The Mark of the Beast Isn't What You Think | Revelation 13

Oh, good morning, good morning, 242 family.

How are you today?

Uh no, it feels like you didn't even wake up this morning.

Come on, how are you doing today?

There we go.

There we go.

Uh well, my name's Elisha Poole, uh, and for quite a while I've been a church planted resident here at 242.

Now we're working on planting um Evergrove Church, which 242 is sending us to go do.

And listen, I am super excited uh and slightly cautious about what we're gonna talk about today.

Uh, if you haven't been around, we are in yet another week of our revelation series.

How many have been around for the series?

Come on, show of hands.

All right, so those who didn't raise your hand, you're in for a treat today.

You are in for a treat.

But before we get started, I actually want to pray uh because there's some serious things that we got to talk about today, and I just want God to ready our hearts.

So let's pray.

Father, thank you for this opportunity to be able to come uh to your place, to your gathering place, Lord, where we worship together, where we fellowship together, and where we hear your word.

Lord, we ask that your word would be a reality check for us today.

We ask that your word today, God, would help us to understand what the main point is that you were trying to make through the book of Revelation.

Help us to be radical disciples and to know what that looks like.

And Lord, I ask that you would encourage us through the reality and the truths that we're gonna explore today.

We thank you for it that it is already done in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Uh, how many are familiar with advertisements?

Right?

I mean, you know, advertisements, they nowadays we just kind of ignore them, right?

They just become the norm, right?

Back back in the day, come on, I feel like I can say that now.

Back back in the day, when we used to, when we used to watch TV on uh uh what I what I used to call the fatback.

It was like the big box TV.

Come on, you you know what that is.

Uh uh, you you you'd have the commercials coming on, and you'd be like, oh man, there's no way to ignore it.

Then streaming came out, right?

And well, really DVDs, but then let's fast forward, streaming comes out, and now you're able to actually skip forward past or buy a subscription where you don't have to see any kind of advertisements.

Even now, when we get on social media, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, whatever suits your fancy, you don't have to look at the ads, you can just scroll past.

Like some people's thumbs are really strong because they're just scrolling all the time.

But one thing that we don't often recognize is how influential and how impactful social media, those advertisements, the things that we consume so much, how impactful they are in our daily lives.

As a matter of fact, the reality is that there's always someone vying for your attention at all times.

When you are first able to really understand what words are, and you can understand what those words mean, you are being pulled in different directions to establish an identity in you that you didn't even sign up for, oftentimes.

Wealth, success, identity, purpose.

Believe it or not, whether you subscribe to it or not, we are being pulled in different directions and we we are being marked.

Somebody shout marked, marked by something that helps to identify us and create an identity for who we serve.

And it's all based on our attention, where we give our attention and who we've been marked by.

It's true for us today, and it was also true back when John wrote the book of Revelation.

Because here's the reality is that there is a current reality, and there's also a future reality.

There's just tension that we wrestle in where there's this current reality, this Babylonian type of reality where we're trying to figure out life absent from God, where we're trying to figure out life where you may not say God is absent, but you say God is optional.

Oh yeah, I can live my life.

I can come to church on Sunday, and then after Sunday, when I go out Monday through Saturday, God is optional.

Whether I decide to be a disciple maker is optional.

Whether I decide to pray with my family is optional.

Whether I choose to use the principles and what God is calling us to do as believers in my everyday life is optional.

That's a current reality, it's a Babylonian reality.

But there's also a future reality, as you just saw.

There's a timeline, there's a future reality where there's a new Jerusalem that's coming.

The victory has already been won, it's already been established.

God has already won the victory.

Jesus is king, Jesus sits on the throne, Jesus has already conquered the enemy, Satan.

However, we wrestle in the middle where we're being called to do something, understanding that there is a current reality that things are not as they should be, and that the victory is already won in this future reality where things will be as they should be.

And what we're gonna be looking at today is a reality, and it's a big idea that every single one of us is marked by something.

You're gonna see it pop up here on the screen, a big idea, and I wanna read this to you.

Every person is already marked.

Go ahead and read it.

The only question is which mark you're living under.

Here's the beautiful thing about this is that that choice is actually yours.

The choice is yours.

See, just like the algorithm knows what you like and feeds you what you like.

My wife's algorithm is different than my algorithm.

What she sees on her timeline or her Instagram feed is different than what I see on mine.

