist and the false prophet are introduced now to me this is one of the most interesting parts of the book of Revelation but it's also one of the most confusing to most people it sounds like a riddle just listen and see if it sounds like a riddle to you John saw a beast rising up out of the sea the Beast had seven heads and ten horns on each horn was a crown and on the heads were blasphemous names the Beast resembled a leopard but it had the feet of a bear in a mouth like a lion one of the heads on the beast had been mortally wounded but it was healed and all the world was amazed it was given a mouth and the mouth spoke blasphemy and power was given unto it for forty-two months the beast was and is not and will come up out of the abyss the seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits there are also seven kingdoms five of the kingdoms have fallen one is and the other has not yet come the Beast that was and is not as the eighth kingdom but it's also one of the seven kingdoms what is the Beast now does that not sound like a riddle and you know I don't know about you but I don't really like riddles in fact I think most people hate riddles so let's be honest most people don't even try to understand what the beast is they don't even try to understand what all of those things mean am i right how many of you have read through the book of Revelation and just decided I'm gonna learn what all this is and I'm going to study and find out anyone how many of you guys read through the book of Revelation and just kind of have your eyes glazed over and you really don't care you just want to be able to say that you read the book alright but the main reason that most people don't try and understand it is because they think they can't understand it and that's not true you can understand every bit of this and you can understand what is known as the mystery of the beast but you can only understand it if you understand the Book of Daniel you see mystic is the key to unlocking the mystery of the beast now to make sure that everyone understands the mystery of the beast I've been taking it very slow and I'm just covering a little bit of information at a time and I'm going to review before we move on so let's do a quick review of what we cover last week from the Book of Daniel we know that the heads on the beasts represent kingdoms so the seven heads on the beast represent Seven Kingdoms now these kingdoms don't represent just any or all kingdoms they represent the world empires that have persecuted Israel as a nation so let me give you a list of all of the world empires that have persecuted the nation of Israel Egypt Assyria Babylon Persia Greece and Rome and the seventh world empire is still to come now there might be some of you that says well wait a minute Germany persecuted the nation of Israel no they didn't Israel was no longer a nation at that time and because they were no longer alation even though he tried to annihilate all of the Jews and he persecuted God's chosen people he didn't persecute the Jews as a nation and so we find out that the last one that actually persecuted the Jews as a nation was the Roman Empire but there is a seventh Empire that is still to come so six of the heads represent past kingdoms and the seventh head represents a future kingdom now let me show you how I know that turn with me to the book of Revelation chapter 7 verse number 9 and 10 notice what it says this calls for a mind with wisdom the seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits they are also seven kings five have fallen one is the other has not yet come now I've already explained what the woman sitting on the Seven Hills represents so I'm not going to go into that again we'll study that more in depth when we get to chapter 17 but right now just look at the very first part of verse number 10 they are also seven kings now the word Kings is translated from the Greek word by loose which can refer to kings or it can refer to kingdoms in this case it refers to kingdoms so the seven heads are seven kingdoms which we already knew right heads represent kingdoms then John tells us five have fallen one is the other has not yet come the five that had fallen were Egypt Assyria Babylon Persia and Greece and one was ruling during the time that John was writing the book of Revelation that's what he means by one is is what is in existence and that's the Roman Empire the Roman Empire was ruling the world when John wrote the book of Revelation and then John says the other is not yet come in other words it is a future Kingdom one that will come into existence during the last days so the seventh head on the beast represents a future world empire and this future kingdom is going to possess the best characteristics of all of the previous kingdoms look at verse number two in Chapter thirteen the Beast I saw resembled a leopard but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion the dragon gave the Beast his power and his throne and great Authority now the Grecian Empire was like a leopard it was quick and agile it was not slow and cumbersome the persian empire was like a bear it was strong and it was powerful and it feared