Babylon: The City of Man
AI Transcript:
That being said why don't you open your Bibles to Revelation 17. Revelation 17 is where we will be this morning.
I was blessed beyond measure to be able to take my family to Europe last May. And one of the things that I was most excited to see was Martin Luther's Germany. Luther's impact on the Reformation and on Protestant churches as we know it is second to none. And so like any Reformation fan boy, I wanted to see all the Luther spots.
We literally drove all over Germany to hit these landmarks from Wittenberg, the door of the Castle Church where he nailed his 95 theses and the Reformation was underway to Town Church, St. Mary's where he preached as the gospel was being recovered and the Reformation had unstoppable
momentum. I want to see the Luther oak, this symbolic oak tree planted because it was here as the pope gave him orders to recant that in Luther fashion he took a huge crowd and burned the papal bull. I wanted to go to Erfurt where he studied as a monk in this Augustinian monastery.
I wanted to see the Vartberg Castle where Luther was hiding after he refused to recant his teachings at the diet of worms. I stand. I can do no other. Well, because of that, he was declared an outlaw, meaning anyone could have killed him without any legal consequences. But in God's providence, Frederick the Wise kidnapped him and took him to this castle.
where he went by the name, Yonker George, grew a beard, drank a lot of beer and translated the Greek New Testament into German in just 11 months so that the people of God could read the word of God for themselves and not rely on the Roman Catholic Church. By the grace of God in so many different ways and a really loving wife who was in support of us driving all over the Autobahn with three
little kids, I saw all this. And yet Germany was not quite what I expected. Earlier in the trip, Holly and I read the book that Pastor Mark had recommended us to read, Beneath a Starlit Sky. If you've never read this, it's a must. But it got my mind thinking all about Hitler and Nazi Germany.
My focus unexpectedly turned from Reformation history to World War II history. And of course, the question arose, where was the church when all this was going down? Well, like Mark just mentioned a few weeks back, the church was nowhere to be found. Actually, it was worse than that. Sadly, Hitler used some of Luther's not so great words about
Jews at the end of Luther's life for his Nazi mission. And when the church faced religious and political pressure, it succumbed. All those places I just mentioned, those pictures that I just showed, amazing church history in the 16th century. Well, fast forward 400 years, swastika flags hanging from them all.
Fast forward another 80 years today and praise God the swastika flags are gone but now it's replaced by another flag. If you can see that. Go back. Go back. Yep. The rainbow flag. This is the sexual revolution. Luther's church once a place where the gospel was being recovered. Now a place where the Reformation motto post tenebrous lux after
darkness, light was shining bright is now a place where the gospel seems to be lost. A place where the seduction of Babylon seems to have won the day. Oh, but Babylon's seduction is nothing new under the sun. In the early days of the church around the year 200, the church father Tertullian saw some not so
encouraging signs that Babylon was on the move. He lived in Carthage, a city drunk on entertainment, gladiators, chariot races. This was like the epicenter of blood sports. And though Christians were no longer being thrown to lions, praise God for that, Tertullians saw something even more dangerous. Christians were buying tickets. They weren't being
persecuted anymore, they were being entertained. Here's what he said, He once famously said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church as he witnessed the gospel spreading amidst persecution.
But now he warned the early church, these entertainments, these spectacles, this city of man is not neutral. It is forming you, shaping your loves, training your desires, capturing your imagination, reordering your allegiances, producing idols in your heart. And guess what? The church mostly ignored him.
Fast forward a century, Tertullian's warning came true. By the time Constantine arrives, Christians weren't resisting Rome anymore. Rather, they were admiring Rome. They were envying Rome, hoping Rome could help the church, possibly wed the church to Rome herself. Then this happened. Constantine had a vision, according to the historian Eusebius, a vision of the cross.
and a vision of light emanating from it. And then he hears these words in this sign, conquer. The cross, once a symbol of cruciform love, humility, faithful witness, upside down kingdom, power through weakness, became a banner for power and might. Victory by war, political control at all costs.
comfort and security. Constantine had his soldiers mark their shields with the first two letters of Christ. You can put that slide back up. The Cairo. And off to war they went. So much for the sermon on the Mount. And unfortunately, church history is filled with these kind of stories. But none of this just happens.
overnight. Babylon doesn't just show up in our heart one day, rather we sit in its pot and Babylon's water begins to warm and warm and warm some more until we don't even notice we've been cooked. Well, this morning, friends, Revelation 17 wants to warn and encourage. We live
in Babylon. There's no escaping that. But here's the question. Will Babylon live in us? Will Babylon live in us? Well, if you're not already there, Revelation 17 is where we will be.
