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Revelation 17-18
Have you ever found
yourself staring in total admiration at a beautiful woman? She is stunning. But she’s also drunk. And she’s a prostitute and a
murderer. And she has killed your
brothers and sisters. But even
so, she is so bewitching all you can do is stand mesmerized by her
beauty. Can you imagine that?
Revelation 16, verse
6, John admits: When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.
Or as another
translation puts it: When I saw her, I marveled greatly.
Or another: I stared at her, completely amazed.
Or the old King James
says it well: When I saw her I
wondered with great admiration.
John is looking at a
prostitute, a killer of our Christian brothers and sisters, drunk with
the blood of the saints and John cannot help admiring her beauty. He’s not alone, v2 says the
inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her
adulteries. The world is drunk on
this woman. And she is drunk on
the blood of Christians. Talk
about a femme fatale. She is so
wicked. She is a perverse,
abominable enemy of God’s people and God’s ways, and yet the whole world
is in bed with her. They
shouldn’t be, it’s adulterous, it’s unfaithful but she’s seduced
them. And here is John – a
Christian. He’s in the Spirit,
he’s receiving a heavenly vision, he’s in the presence of a mighty angel
and still he’s enthralled by the vision of this woman. This woman is a death trap and yet
seduces the whole world, and even John finds himself falling for her.
Have you ever
counselled a friend against a bad relationship? Or have you ever been counselled by a
friend to end a bad relationship?
“She’s no good for you?
He’s a jerk! She’s trouble! It’ll come to no good.” This chapter is like one of those
conversations – the angels in heaven are begging us not to be seduced by
this woman.
Because whether you’re
a man or a woman here this evening you are tempted to get into bed with
her so to speak. If you’re not a
follower of Jesus – you are drunk on the intoxicating wine of her
adulteries – that’s what v2 says.
All the inhabitants of the earth, which in Revelation is always a
description of people who aren’t Christians, the whole world that does
not trust Jesus, is drunk on the intoxicating wine of her
adulteries. If you’re not faithfully
married to Jesus – and we’ll talk about what that means – then you are
addicted to this extremely unhealthy relationship. And these verses are here to tell you
– get out of the relationship.
These verses are like home truths spoken by a good friend that you
don’t want to hear. But you need
to hear it, because she’s no good for you. End the relationship. Don’t even text her, change your
phone number, move town if you have to, she is bad news, she has only
ever been bad news and if you don’t end it with this woman you will
suffer her fate. And you don’t
want that. That’s what these
verses are saying to you – if you’re not a Christian, if you’re not
married to Jesus (and I’ll explain that later), if you’re not being
faithful to Jesus, you’re in bed with this woman, get out now.
And if you are a
follower of Jesus, you, like me and like John may well find yourself
gawping at the great prostitute and we need someone like this angel in v7
to snap us out of it. Do you see
in v7, here’s the angel being a good friend to us: “Why are you astonished?” “Why are you marvelling?” “Why are you admiring her?” Stop gawping at her. These verses are written for
Christians to see she’s actually really ugly and she’s coming to a
devastating end.
Now, the question is –
who is this woman that the whole world is in bed with?
Well the first thing
to say is – she’s called Babylon (v5)
In fact six times in Revelation she’s called Babylon. And mention of that name would have
conjured up all kinds of images for John’s readers.
The first image would
be the tower of Babel. Do you
remember from Genesis 11, people club together and say:
"Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that
reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not
be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
Babylon is a city – a
community of people who don’t want to be scattered and so they form this
city and their desire is to make a name for themselves. So Babylon comes to represent a city –
a people – who come together and are proud and who grasp at heaven. But in the story the LORD scatters
them – He will not have this city in opposition to His heavenly city.
So Babylon is worldly
pride, making a name for yourself, building your earthly reputation. It’s grasping at heaven by building on
your own earthly resources. And
the bible says we all come from the womb with Babylonian blood.
We love to put
ourselves forwards. We
desperately seek to make a name for ourselves, to be noticed by the world
and by God and to earn favour with heaven and earth. But God is in the business of
demolishing our Babylonian towers.