nothing the Babylonian Empire was like a lion it was ferocious and it was also majestic at the same time so what this is telling us is that the Beast is going to be a combination of all of the best characteristics of the previous Kingdom it's like the sum of all the kingdoms before it that's why it actually has seven heads on it why did it not just lop off one of the heads from the next kingdom popped up and then when that one fell why didn't it lop that often a third one come it's because this beast is the sum of all of the kingdoms that preceded it so in essence the seventh and final kingdom we'll be the most powerful and the most wicked Kingdom that's ever existed it's going to be the most wicked because Satan is the one who gives it its power and its authority look at the last part of verse number two the dragon gave the Beast his power and his throne and great Authority now we know who the dragon represents because when we were going through the twelfth chapter and it was talking about the woman the child and the dragon he told us explicitly who the dragon is in verse number nine the dragon is Satan so Satan is going to give him his throne he's going to give him his authority he's going to give him his power now verse number three in Chapter 13 tells us that one of the heads received a fatal wound look at verse number three one of the heads of the Beast seemed to have had a fatal wound but the fatal wound had been healed the whole world was astonished and followed the Beast now let me give you a little bit of a history lesson if you don't mind every one of the previous kingdoms that we've talked about were conquered and then absorbed into the kingdom Kingdom that conquered it with one exception the Roman Empire the Roman Empire was not absorbed into the kingdom so even though every one of the first five kingdoms eventually failed they still continued on by being absorbed into the next kingdom the only exception was the Roman Empire it fell but it was not absorbed into another world Empire so basically it died and that's the fatal wound that John is talking about but the Roman Empire is going to be revived in the last days in other words that fatal wound is going to be healed that's why we refer to the big the beast as the revived Roman Empire and as I said the revived Roman Empire is going to be the sum of all of the previous kingdoms before it the reason it had a body like a leopard is because it took the best of the characteristics of the Grecian Empire and it possess that the reason it had the feet of a bear is because it took those characteristics from the Persian Empire and it possessed that and so as we go back and we look at these previous kingdoms what we find is this revived Roman Empire is the sum of all of those kingdoms and that's why John saw this beast with seven heads and all of the characteristics of the previous kingdoms now that's what we covered last week does everyone understand what we've covered so far because I want to make sure that you understand it before we move on all right let's move on turn to verse number five chapter 13 it says the Beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months the mouth is referring to a spokesperson a leader now this is very important because from this time on in the book of Revelation the beast that John saw can refer to one of two things it can refer to the seventh and final kingdom which is the revived Roman Empire or it can refer to the Antichrist who's the leader of the revived Roman Empire because he's the mouth of the beast he's the spokesperson he's the one who will rule the beast the kingdom now it's very important that you understand what I just said so I want to say it again but I want to state it in a different way because what I'm hoping is if you didn't understand what I just said you're gonna understand the way I say it this time it's the very same thing it's just saying in a different way the Beast and John's vision represents the Antichrist and it also represents his kingdom so sometimes the word beast is used to refer to the Antichrist as a person and sometimes is used to refer to his kingdom now let me explain why that is during the middle of the tribulation the Antichrist is going to be given so much authority that he won't just be the leader of the revived Roman Empire he will be the revived Roman Empire because it will be at his beck and call it will do everything that he commands he will be the absolute ruler of the Empire so when you refer to the Beast depending upon the context it will either refer to the Antichrist or it will refer to the seventh kingdom the revived Roman Empire that he controls how will we know what it's referring to by the context now it's very important that you understand what I just said because if you don't you're gonna be lost when we skip up to virt to chapter 17 so does everyone understand that the beast can refer to the Antichrist or it can refer to his kingdom the revived Roman Empire everyone got that good all right let's skip to chapter 17 and let's see what else it says about the Beast turn to verse number 8 in chapter 17 the Beast which you saw once was now is not and will