We'll pick it up this morning right there in verse one.
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters. As we inch closer to the end of Revelation, many of you guys know what's New creation. I can't wait to get there. But before we get to new creation, we're going to continue.
to see, decreation. God is decreating through judgment. The cosmos being undone in order to make way for the new heavens and the new earth. The city of God, new Jerusalem. What we have before us this morning, one of the seven angels who just revealed to us the seven bulls last week.
Well this week he's not moving on to something else but rather giving us some details specifically into the seventh bowl namely Babylon. Oh the great Babylon. Look back at chapter 16 when John is explaining this seventh bowl verse 19 says God remembered Babylon the great to make her drain the cup of the wine of the
fury of his.
That's where we're headed this morning. So buckle up. Maybe you recognize the phrase I read from verse one there in chapter 17. Come and I will show you. It's not the first time John is being shown something in this apocalypse. mean the first verse of this entire book, Revelation 1, 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show, same word, his servants, what
is coming or before we got to the throne room. Holy ground back in chapter four a couple months ago verse one said come up here and I will show you same word. We're going to see it again when John is shown the bride in Revelation 21 and then finally when he is shown the new city New Jerusalem in Revelation 20.
22. This word is important. So let's get our eyes on what John is being shown, namely the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters. Let's keep reading verse two and following.
with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers of the earth have become drunk.
And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names. And it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery, Babylon the Great.
mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Yikes. I almost titled this sermon, The Whore and Her Pimp. How's that for a Thanksgiving message when your mom's in town? Hey, mom.
Whore is a better translation here. This is what God at one point called his own people. Why? Because Israel had abandoned him for other lovers. And this is exactly what this prostitute wants from his church. As Babylon sits on many waters, Babylon is positioned as opposite to the rule of God in the throne room of God. Both of them sit over
and rule their realms. One is the real deal, the other a counterfeit. Hordum here in Revelation 17, as we're going to see, isn't necessarily about sexual immorality either, but rather has everything to do with spiritual treason. As Babylon rides on this beast, this beast, namely this political and cultural system riding over
everything this anti-God empire beast has one purpose. Worship. Drawing worshipers to itself in any form or fashion. So yes, this whore will have religious, cultural, political, and economic influence, but her fundamental mission, idolatry. We see it right there in verse two, and she's good at what she does.
dwellers on the earth are drunk on her wine. Kings of the earth committing sexual immorality with her. What else is going on in this passage? Look at verse three. He carried me away in the spirit, in the spirit into a wilderness. The last time we saw wilderness show up in, in revelation was, was with another woman and the red
dragon in chapter 12 you guys remember that Advent passage well when that woman unlike this one who actually represented the people of God had a son he Jesus Defeats the red dragon and after his ascension what we're told God's people were prepared a place in the wilderness in this wilderness though many of them are going to die
As chapter 12 told us, for they loved not their lives even unto death, God does promise to nourish them, that God will spiritually preserve his people. And now we're back in the wilderness. And in the same place that God's people have been persecuted and preserved, now this woman, Babylon, is judged.