She sees a lot of financial stuff.

I see, I wish I could say a whole lot of pastoral stuff.

I see, I see like home renovation stuff, business stuff, and some biblical stuff.

But the reality is that the life that you live is going to be evidence of the mark that you carry.

And so we find ourselves in the book of Revelation.

Somebody shout, ooh.

Because, see, this is this is scary for some people, so that's why I say it's a very serious topic.

If you haven't been around for this series and maybe you've avoided revelation, I want you to know that it's not that deep.

Yes, this is a prophecy, it's also an apocalyptic writing, which means that it is a reality of a story that's being told uh through signs and symbols and things of that nature, but it's also a revelation of Jesus Christ.

This is something that Jesus Christ gave to John to give to very real people back when he delivered it.

To seven very real churches that were existing in that day, and speaking to a very real oppression that they were feeling from Rome in that time.

And so we find ourselves here in chapter 14, where there are three angels that come and they make some announcements.

And the first angel we find comes in in verse 6.

The first angel, this is the good news.

This is the good news.

In other words, it's the gospel, the eternal, the everlasting gospel.

And here's what the first angel says of the three.

Verse 6 Then I saw another angel flying in mid-air, and he had eternal gospel, the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth, to every nation.

Somebody say every nation, say every tribe, say every language and every people.

So understand it.

This is an eternal gospel.

This isn't just a gospel that is preached once, one and done.

It's only relevant for this people group or that people group.

He says, it's literally for every nation, tribe, language, and people.

And here's the other thing he says, verse 7.

He said in a loud voice, fear God and give him glory.

Why?

Because the hour of his judgment has come.

Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, and the sea, and the springs of water.

He gives the good news.

He's saying, Now listen, the one who was to come has come.

The hour is now, we you don't have to wait anymore.

The time is now come where he's been waiting on, relieving his wrath and and allowing his judgment to fall.

The hour has now come.

So we should worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.

See, for some of us, that would be bad news, depending on the mark that you carry.

We'll get into that in a little bit.

But then there's another angel that comes that delivers some bad news for those in this day.

This is the bad news angel.

Okay.

So verse 8, it says, A second angel followed and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.

Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great.

I want you to think about what we talked about earlier with what we consume, how normal it is, how almost subconscious it is for us to consume the things that we consume, and how that actually starts to lead our lives.

This angel is saying, hey, this world system is falling.

This world system is done.

But why is that bad news?

Because so many people have unconsciously bought in and subscribe to a system that leads them on a path of being marked for the wrong side.

What does it say here again?

It says, This Babylon the Great made all the nations drink the maddening wine.

Meaning it turned them crazy, it turned their minds onto something that it should have never been on.

It caused them to think and believe and do things that they otherwise wouldn't have.

And that's bad news for those on the wrong side.

But then the third angel comes and gives us a choice.

And that angel says, verse 9, a third angel followed them and said in a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast, I want you to say, I want you to say this with me.

If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its, somebody shout it with me, mark on their forehead, you say it with me, or on their hand, they too will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.

What does that mean?

This third angel, after being delivered good news and bad news, is saying, Hey, listen, if you are marked, if you decide to receive the mark on your forehead or on your hand, if meaning you have a choice, you get to choose.

And dependent on the mark that you carry, that's gonna be good news.

So I would be remiss.

Here's the thing I'd be remiss if we keep talking about this mark, and I didn't give you some context, see, because we will get into the spooky 666, and it's not as deep as you think.

But I want us to understand that before John goes into this mark of 666, the Bible teaches us and John shows us what the mark is of God.

Because everybody's marked, it just depends on what mark you carry.

And so let me give you some context.

We're gonna go to Ezekiel chapter 9, verse 4.

Ezekiel 9:4

If you are like following me with your Bible, I already got mine marked, so you know, uh, I'm gonna go fast.

But you'll see it on the screen because we we love you and we care about you.

We want you to follow along.

So um, verse 4, Ezekiel 9, it says, Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark, somebody shout, mark, on the where?

The foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.

I want to give you another passage of scripture.

We go back to Revelation chapter 7, verses 2 through 3.

Revelation 7:2–3

And it says here, then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal, somebody shout, seal of the living God.

Now watch this.

He says, He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who have been given power to harm the land and the sea.

Says, Do not harm the land or the sea, and I'll continue here, or the trees until we put a seal, somebody shout, seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.