Maybe God’s demolished a few of your little towers in life. God opposes the proud but gives grace
to the humble. Three times the
bible repeats that truth, we’re meant to learn it: God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.
Life with Him is never about us climbing up. It’s always about Him coming
down. Don’t ever picture the
Christian life as a tower up to heaven, we don’t climb up, Jesus came
down. And as we’ll read in Revelation,
He will come down again at the end of history and He will bring His
perfect heavenly city with Him.
Don’t build from earth to heaven, wait on earth for heaven. Christians are those who wait for Him
– but Babylon is about building our earthly reputation here and now.
Look at chapter 18,
verse 7 – here is the one time we get to hear what Babylon says in these
chapters: Here’s the cry of her heart:
`I
sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.'
The heart’s cry of
Babylon is: I have a name, I’ve secured a future. She’s full of herself, full of pride.
And in the world’s
eyes it looked like this pride was justified. In chapter 18, verse 3 we see that she could offer the
world lust and luxury. Look at
chapter 18, verse 3:
For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her
adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries
Babylon offers that
tantalising combination of sex, money and power. She offers pleasure, ease, comfort and
luxury. No wonder the whole world
wants to get into bed with Babylon
So this woman is
Babylon and she stands for that desire not to wait for God’s city but to
build our earthly reputation here and now. And that is very seductive. You and I are tempted every day to get
into bed with Babylon. She offers
sex, money and power now. She claims to offer you security and
comfort and ease and a name before heaven and earth now. And if we’re going to resist throwing
our lot in with Babylon we’re going to have to see Babylon for what it
really is, and we’re going to have to see Jesus and what we have in Him
for what it really is.
And that’s what these
chapters are about, so chapter 17 begins by telling us that, as always,
God will oppose the pride of Babylon.
Verse 1, the angel says:
"Come,
I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many
waters.”
Remember these
chapters are about jolting us out of our infatuation with Babylon. And so we’re being shown Babylon as a
prostitute on death row. A
relationship with her has no future.
She’s a condemned crinimal and her execution is imminent.
Nonetheless she shows
no signs of remorse, instead v2 she continues to seduce the whole
world. In verse 3 we get futher
information about this woman – here she’s described very much like how
the church is described in chapter 12. In chapter 12 the church was described as like a woman in
the desert. But in chapter 12,
the church was being chased by the devil, here, this woman rides
the beast, drunk on the blood of Christians. She’s a very different woman. In fact she’s the opposite number to the woman of
Revelation 12. She is, if you
like, the anti-Church. The true
church waits it out in the desert.
She commits adultery with the powers of this world. Babylon is an opposing city, an
opposing people to belong to.
If you belong to the church, if you’re a follower of Jesus then
Revelation describes you as belonging to the heavenly city, the heavenly
Jerusalem. But if you don’t
belong to Jesus, you are simply an inhabitant of the earth, a citizen of
Babylon. It’s one or the other,
and they couldn’t be more different.
The true church runs from the dragon, but (v3) Babylon rides the
beast.
Who is the beast? Well we met this beast from the sea
back in Revelation 13. He is an
agent of Satan particularly associated with state power. Here is the political clout that the
prostitute needs and desires. And
the prostitute Babylon, uses the powers of the beast to persecute the
true church. She rides the beast
and kills the saints. But she
won’t ride the beast forever. God
will judge Babylon by having the beast turn on her. Look ahead to verse 16:
The
beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring
her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her
with fire.
The beast ends up
hating the prostitute, turning against her and eating her.
Now if you were living
in the first century and reading John’s words here, I think a very direct
application that you would pick up on was this: The beast would have looked to you like the Roman empire –
with all its state power. But if
you were a first century reader, you know who you would have thought of
as Babylon? I think Jerusalem.
Throughout the Old
Testament it was Jerusalem that was accused of being unfaithful, an
adulterer, a harlot and a prostitute.
And that was the shocking thing, Jerusalem was the great city, it
was the earthly counterpart of the heavenly city. Jerusalem and its people were meant to
be happily married to the LORD, but they forsook their first love and
they committed adultery with the nations. Jerusalem was meant to be an earthly sign of the heavenly
city, but actually it became Babylon – a city opposed to God and His
people. Jerusalem the LORD’s
bride, had become Babylon, the prostitute.