What a turn of events. The one who in verse six is drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus will now herself drink the cup of God's wrath. God will have the last word, friends. And check out that phrase in verse three. Carried me away in the spirit. This is telling us something as well. John is
taken by the Spirit to the wilderness to watch the judgment of Babylon. What's coming in in chapter 21 is John is going to be taken again by the Spirit. Same phrase to a high mountain where now he's going to view New Jerusalem, the bride of Christ. I think a pretty clear question before us this morning, a question that this book has been asking us each
And every week is simply, you on team whore or team bride? Are you citizens of Babylon or New Jerusalem? Are you rocking with the lamb or the beast? Of course, nobody's going to raise their hand. Team whore, team whore, team whore, Pastor Rick. But like the saying goes, better the enemy you know.
than the one you don't. Revelation 17 wants to warn us this morning, church, by showing us who Babylon is. Because it's much better to know Babylon than to be quietly shaped by her. Well, this whore who has a name written on her forehead, which we've seen in Revelation signifies who you belong to, where your allegiance lies.
Well, for her forehead says Babylon the Great. What exactly is Babylon? Well, if you remember the story early in Genesis, the Tower of Babel, yeah, it goes all the way back. The Tower of Babel was the story after the flood in which the people of the world longed to make a name for themselves. Instead of worshipping God,
they wanted to be God. Well, later on in the Bible, Babylon becomes a great empire, a real people that destroy God's holy temple and takes Judah even into exile. The prophet Daniel, who interprets dreams and visions, identifies Babylon as the greatest of all kingdoms. John actually borrows this phrase Babylon the great from Daniel himself in Daniel
430, where Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar is bragging about the empire he built. And if you know that story, his pride, his self-reliance and his idolatry are what lead to his downfall. And then of course, the Prince of prophets, Isaiah, finally predicts the destruction of Babylon that happens in our passage. Here's what he says about her.
Fallen fallen is Babylon and then he says and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground Babylon is simply anti-god. It's a counterfeit God and in Revelation 17 Babylon is also Rome look down at the second half of verse 6 When I saw her I marveled greatly
But the angel said to me, why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with the seven heads and 10 horns that carries her. Jump to verse nine. This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains or hills on which the woman is seated. Now that can very easily fly over our heads and we can do all sorts of speculation here, but it would not have flown over the heads of John's
original audience. is a clear way of saying Rome. Like if I were to say to you all, just got back from the city of brotherly love. You know, I'd been in Philly. The city on seven hills is another way of saying Rome. And so this mystery is actually that Babylon lives on friends in this passage. It's Rome for sure. But one of the key
Phrases here is Babylon the great mother of whores She's a mother of more Babylon so like one commentator says but the whore is Rome yet more than Rome or New Testament scholar Thomas Schreiner says Rome is Babylon but Rome doesn't exhaust Babylon as a mother Rome has her own children who are also children of harlotry
The harlotry, as we have seen, doesn't center on sexual sin, but on the worship of the creature rather than the creator, on the de-godding of the one true God and the exaltation of the city of man over the city of God. The mystery is that ancient Babylon lives on in the city of Rome and in all the cities of the world that fall prey to idolatry. In every city that lives for the luxuries and comforts of
this world. Yikes. What do you all think? Do we live in Babylon? I mean, our town statue in Parker is the self-made man for crying out loud. Richard Bauckham says, if the description of Babylon fits a society, a system, a nation, or a culture, then it is Babylon. Babylon is not simply Rome. It is everywhere Rome-like. The embodiment of every idolatrous empire.
If the cap fits, wear it. So, so is America a one to one comparison to ancient Rome? No, certainly not. But, are there Rome like things about America and the American dream? for sure.
Whether that's political dominance, idolatry, comfort, pleasure, entertainment, forceful militarized power, economic injustice, trafficking of humans, sexual perversion and sexual immorality, abuse of religion, racism, sexism, go on and on and on. Yes, we live in Babylon, but what is encouraging is this. The church has always lived in Babylon.
If you remember the church in Thyatira back in chapter two, in their letter from Jesus, they were killing it on all sorts of fronts. Love, check. Faith, check. Serving, check. Patient endurance, check. Christian maturity, check. I mean, this looks like a healthy church to me. Jesus has this against them. She tolerates that woman, Jezebel, another daughter of...
the whore, producing in them idolatry as they begin to give their allegiance elsewhere. Revelation scholar G.K. Beale says, false teaching of Jezebel is none other than the ideology of the world. Jezebel and her followers are none other than Babylon herself in the midst of the church. And so back to the question, are you a citizen of Babylon or new?