And here's the thing, he's saying, I need them before I cause my wrath to fall, before I cause all these things that I've been waiting to carry out, I need to make sure that my people, those who I call my children, my loved ones, my beloveds, those adopted into the heavenly family, I need to make sure that they are marked, that they are sealed with my seal.

And here's the thing: this is not something that you see visibly on your forehead or on your hand.

This is something that is invisible to man but is visible to heaven.

And in this very passage that we were talking about, he literally holds back the winds, he holds back the wrath, he holds it all back so that his people can be cared for and taken care of first.

And so we continue forward.

We'll go we'll go to Exodus.

I want to show you what this mark really does for us, what it really means for us, how this plays out in our life.

If you go with me here to Exodus chapter 13, verse 9, first here.

Exodus 13:9

It says this this observance will be for you like a sign on your hand.

Somebody shout, hand, a sign on your hand, and it was actually the right hand, and a reminder on your forehead, somebody shout, forehead.

It's a lot of hands and foreheads in here, okay?

You know, me, I got a five head.

That's what my okay.

Oh, somebody thought that was true.

Okay, they really laughed at that.

That was really good.

All right.

This observance would be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips.

Why?

For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.

Then we skip down to verse 16 where it says, and it will be like a sign on your hand, somebody shout, hand, and a symbol on your forehead, somebody shout, forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.

Now, let me let me help us to really understand what's going on here.

Why is this marking relevant?

And why is he saying it's a sign on your hand, and it's a symbol on your forehead?

Well, when they were when they came out of Egypt, there was this thing called Teflon or uh phylacteries.

There's these small little boxes that had like scripture verses in there, and they would actually remember these, and they'd have it on their hand, literally, tied to their hand, typically up uh near their heart, and then they would have something on their forehead, tied to their forehead, and what this did was it caused them to remember the mindset, to remember God.

Somebody shout, remember God.

It would cause them to remember and constantly align their mind with the God who brought them out of Egypt.

The sign on the hand would be representative of what they would do as a result of their mind being in alignment with the one who brought them out of Egypt.

It was a mark.

I would ask you, is your mind align with the one who brought you out of sin?

Does your hands, what we do, how we live our lives, is it a true reflection of what we intelligibly believe?

What we say with our mouths that comes from our mind.

Do they align?

Do they actually match?

Let me go here to Deuteronomy 6, verses 6 through 8.

Deuteronomy 6:6–8

And it says, These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

Impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Again, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

See, before John gives us anything about 666 and the mark of the beast and all that kind of stuff, we first understand that scripture teaches us that we are already marked.

You're already marked.

You're already marked.

You're already marked.

But we get to decide what mark that is.

So I want you to understand a few things.

That number one, he goes into these beasts, as we saw in scripture.

Like in chapter 12, he's talking about the great dragon, which is Satan.

And he talks about two beasts.

And the first beast is a worldview.

The first beast is this worldview that I can actually live a life with God being optional.

Like I can make my own life.

Like I can really do, I'm really, I'm Him.

Like I'm really Him.

I can do that on my own.

It's a life that's not marked by God.

It's a life that doesn't keep their minds in alignment with the one who brings us out of sin, death, and shame.

It's a life that, when lived out, is evidence that what we say with our mouth and believe in our heart supposedly is not really what we believe.

So you gotta understand in Roman culture back then, they believed that they could do whatever they wanted with their bodies as long as their soul and their spirit professed that they believed in their gods.

And what God calls us to, and what we're seeing in this example with the Israelites and the phylacteries on the forehead and on the hand, is that this is, no, no, this is all in one.

It's all encompassing.

Just like James says, You will prove to me that you have faith by the works that you do.

It's not the works that get you into heaven, but the works actually prove that you have the faith that gets you into heaven.

And so here's the thing is that that beast one is just a worldview.

My question to you really quickly would be Do you happen to be saying with your mouth that you believe in God?

But with your mind, you truly don't.

Is your mind truly in alignment with God and his kingdom?

Or are you actually believing in a God optional worldview?

And the second beast is the system that fuels the worldview.

This second beast brings validity to the worldview.

It almost states, it almost makes it seem like, oh, oh, this worldview is the only thing, the only option that we have.

It's just like when we're watching TV on the fat back screen.

And if you want to watch that channel, if you want to be a part of consuming that content, it's only normal for you to see these commercials.

