KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
October 8, 2006
(Show clip about bullying.)1
Raise your hand if you have ever suffered at the hands of bullies. I did. All I have to do is show you pictures of me as a kid, and you would see why. I was the smart, fat kid with the bad clothes. I got bullied a lot.
Let me introduce you to another bully. This is really the bully of all bullies. His story is in Revelation 13:1-10.
The first Beast is a big bully. The beast looks mean and ugly.2 He is a mutant: part leopard, part bear, part lion, with 7 heads and 10 horns. This all means he is terrible and powerful. He pretends to be the world’s hero, but really he is the world’s tyrant. He rules the world 42 months, 3 1/2 years, the whole time of the Big Trouble.
The Bully Beast wages war against anyone who stands in his way, specifically the people of God. He has power over them and everyone else. The Bully Beast exercises power through propaganda and name-calling, prisons and executions. His single goal is to scare people away from God, away from the Lamb.
The Bully Beast was loud and active in the time of Revelation. Christians were repeatedly imprisoned and persecuted because they refused to offer sacrifices to Roman gods.
But the Bully Beast has had power in every century. The issue is not so much “who” the Beast is but “how” the Beast acts. The Bully Beast acts from an appearance of rightness to employ power over other people to dominate them, to suppress them, to force them into service. Wherever this dominating power shows up, there is the Beast.
Dan Boone explains that the Bully Beast “is alive and well today. He rules in every inflated ego, every power play, and every manipulative move. The dragon himself inflates human pride and arrogance to the point of oppressing our fellow humans for selfish gain. The beast shows up in every rape, robbery, lie, racial slur, sexual harassment, or church split. Wherever power is used to destroy the life God intended for us, the beastly bully is at work.”3
How does the Bully Beast act out in our world, in our city? Maybe the Bully Beast is a boss pressuring you to work too much overtime. Maybe the Bully Beast shows up in a system that uses and abuses foreign laborers. Maybe the Bully Beast takes the form of a college entrance exam. Maybe the Bully Beast shows up in our own voices when we fight for our rights. Maybe the Bully Beast is there when we scheme about how we can manipulate systems or people to get what we want.
The Bully Beast is still here and still active. But he has a friend. He has a public relations manager. His PR man is the Con-Artist Beast. Let’s read about him in Revelation 13:11-18.
Look again at verse 14: “And with all the miracles he was allowed to perform on behalf of the first beast, he deceived all of the people who belong to this world.” The second beast is the Con Beast, the trickster, the deceiver. Watch this clip of one of the greatest human conmen who ever lived. (Show trailer of Catch Me If You Can to 1:29.4)
Frank Abagnale ran away from home at the age of 16. He started his con life by forging checks. For five years he toured the world, funded by his fake checks. He posed as pilot, a lawyer, a doctor, and a university professor. By the time he was finally caught, he had stolen 2.5 million dollars.5 Frank Abagnale was a master liar. He could make almost anyone believe almost anything.
The second beast, the Con Beast, is like Frank. He can make almost anyone believe almost anything. He has lots of little tricks and forgeries, but like the Bully Beast, he has one main goal: to get people away from God and the Lamb. The Con Beast gets people to worship the Bully Beast because they think he’s right or because they want to be comfortable in this world or because they think they don’t have any other choice. He doesn’t care why people worship the Bully Beast. He just wants to pull them away from the Lamb.
The Con Beast works just like other con artists. www.fraudaid.com explains how con men work.6 A con artist’s basic approach is to change his victim’s perception of reality. A con artist will “distract you from what’s really going on [by] using lies laced with enough truth to make [it] believable.” Then, “YOU ARE IN A BOX. YOU HAVE GIVEN AWAY YOUR FREEDOM. THE CON ARTIST NOW OWNS YOU HEART AND SOUL. Or so he would like you to think.”
Doesn’t this sound just like Satan, the great deceiver?! Satan uses the two beasts to pressure us and to trick us into doing life his way. He tries to make us feel that living life his way is the only reasonable option.
In fact, living life Satan’s way is “the mark of the beast.”7 Despite some predictions, the beast is not: the Pope, Martin Luther, Hitler, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Regan, Bill Gates, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or even Barney the purple Dinosaur.