come up out of the abyss and go to its destruction the inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast because he once was now is not and yet will come now I want you to notice that the beast once was now is not and will come up out of the abyss now in this passage of Scripture that beast doesn't refer to the revived Roman Empire it's referring to the ruler of the revived Roman Empire which is the Antichrist remember I told you it could refer to either one so according to John the Antichrist was once on the earth but now he is not on the earth and yet he will come to the earth from the abyss in the future now a lot of early church fathers and when I say the early church fathers I'm not talking about the apostles I'm talking about the very next generation some of those who were even taught by some of the Apostles like John so a lot of the early church fathers thought that this was talking about Nero they thought that knew was actually the Antichrist and that he was going to be reincarnated in the last days Arthur pink how many of you know who Arthur pink hits he was a scholar he's no longer living but anyways he and several other scholars believe that this is talking about Judas Iscariot I'm not gonna go into all the reasons why they believe that but they believe that Judas Iscariot is going to be reincarnated and that he is the Antichrist but I want you to understand something the reason I'm not going to go into all of that is because the bible does not teach reincarnation if you've been taught that the Bible teaches reincarnation you have been taught wrong now the reason why I bring this up is because there's a lot of churches that is mixed New Age religion in with Christianity and they mixed it up shaking it together and kind of thrown out this type of New Age theology now wait a minute pastor you said this is not referring to the revived Roman Empire you said it's referring to the Antichrist but now you're saying it doesn't refer to a person that's right this is talking about the spirit of the Antichrist and let me see if I can explain what I mean by that if you don't mind Malachi chapter 4 verse number 5 says behold I'm going to send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord now because of this scripture the Jews believe that Elijah was going to come back to earth before the Messiah came how many of you know that juice still today when they are protecting of the Passover they have the third cup and the third cup is known as what the cup of Elijah why do they have the cup of Elijah because of Malachi chapter four verse number five and they believe that Elijah must come back before the Messiah comes so when Jesus came on the scene where was Elijah I thought he lied you was supposed to come back before the Messiah came well turn to Matthew chapter 11 verse number 13 and 14 and let's find out for before John came all the prophets and the law of Moses looked forward to this present time and if you are willing to accept what I say now who is who is speaking here Jesus if you are willing to except when I say he is Elijah who is he John the Baptist the one the Prophet said would come so Joe Jesus said John the Baptist was Elijah now was Jesus saying that John the Baptist was Elijah reincarnated absolutely not the bible does not teach reincarnation so let's look at another scripture look at matthew chapter 17 verses 10 through 12 in fact before we even get to matthew 17 verses 10 through 12 let me go a little bit further do you remember when jesus had his disciples and he said who do men say that i am and they said some say that you're elijah others Jeremiah others say you're a prophet why did they bring up Elijah because they'd been taught before the Messiah comes then Elisha must come and then they got in their head if you lie just gonna come is God gonna send other prophets back does that make sense so you have that and then he asked his disciples but who do you say that I am and Jesus gave his famous words you are the Christ the Son of the Living God and of course Jesus said blessed aren't you Peter because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but the Spirit of God has revealed this to you now here's what's interesting now we go to Matthew the 17th chapter verses 10 through 12 and his disciples are asking Jesus because this has kind of stirred up questions in them Venise disciples asked him why do the teachers of religious law insists that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes jesus replied Elijah is indeed coming first Jesus agreed with them Elijah is indeed coming first to get everything ready for the Messiah but I tell you Elijah has already come but he wasn't recognized and they chose to view's him and in the same way they will also make the Son of man suffer and who is referring to John the Baptist now John the Baptist was not Elijah reincarnated so why did he refer to him as Elijah because he had the spear of Elijah in other words he had the same zeal and the same vision of Elijah and he had the same purpose to turn people to God you know when he lied you came I'm telling you he was rough he would look at the people and say repeat you vipers