It's only normal for you to experience these kind of things.

When you go to school, it's only normal for you to be exposed to the kind of things you're exposed to.

When you get into college, it's only normal for you to go out and party and do the things that everybody else does.

When you get into the workplace, it's only normal to cast off your Sunday outfit and take off your Sunday mask and put on your Monday through Friday mask in order to fit in with everybody else.

It's only normal for you to think about other women, other men, even though you're in a marital relationship.

It's only normal.

This is the system that fuels the worldview.

Are you living according to a system that fuels a worldview that marks you in a way that you didn't even know you signed up for?

Now let me take you to some scripture.

We go back to Revelation 13 as we start to close.

Now that we understand that you are marked by something.

You are marked by something.

He now brings us to this whole idea of 666.

And he says here in chapter 13, verse 18, this calls for wisdom.

Let the person who has insight calculate.

Somebody say, calculate the number of the beast.

For it is the number of a man.

That number is 666.

Somebody just say it out loud.

It's okay.

666.

Go ahead, say it out loud.

Say it again.

Say it one more time.

I want you to get comfortable with that because it's not as deep as we make it seem.

Literally, 666.

You gotta understand that the Hebrew and the Greek language, they used the letters were numbers.

They didn't have a separate numerical system.

So letters equated to numbers, and the number 666 being calculated to a man's name was literally the one reigning at that time, which was Nero Caesar.

Scholars totally agree on this, scholars understand this.

Some of my theological uh compatriots in here will say, Well, what about 616?

Well, 616 is literally the Latin spelling of Nero Caesar.

But see, here's another thing that we think about 666.

Hopefully we've debunked that really quick.

I mean, it's really not that deep.

There literally was a man whose name translated to 666 based on their alphanumeric lettering system.

But here's the other thing that we gotta think about is that the number six is always just one short of seven.

Which seven, you see a lot of sevens in here.

It represents completion, it represents that it's done, it represents finality, it represents that it is finalized, it is finished.

And so some of us, we when we think about that marking of 666, all it means is that we are subscribing to a worldview and a system that is in opposition with God.

It's incomplete.

It promises you something, it promises and almost gives you what you want, but it doesn't give you completion, it doesn't give you true purpose, it doesn't give you true identity, it doesn't give you true fulfillment.

Here's the thing, got some questions for you.

Considering all that, what does your worldview say reality is made of?

Is it this Babylonian thing?

Or is it this New Jerusalem thing?

Which are you marked by?

That's the forehead question.

Now the hand question is what does your daily life actually manifest?

We say it, we claim to think it, but do we actually do it?

So here's a takeaway as we close.

You gotta fear God, give him glory, let him be who he is, and choose.

Because every single one of us gets a choice.

There is a current reality, and there's a future reality.

We're called to be radical disciples in between.

Will you choose to be marked by God or not?

Let's pray.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for marking us, thank you for giving us a choice of how we will live our lives.

Whether we are marked by you or not.

Thank you, Lord, that the victory is already won and we get to be a part of your family.

We get to be a part of the winning team.

Convict us in this moment, Lord, for those who have not made a decision, for those who didn't know that we were marked by something we didn't sign up for.

Thank you that your marking is still readily available because it is a choice.

We choose you today in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So I don't know what your next steps might be, but for many of us is to choose or commit.

We gotta commit to accepting the mark from Jesus Christ, to align our minds with His mind and to do what He's calling us to do as we become radical disciples.

Some of us, we just need prayer.

And if that's you, we're already ready for you on the sides of the room.

You see light lit up lanyards.

Please come pray with us.

Allow us to pray with and for you.

For some of us, it's baptism.

Like whether this message or the messages previously have been causing you to feel like, you know what, this is my next step.

I've given my life to Jesus, I've given my life to Christ.

I am marked by him, and now I want to go public with my decision in obedience.

And for some of us, it's communion.

Like we celebrate the Lion of Judah, we celebrate the Lamb of God, we celebrate the one who has already won the victory, we celebrate the one who has secured the future reality that we've been talking about this entire series.

See, when Jesus was here on this earth, he sat with his disciples and he broke bread and said, This is my body that's being broken for you.

Take eat.

And he poured a cup and he passed it around and said, This is my blood that is shed for you.

Drink.

We celebrate a victory of a future reality that's already secured.

Whatever your next step is, do it marked by Jesus.

Let's take our next step.