Sermon Cloud

Painted right in the middle of the floor of my high school football team's locker room was a big, red helmet. Written with white paint, at the top of that helmet, was the number 1989. 1989 was Fort Madison's one playoff appearance in the last 20 years or so, or at least as far back as the guy painting the helmet could remember.
But the painted helmet was big. That artist was optimistic. He left a lot of room to paint all of Fort Madison's future playoff appearances. That helmet was painted in the summer of '95, right before my senior year. Our one win season of '95 wasn't added to that helmet. There haven't been any years added to that painted helmet. In fact, since that playoff season of '89, Fort Madison has had only 2 winning seasons. And a lot of 1-2 win seasons.
You realize, that kind of consistency takes more than just luck. That's a lot of work. That takes a lot of bad coaches and athletes that are too slow and too small.
High School football was a great experience, still good friends with some of my teammates. But Bloodhound football = loserville.
As I was reading John's story of this angry dragon, I couldn't help but think the dragon would've fit in well with our football team. Maybe we should've changed our mascot to the Dragons. A lot like my bloodhounds, the dragon was a perennial loser. No matter how hard he tried, no matter what game plan he came up with, no matter how impressive he looked during pregame warm-ups, he kept coming up short. Defeat after defeat.
Now the dragon looks imposing. 7 heads and 10 horns was a numerical way of saying, "this dragon is tough, this dragon means business." This dragon's so powerful that just one sweep of his tail knocks a third of the stars from the sky. The dragon isn't just trying to earn a spot in the playoffs, this dragon's trying to take over the world.
And he sees his chance in the little town of Bethlehem. Where this poor peasant girl named Mary is about to give birth. The dragon knows this isn't your average little baby, that this baby is the Son of God. The rightful ruler of the world. If the dragon's going to take over the world, he's gotta knock off this baby.
So the dragon prompts King Herod to slaughter every baby in Bethlehem that's under the age of 2. The dragon was so close. The baby was within his grasp. But as he closed in for the kill, his huge, powerful jaws came up empty.
You see, the wiseman tipped Mary and Joseph off to Herod's plan and helped them escape to safety. The woman and her child hid from the dragon for 3 ½ years. We saw that number last week, too. 3 ½ is the incomplete number. John's way of saying "evil will not last forever."
But even with this first defeat, the dragon wasn't giving up yet. Turning his attention away from the baby, the dragon went right after God's throne in heaven. And John describes this epic battle between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels. But the dragon is beaten again, thrown down to earth. And we read this victory song, 12:10-12.
In verse 11, we see it isn't just Michael and his angels who conquered the dragon. It was all of those who gave their very lives in resisting the dragon. Vs. 11 again
The dragon lost this battle, but he isn't giving up yet. He decides to chase the woman. Now those keeping score need to note that pinch hitter has entered John's imagery. The woman in this story is no longer represents Mary, John is now having her represent the entire church. And just as the dragon is closing in on the woman, ready to destroy all those on earth who follow Christ, the woman is given wings to fly to safety.
As a last-ditch effort the dragon throws a river of water at the woman, trying to drown her, but the earth opens up and the water harmlessly drains away.
This dragon can't win. He fails to gobble up a little baby. Can't chase down the woman. Can't win in heaven. And even the one ally he thought he had, the earth is against him, swallowing up the river. The dragon can't win.
John names the dragon in verse 9, calls him Satan, the one who deceives the world, who accuses God's people. If you looked up the word "Satan" in the dictionary, you might see a picture of a dude with a pitchfork and a red goatee. But the word "sat-ahn" in Hebrew simply means adversary. Satan, Satan, the dragon, acts as the personification of all the evil in the world. Everything and everyone that stands in opposition to God. Oppression, sin, persecution. Satan wants to rule our world. Evil is fighting to take over, but it won't. It's gonna lose, it's just a matter of time.
John's churches needed to know that evil wasn't going to win. They were looking right down the throat of this dragon. They could feel his breath on their face. Looking right at his long, pointed teeth. They needed the assurance that the dragon wasn't going to win. Their faith made them outcasts; socially and economically. Many of them were put to death for their faith. They needed to know that evil wasn't going to win. The dragon has been defeated.