you whitewash separ curse now can you imagine if I stood up here and I preached like that I'd be preaching to my wife and maybe three others I'd be preaching to the type of people that don't feel like they've been to church unless someone has just thrown them down on the ground and run all over them and just told them that they're going to hell you know there are those type of people that like those type of sermons but you know this is kind of the way John the Baptist was his whole purpose was to get people to repent and if you go back and he look at the personality of Elijah I'm telling you he wasn't very personable and neither was John the Baptist John the Baptist had the very same zeal that Elijah had he had the very same vision that he lied you had he had the very same purpose that he lied you had so when it came to Elijah Elijah was once on the earth then he was not on the earth but right before the Messiah came right before Jesus came John the Baptist a person with the spirit of Elijah did come so John the Baptist had the spirit of Elijah he was not the reincarnation of Elijah but he came with the same zeal the same vision and the same purpose and that's what revelation chapter 17 verse number eight is talking about there was a person who once lived on the earth that had the same zeal the same vision and the same purpose that the Antichrist will have his name was Antiochus Epiphanes if you're taking notes write that word down in title that name Antiochus Epiphanes in fact Antiochus Epiphanes was a type of the Antichrist he did exactly what the Antichrist is going to do except on a smaller scale Antiochus gave himself the name epiphanies how many of you knew that and you know why he gave himself to name me Tiffany's it comes from the word epiphany and one of the meanings of the turn epiphany is manifestation or revelation and because it men because he saw himself as the manifestation of the god Zeus he called himself epiphanies he was Antiochus Epiphanes so he entered the Temple in Jerusalem he claimed to be God he claimed to be Zeus and he demanded to be worshiped he also set up an altar to Zeus and I remember he's the manifestation of Zeus so he sets up an altar to zoos on top of the altar in the temple and then he had a pig sacrificed on top of it he also set up a permanent Idol of Zeus in the temple so this was a foreshadow of the abomination of desolation in fact many of the scholars at the time and the scribes at the time who were studying the book of daniel looked at Antiochus Epiphanes and they said oh we're living in the last days because this is the abomination of desolation but it was not the abomination well it was a abomination of desolation but it was not the one that Daniel was talking about it was a type of the abomination of desolation not only that he also outlawed the Jewish religion and replaced it with worship Him himself he outlawed the observance of the Sabbath circumcision in the Jewish feast he did away with the Levitical law which was equivalent to what do you remember when we study Daniel the changing of the times and the law which Daniel spoke about in chapter 7 verse number 25 and last but not least he burned all of the scriptures that he could find these are the things that the Antichrist is going to do so what John is telling us here in Revelation chapter 17 is that the same demonic spirit that possessed Antiochus Epiphanes is going to possess the Antichrist and he is going to do exactly what Antiochus Epiphanes did except he's going to do it on a greater scale now how do I know that this is going to be a demonic spirit because verse number 8 says the Beast once was now is not we'll come up out of the abyss labou so what is the abyss the abyss is the holding place of the demonic spirits that's how I know that this demonic spirit who once was in other words he possessed Antiochus Epiphanes but then he was no longer he's going to come up out of the abyss and he is going to possess the Antichrist so the same spirit that possessed Antiochus Epiphanes is going to possess the Antichrist and he's going to do the very same thing that Antiochus Epiphanes did except on a greater scale now do you want to stop here I'm trying to give you a little bit of information in time or do you want to go on alright let's go on look at verse number 11 in chapter 17 and the Beast that was and is not even he is the eighth and is of the seven and goeth into perdition now believe it or not this is really easy to understand I am not kidding you you know I told someone the other day they said well you said you're gonna make it so simple a child could understand what I didn't tell you is that job was going to be a genius no I'm just teasing you this is not that difficult to understand the seventh and final kingdom which is the revived Roman Empire is going to be made up of a coalition of ten kings do you remember when we were studying in the Book of Daniel and he had the statute Nebuchadnezzar had this dream and then he brought all the wise men to him and said I want you to tell me what my dream means and of course what did the wise men do oh we can do that tell us what you dreaming uh you'll snow