Jerusalem. Are you a citizen of the city of man or the city of God? Are you following the lamb and his teachings or do you get your ideology from the world? Let's keep going. Look with me at verse 10.
They are also seven Kings, five of whom have fallen. One is the other has not yet come. And when he does come, he must remain only a little while. If you've been tracking with us through this apocalyptic book, you know, by now numbers are symbolic. are metaphors. This beast, the woman is riding on with 10 horns, which, which is pulled from Daniel seven, revelation 13. And the seven heads remind us that that Babylon is.
supported by satanic powers of chaos and evil. That's her pimp beast. Verse nine tells us the seven heads are also seven mountains where she sits. And then by verse 10, they're also seven Kings. What is going on again? Could be easy to speculate here and start counting emperors, try, try to figure out kind of where we are and where we might be headed. But, but I think it's easier than that.
Number seven, perfection, completion. These Kings represent the entire oppressive and unjust power of world government throughout the ages. The number five simply shows us that these empires come and go and six, like we know from the mark of the beast is the number of man, which indicates to us the activity of
Babylon and the beast for all generations.
This includes us until the return of Christ or in John's words only a little while longer. Let's keep going. Verse 12. And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour together with the beast. These are one mind and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. Again, not literal ten kings, but figurative for great power.
But, but, power used in the wrong way. This is all anti-God. Friends, Revelation is not about a woman on a beast. It's about a culture that seduces us away from God. If you get one thing this morning, get this. I'll say it again. Revelation isn't about a woman on a beast. It's about a-
culture that seduces us away from God. It's about systemic power systems saying give us your allegiance and we'll give you the world. At first glance Babylon is drop-dead gorgeous. I mean look at her description here. Purple, scarlet, gold, jewels, pearls. She always comes toward us dressed up like something we feel
we need, but isn't that seduction at its finest? Gets us to say, hey, I deserve this. It's not that bad. I can manage this. Other Christians do this. And this seduction comes at us from all different directions. It's economic seduction. Come shop your way to happiness.
Comfort and ease is salvation. Christmas is all about stuff and your family's happiness. It's achievement seduction. If you grind hard enough, you'll be somebody. Your worth is in what you produce. Rest is for the weak. Ouch. I personally want to believe that's ambition, but it's not. It's an empire demanding
worship. It's identity seduction. Live your truth. Sounds like every Disney movie I watched up girl. I grew up watching. Live your truth. Let your desires define you. Hey, you can even choose your own gender. It's the digital empire. Scroll, scroll, just keep on scrolling. Give us your attention. We'll reorder your loves.
course it's political seduction. If our guy wins, we're saved. If their guy wins, we're doomed. And friends, side note, Babylon doesn't care if you bow left or bow right. has one goal, get you to bow. Revelation 17 pulls back the curtain and says, this is where you live.
And the city of man, in the words of St. Augustine, is trying to shape your worship, whether you know it or not. Now, praise God for these two words, one hour, that this too shall pass. But we need to know where we live, church. The call here is not to leave Babylon, but rather, Revelation is a prophetic call to follow the Lamb.
in the land of the whore. Look with me at verse 15 and following. the angel said to me, the waters that you saw where the prostitute is seated are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. Man, I love when they just give us the answer right there. And then 10 horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh.
and burn her up with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth. I don't have time to go into all the details here, but let me say this. It is all going to collapse on itself.
John's borrowing this language from Ezekiel 23 where God warned that corrupt nations would be stripped naked, made desolate, and burned with fire. Now it's being applied to Babylon and it shows us something important. Evil eventually devours itself. The very powers that built up Babylon will turn on her and burn her to the ground.
We know this, right? Sin always collapses from the inside. It tells us we can manage it just a little more until we realize we can't. You can't walk in darkness and lie. The beast and the prostitute use each other and then destroy each other. But don't think for a minute that any of this escapes the sovereign plan of God.