And in our world of terrorism and war, aids and tsunamis. We need the same assurance. We need to remember that evil does not get the final say. And everyone who keeps living for Christ, no matter what it may cost them, can be assured of the final victory. He may be roaring loud now, but the dragon is a loser.
And the dragon knows he's a loser. He knows he can't win. He knows that Christ and those who worship him have already won. Which is why we see in chapter 13 that the dragon changes his approach. Tries some trick plays. Trying to score a few points before the clock runs out. He gets people to take their attention off of Christ and to worship his beast instead.
I've been talking during this series that the way to understand Revelation is to first understand how the book would've been heard by John's original audience and to then see what parallels may exist in our world today. To move from John's headlines into our headlines. When John's churches heard his description of the two beasts in chapter 13, they would've immediately made the connections.
In fact, even the story of the woman and the dragon in chapter 12 would've been familiar to John's churches, although the story was likely never told during Christian worship. It was from Greek mythology. It was the story of the birth of Apollo, the sun god. In reshaping that story to point people toward Christ, John was doing what we often do here at TF. He took an image from pop culture (an image that is not inherently Christian) and he used it to communicate spiritual truths. In the original story, Apollo escaped the dragon and brought a new era of peace and prosperity to the world.
But John wasn't the first one to reshape that story. When Caesar Augustus rose to power as Roman Emperor, he began to compare himself to Apollo. Just like Apollo, he lead his country into a time of peace and prosperity. And Augustus thought that just like Apollo, he deserved to be worshiped. And the Roman emperor became the center of Roman religion.
But then Nero came along and he made Augustus look pretty humble. He made it a law, all Roman citizens would bow down and worship him. Rome ruled almost all the known world, so every person in the world was expected to worship Nero. And the Christians who opposed him, they were killed. Think of how this would've sounded to those who remembered Nero's reign. Vs. 7- 8
Rather than worshipping the Christ who rules the universe, thousands upon thousands of people worshipped a mere human, who ruled part of the world for a mere 14 years. The dragon knew he wasn't going to win. So he created a counterfeit and people worshipped it.
And Nero had his group of priests, too, doing their best to convince others to worship the emperor. There was a really tricky guy named Alexander, who got a lot of people to worship the beast. He built a bust of one of the emperors, a huge head. The mouth was hinged, so the jaw could be moved up and down. And a tube ran from the mouth and out the back of the statue. So from a distance, Alexander could speak through the tube and move the mouth and it would seem like the statue was speaking. And people bought it and fell down and worshipped. Vs. 14-15.
The dragon can't defeat Christ. But the dragon can fool people with his counterfeits.
And it became almost impossible for Christians to survive without giving in to the emperor worship. If you didn't worship the emperor, you couldn't make a living. And even if you were able to scrape together some Roman money, you had to look the image of Nero that was found on all Roman coins. Again, these images would've sounded very familiar to John's churches. Vs. 16-17
But there were some who opposed Nero. After he was overthrown, he committed suicide by putting a knife to his throat. But even in death, he still had his followers and worshippers. There were Nero impersonators. Going all around the empire, keeping Nero's political philosophies alive. And there were rumors spreading across the empire that Nero wasn't really dead, that he was coming back. Vs. 3-4
John tells us the people were worshipping the dragon, but that doesn't seem right. They weren't really worshipping the dragon, they were worshipping Nero and the power of the Roman Empire. But John is showing that if your allegiance doesn't belong to Christ, then it ultimately belongs to the dragon.
In chapter 7, John describes the servants of Christ being marked on the forehead. That mark was the sign of God's ownership. But everyone else was given another mark, the mark of the beast. No way around it, you had one of two marks.
John is in your face. It's cut and dried. You're in one of two camps. You worship Christ, or you worship evil. Those are your only two options. Whomever you choose to worship, determines your mark. And we all worship something.