me if I do that if you're really wise men you will tell me what I dreamed and then you will interpret the dream I think that's impossible no man can do that so he's gonna wipe them all out kill him well work got got to Daniel and Daniel said well you go tell Nebuchadnezzar give me a couple of days and let me have a little prayer meeting and I'll come and tell him what he dreamed and he did and he said let me tell you what you dreamed dreamed of the statue and he described it and so each part of the statue represented a different Kingdom and then when you got down to the feet it was iron modeled with clay in other words mixed with this miry clay but what's interesting the feet were made up of ten toes we also found out in another one of his visions that there were ten horns and he told us these ten horns represented in Kings so we know that in this last kingdom the seventh Empire is going to be made up of a coalition of ten Kings so those ten horns represent ten Kings and just to make sure that we didn't miss this john told us in the book of Revelation look at revelation 17 verse 12 the ten horns of the Beast are ten Kings who have not yet risen to power they will be appointed their kingdoms from one brief moment to reign with the Beast in other words there's last period in fact it's really going to come together in the last half of the tribulation the forty-two months these ten Kings are appointed to reign with the Beast for an appointed time but Daniel chapter 7 verse number 8 tells us that the Antichrist is going to conquer three of the ten kings so he's going to have his own little mini Kingdom and the other seven are going to give him their authority and power look back at Revelation chapter 7 verses 12 through 13 the ten horns of the Beast or ten Kings who have not yet risen to power they will be appointed to their kingdoms for one brief moment to reign with the Beast they will all agree to give him the power and authority they will all agree the only problem is Daniel gives us a little more insight he says that the Antichrist the little horn he's going to pull up three of the horns by the roots what does he mean by that he's going to conquer them does that make sense and the rest of the seven are gonna give their power to him but here's what I want you to know by conquering three of the ten Kings he's going to have his own little mini Kingdom which makes him the eighth head remember heads represent Kingdoms so if he has his own mini Kingdom he's a head he is the eighth head but his mini Kingdom will still be a part of the seventh Kingdom it will still be a part of the coalition of the original team Kings it's a part of the revived Roman Empire does that make sense yes it does so let's read verse number 11 again and let me just put some things in parenthesis for you go ahead and pop that up there if you don't mind notice the things I have in parentheses and the Beast that was and is not even he is the eighth in other words he has his own many Kingdom and is of the seven he's still a part of the coalition and he goeth into perdition congratulations you now understand the mystery of the beast there's not a thing that we've studied about the beast that you don't know so right now knowing that there's only two more very important characters that we have to study we have to study the false prophet and then we're gonna have to study the of Babylon the woman who rides the Beast and when we understand who the of Babylon is and the false prophet once you understand that then you read this just like a novels like oh my gosh this is very easy to understand the problem is when people get to the Beast and they have not studied the Book of Daniel and they don't understand the symbolism or what it represents they don't understand the book of Revelation because it sounds like a riddle and it's not he's just giving you insight into what the Beast is and who the Beast is and the characteristics of this beast that's going to reign or rule during the last half of the tribulation now next week we're going to actually go verse by verse through chapter 13 starting with about verse number 6 and we're going to find out some interesting things about this man called the Antichrist or about the beast but right now we're going to stop and I feel like I need to answer any question that you might have I want to make sure you understand this because if you don't understand the beast as we go through this you're gonna go man I'm lost but if you understand the beast this is simple you

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Keywords: the book of revelation explained, the book of revelation explained bible study, the book of revelation in the bible summary, apostle john, four horsemen, apocalypse, torah, is this the end, holy ghost power, bible mysteries, how to understand the bible, how to understand the bible better, the resurrection of jesus, 666, yom kippur, the feast of the lord, messianic, bible stories, allen nolan, end times ministries, revelation explained, the book of revelation, bible, end times 2020

Id: _UqzhVTccBs

Length: 29min 57sec (1797 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 04 2020