And so when Jesus
came, Jerusalem acted just like this prostitute riding the beast. The Jews used the Romans to kill
Jesus. The prostitute teamed up
with the beast and shed the blood of the Lamb. And from that time onwards John could look back on decades
of the same alliance. The Jews
who rejected Jesus were forever using the Roman authorities to help them
persecute and kill Christians.
The prostitute rode the beast. We’ve read about this even in the book of Revelation. The church in Smyrna and the church in
Philadelphia were both told to watch out for the Jews who weren’t Jews at
all and were a synagogue of Satan.
And these Jews were going to imprison Christians. Now the Jews didn’t have the power to
imprison anyone, but the Romans did.
Jerusalem used the power of Rome, they rode the Beast to destroy
the church.
But, v16 points to a
great reversal. The beast turns
on the prostitute. And in AD70
Rome did turn on Jerusalem. In
the year 70 AD the Romans sacked Jerusalem and didn’t leave one stone of
the temple standing on another, just as Jesus had prophesied.
In fact it’s worth
remembering what Jesus said about this:
Matthew 24:1
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when His disciples came up to
Him to call His attention to its buildings. 2 "Do you see
all these things?" He asked. "I tell you the truth, not one
stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." 3
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him
privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen,
and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"
Do you notice the
question? When will the temple
be destroyed and when is your coming at the end of the
age? And Jesus answers their
twofold question by weaving together scenes from the destruction of
Jerusalem with scenes about His final coming on the last day. The destruction of Jerusalem in the
first century is like the future judgement day in miniature. When Rome destroyed Jerusalem we got
to see in history a little picture of the end when the beast will destroy
Babylon and then Jesus will destroy the beast. Babylon is bigger than Jerusalem and the beast is bigger
than Rome. Babylon and the beast
are powers that confront us in various incarnations and will do so right
up until the last day. But what
happened when the great city Jerusalem was overthrown is a sign of the
end of all things. God will judge
Babylon wherever Babylon shows up.
He will even judge Babylon when the great city Jerusalem proves
itself to be the prostitute.
So this should give us
pause for thought. Babylon
doesn’t always appear secular.
Babylon’s not necessarily an irreligious thing. In fact the way that Babylon is
dressed in verse 4 is exactly how the temple was decked out in the Old
Testament. Babylon will in many ways look saintly. It’s filled with the spirit of the
false prophet from chapter 13 who looked like a lamb but spoke like a
dragon. Sometimes people
characterize Babylon as godless materialism, and beneath the surface
that’s true. But Babylon will
often look to the world as very religious. Ostentatiously so.
So we’ve got a picture
now of who is Babylon: She is a
city but she represents all people who are not in the church, if you’re
not faithful to Jesus, you’re committing adultery with the
prostitute. She will very often
look religious, in an ostentatious sort of way, but she’s about making a name
for herself – whether in God’s eyes or the world’s. She pursues comfort now, security now,
pleasure now, luxury now and she hates the followers of Jesus and will
use whatever powers there are in this world to persecute and kill them.
And the real thrust of
these chapters is to get us to see the terrible end of Babylon. We’re being told – if you’re in bed
with Babylon, get out – it’s a doomed relationship.
Verse 1 – she will be
punished.
Verse 8 – so will the
beast she rides – he will go to his destruction
But first, verse 16 –
the beast will hate the prostitute and bring her to ruin.
Chapter 18:2 – Babylon
is fallen and has become a home for demons
V4 – She is to be
plagued
V6 – her cup which
used to be full of the wine of her adulteries is now filled with the wine
of God’s wrath
V8 – she will be
consumed with fire and judged.
V21 – she’s been
thrown down like a huge millstone thrown into the sea.
V22-23 all the signs
of life are extinguished from her:
22
The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will
never be heard in you again. No workman of any trade will ever be found
in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again. 23
The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of
bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again.