A couple weeks ago Erin and I visited her sister's family in Ocean City, MD. Kind of like the Lake of the Ozarks on the beach. Erin's sister has a great family, beautiful family. As we were walking with our niece and nephew down the boardwalk, we had people asking if the kids were models. That's how beautiful are niece and nephew are.
And as much as we love their family, we want them to connect with a church. To experience the joy of Christian community. To experience the joy of a life lived in worship of Christ.
So we looked online and found a great church near their home. Erin's sister said, "yeah, let's go on Sunday." I was so pumped. I was praying for them, hoping this connection with a church would open them up to God's work in their life. But on Saturday night, her sister said, "You can go, but we're not going to be able to come with you. We've got too much to do." She was getting ready to leave that night for another trip, so she spent the morning packing.
We went to the church, it was a great time of worship. And Erin's sister had so much to do, we figured we'd be spending the afternoon by ourselves. But right when we walked through the door, we found out we were going shopping.
So we went to this outlet mall in Delaware, about an hour away. A couple hours of shopping. I hate shopping. In fact, I sat in a TCBY and read a book, until Erin came back and drug me into a store. The whole trip was several hours. And during the hour drive back home, a realization hit me. And it made my heart hurt for their family. I realized that Erin's sister had worshipped that day. She hadn't been in church, but she'd worshipped. She just chose to worship shopping.
We were created with the need to worship. It's hardwired into the fabric of our beings. We must worship. We will worship something. If we're breathing, we're worshipping something. The only question is who or what are we going to worship? The dragon knows he can't win, but he'll do whatever it takes to get people's eyes off Christ. Getting them to worship lesser gods, cheap substitutes.
You see it every Sunday morning. People worshipping something. Maybe it's their lawn. Maybe it's the lake. Their family. Their job. We will worship.
And who we worship isn't defined by how we spend a couple hours on Sunday morning, as important as it is to worship together as community. Who we worship is demonstrated by what we value the rest of the week. How we spend our time. How we spend our money. How we spend our emotional energy. What we obsess about?
I know my lesser god. The temptation I face for time, energy and money. It's sports. I could spend all day on collegefootballnews.com. I spent about a month toying with the idea of getting Dish Network so I could have the Big Ten channel. Nothing wrong with spending $50 a month to have the Dish Network. Not for a lot of people. But it was for me. I felt God say, "Donnie, you don't need to be dropping $600 a year to watch college football and basketball. For me, it would've been an act of false worship. If I'm worshipping God, then my time and money are his.
Chapter 13 ends with the infamous number of the beast. You all know it 6-6-6. So much speculation about that number. From Barney to Ronald Reagan. But it's not really that complicated. If you've ever watched the Superbowl and have seen Roman numerals, then you're close to figuring out the meaning of 666. All the letters of that time, Roman, Hebrew, they all had numerical value. In fact, they didn't have numbers (digits) like we do, their letters doubled as numbers. And just in case John's churches weren't picking up his not-so-subtle hints about Nero, he gave them the number. They way John stretches out this description, it's almost like he's being sarcastic, "you've gotta' be really smart to figure this out." Vs. 18 The Hebrew letters for Nero Ceasar add up to 666. To worship the power of Rome and the personality of Nero was to worship the dragon.
But the meaning of 666 goes beyond the historical figure of Nero. There are 666's all over the place. Remember that in apocalyptic literature, 7 is the perfect number. It's used to represent Christ. Perfection, completeness, holiness. 6 is the counterfeit, the substitute. 6 comes up short of 7.
Whether it's the government, shopping, football, money, even your family. To put at the center of your life anything other than Christ is to worship the beast. It's coming up short. It's settling for cheap substitutes. Don't do it. Don't settle.

God longs to mark us as his own. Not as worshippers of self, of lesser beasts. But to mark us as worshippers of his Son. That's the way life was meant to be lived. We were created to live for Jesus.
Are you ready to be marked as a worshipper of Jesus? Are you done letting your commitment to Christ come in as number 2, 3, 4 on your life's list? Are you ready to worship Christ with your time, your relationships, wallet, your energy.
He's worthy he deserves it. Let's be marked as worshippers of the Son.

Prayer