John is clear, verse 17, this is all God. For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose. Oh, the doctrine of God's sovereignty, the doctrine of God's providence in this crazy world out there for sure. if we're honest in our lives as well, this is the pillow we can sleep on.
Amen. Well, maybe you're thinking you, skipped a few verses Rick and you'd be right. So let's go there now and look with me back at verse eight.
The beast that you saw was and is not and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast because it was and is not and is to come. We'll wait to address the bottomless pit in Revelation 20. But I do want you to notice something here. Maybe you already have.
The beast that you saw was and is not and is headed for destruction. This is a play on words. This is Bible trash talk at its finest. All throughout Revelation, we've seen a different threefold description. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.
The beast it was now it's not and it's headed for destruction. Again GK Bill points out that the parody of that phrase was and is not for Christ's death and resurrection. This is the gospel friends. The beast is not because of the good news of what Jesus did to him on the cross. On the cross Jesus defeated sin, death.
evil, worldly power, Satan and all of his minions, including the beast and the whore. And thus do the math because of the cross, the victory of God as the crucified King, the beast, Babylon and all her followers, those whose names have not been written in the Lamb's Book of Life are headed towards destruction.
And with a room this size, I have to say something here because there are some in this room, just statistically, that are headed for destruction. If this account of Babylon and her followers, if this describes you this morning, maybe the Spirit of God is convicting you right now.
It's not too late, but our passage does tell us we're in the final hour. This morning you can turn from your sin and by faith you can choose to follow the lamb in the land of the whore. Those who follow the lamb, Paul says, they are new creations in Christ. Look at verse 11. As for the beast.
that was and is not and is it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven and it goes to destruction again destruction is the destination for those following the beast but for us following Christ those following the lamb who on the eighth day rose from the dead to bring about new creation in our lives now and one day our future the new heavens.
the new earth, the city of God that awaits the people of God. Finally, look with me at verse 14. They will make war on the lamb and the lamb will conquer them. For he is the Lord of lords and King of kings and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. Jesus wins, friends.
The lamb conquers all of his enemies. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And he's not the only conqueror here. There are those with him. He's doing the conquering, but there are those with him, the called, the chosen, the faithful, namely his church. Us, we are overcomers with him. Amen. Amen.
One of the things we did not have on our itinerary during our time in Germany was to visit a concentration camp. after, again, my total reading just shifted on this trip, but after Holly and I listened to a Bonhoeffer biography, we had to check out one of the places where he was held, Buchenwald. Buchenwald. This was...
hard to try to explain to your little kids what went down here. And with a name like Eisenberg, they would have been in a place like this. Explaining what happened in the neck shot room, in the oven room, the crematorium. I'll never forget what Shiloh, my four year old at the time said to me in the oven room.
Dad? So these people who were doing this, they were bad, right? Yes, I. This is pure evil. but what a joy it was to tell them about the German Lutheran pastor, theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who didn't just write the book.
the cost of discipleship. It's one thing to write a book. It's something else entirely to live it out. The cost of his discipleship was his very life. He's one of the few Christians that have a place of honor in the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. he could have chilled with all sorts of ministry opportunities in the U.S. but decided he couldn't choose comfort and security over witness.
In his words, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. Bonhoeffer did just that. And the only way he knew how to be a faithful follower of the lamb in the land of the whore and the whore got drunk off his blood. What about us? In what ways is Babylon seducing you this morning?
Are there any areas in your life that you are being formed by her? Our prophetic call from Revelation 17 this morning is to follow the Lamb in the land of the whore. And then this isn't just a call to play defense. This is a call for church to go on offense.
What areas in Babylon, the city of man that you find yourselves in, can you bring in the city of God?
Folks wonder if persecution is coming to America or when is persecution coming to America? As I read this passage, my thought is why would persecution need to come here when so many in the church are drinking the whore's wine of comfort and security. But imagine, just imagine, imagine a church that lived as
exiles in Babylon. A church whose worship, allegiance, and witness were for the Lamb and His Kingdom. I want to be a part of church like that. Amen. Amen. Let me pray.