The party is
over. The Babylon experiment has
come to an end. This drive to
make a name for ourselves, to pursue our lusts and luxuries now has been
judged.
But how do we live
with that knowledge? You see in
verse 20, the Christians in heaven rejoice.
20
Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets!
God has judged her for the way she treated you.'"
Babylon burns and
Christians rejoice. They have not
invested in Babylon they are not in bed with her. Instead they were persecuted by her
and killed by her. They lived on
earth looking ahead to their reward.
They didn’t buy into the Babylon experiment and they are overjoyed
when it’s judged.
But this isn’t the
reaction of everyone. In chapter 18, verses 9-19 we see the reaction of
those who aren’t in the city but they are in bed with Babylon. And
they show that they’re in bed with Babylon by how they react to her
destruction.
"When the kings of the earth who committed adultery
with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will
weep and mourn over her. 10 Terrified at her torment, they
will stand far off and cry: "`Woe! Woe, O great city, O
Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!'
Here are the kings of
the earth mourning for Babylon.
From verse 11 we see the merchants of the earthn mourning for
her. From verse 17 we see the sea
captains and sea travellers mourning for her. Why are they all mourning?
Because they were in bed with her and because they’d invested in
her. Her doom was their
doom.
And really, that’s one
way of diagnosing whether you’re in bed with Babylon. Ask yourself how do you feel about its
destruction. How do you feel
about the end of the Babylon experiment – getting all you can now, making
a name for yourself now, pursuing your lusts and luxuries now? How would you feel if all those lusts
and luxuries were gathered together and burnt. If your reaction is ‘Woe, Woe’ then it’s a sign you’re in
bed with Babylon.
But if even John can
end up greatly admiring Babylon.
How will we keep from joining in with her? Two quick points.
1st is in
verse 4:
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her,
my people, so that you will not share in her sins
Same command as in Sodom with Lot, same
command as in Exodus with Israel.
Come out. It’s quoted
again in the NT in 2 Cor 6 in that famous passage about not being yoked
together with unbelievers. Again
Paul says “Come out from them and be separate.” (2 Cor 6:17)
So this is a command for us to obey also. But how? We can’t literally come out of Babylon unless we leave this
world. But we can watch who and
what we are yoking ourselves to.
Where is your heart? What
are the lusts, the desires, the luxuries that you are going after. What have you been seduced by? And so now, what do you need to come
out of this evening. Name it
before Jesus now, commit to leaving that behind.
But you know, just resolving to “come out”
will never deliver you from Babylon on its own. You also need to look on to chapter 19:
7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of
the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8
Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen
stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) 9 Then the angel
said to me, "Write:`Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding
supper of the Lamb!'"
The bible is not primarily telling us: “Don’t
to commit adultery with the world!”
It primarily tells us – “Enjoy a faithful marriage to Jesus.”
Enjoy your marriage and you won’t fool
around.
Look to Jesus – the Bible speaks in
unblushing terms of the intimacy that is available to us as
Christians. Earthly marriage is
just a picture of what Jesus offers.
I know a fellowship with Jesus greater than what I enjoy with
Emma. And she knows and loves
Jesus more than she does me. And
that’s the way it should be.
Heaven’s not a pale reflection of marriage. Marriage is a pale reflection of
heaven – and the incredible union we can know with Jesus.
Look at the way Jesus treats His bride – v8 –
He gives us pure, righteous clothing.
Wearing white on your wedding day means something even in our
culture – it means having been kept pure from other lovers. But you know no-one deserves to wear
white on our wedding day with Jesus.
We have all been unfaithful to Jesus – yet He clothes us in
white. He says to us “You are my
beloved. I give myself to you totally
and no matter what your past, I cleanse you and invite you to the
relationship of all relationships.”
If you’ve never said “I do” to Jesus – it’s
time to end it with Babylon and begin life again with Jesus.
If we are in this relationship with Jesus we
must call on the Holy Spirit to enflame our love again – to enjoy Jesus,
to enjoy our union with Him – knowing that we have not lost ANYTHING by
refusing Babylon. It all belongs
to Jesus and He will share EVERYTHING with His bride.
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