The mark of the beast has more meaning than that. Nero may have been intended at first, but 666 is not limited to any one person. It is a way of life. In the Bible 7 is the perfectly complete number, especially in Revelation: 7 churches, 7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 of just about everything. 6 is the number of incompleteness, almost, and compromise. 666 symbolizes evil and compromise with the world, giving incomplete things that aren’t God the place of God in our life.
The whole point of Revelation is to encourage people to claim God as King, to recognize through our lives and our actions that Jesus Christ is King of the universe. The mark of the Beast is the exact opposite of this. There are only two choices: “Seek first Jesus’ kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) or take the mark of the beast.
This week I have thought a lot about how the Con Beast works. I have asked myself what lies the Con Man tells us to try to get us to take his mark. In the spirit of David Letterman and The Late Show, let me offer you a top ten list: The Beast’s Top Ten Lies.
10. There is no need to think. The lie is: we don’t need to think about how we are living life or consider whether we are really satisfied with the life we are living. The truth is: once we start examining life, we open the door for the Holy Spirit to show us how to live a better life.
9. Grace is not real. The lie is that we have to depend on ourselves and our own actions. Maybe others can have grace but not us. If we believe that, we take one big step away from the Lamb. The truth is that God’s grace is real and is really the only way.
8. Beauty is on the outside. The lie is that what’s happening on the outside is the most important: clothes, body shape, athleticism. The truth is that the Spirit’s work in our hearts is what matters most. That’s where the real beauty is.
7. This life and this world are all there is. The lie is that we better “store up our treasures here on earth” (Matthew 6:19). The truth is that living life God’s way gives us treasures that can never be stolen or destroyed.
6. What we “believe” matters more than what we do. The lie is that if we “believe” all the right stuff, it doesn’t matter much what we do. We can go to church one day and lie to our boss the next day. The truth is that our actions reveal what we really believe.
5. X can give us long term happiness. The lie is that a comfortable couch, or a fun vacation, or the perfect man, or the sexiest woman, or the perfect job will make us happy. This is the lie that drives the hakwon industry, the love motels, the tourism industry, and the high stress over test scores. The truth is: nothing can satisfy us except seeking God and his kingdom (Matthew 6:33).
4. My family’s greatest needs are financial security and material comfort. The lie is that we need to work more and more to provide for our families. The truth is that our kids and our spouses need us more than our money!
3. We are only responsible for ourselves and our family. The lie is that if we can draw a line of responsibility around our families and ignore the rest of the world. The truth is that we are in this world together with everyone else. The health of the entire world is our concern as Christians.
2. A biblical life is unreasonable. The lie is that all of the truths stated up to now are unreasonable and impossible to live. The truth is that this is the path to real life: trusting in Christ enough to live like Christ.
1. We don’t have choices. The greatest lie of all is that, although the truth may sound good, in reality we don’t have any choices. We are still stuck in the current system which requires us to live in ways we really don’t want to live. The truth is that in Christ we always have choices! The message of the Revelation is that we always have choices! No matter what the cost, we can always choose Christ! And choosing Christ will always be well worth the price.
Dan Boone tells a story about a time he saw a bully bullying a little kid.8 He came around the corner just in time to hear the bully say: “You give me your dollar, or I’m gonna knock you into infinity and beyond.” The little kid was scared. He was holding his dollar with a shaking hand. Dan snuck up behind the bully. The little kid could see him, but the bully had no idea he was there. Dan Boone is a big guy, and he outweighed the bully by about 100 pounds (40 kilos), so the little kid gained some confidence. He held onto his dollar and started to talk back to the bully. The bully got madder and red in the face, and the little kid started to giggle. Finally, the bully pulled his fist back to punch the kid in the face, but Dan grabbed the bully’s hand. The bully melted to the ground, and the little kid burst out in laughter.
Church, the Beast is bearing down on us like a big, lying bully. He is trying to intimidate us and trick us into giving him our lives. He’s punching his hand and screaming all kinds of lies: “My way’s the only way. You’ve got to work, work, work. If you want something in this world, you’ve got to take it. There’s just no choice. If you want a real life, you have to play by the world’s rules. Give me your dollar or I’ll ruin your life! I might even kill you.”
Church, look up! Jesus is standing behind the Bully. He outweighs the Beast by a million pounds. He’s saying, “It’s not true. The Beast is lying. Trust me. Live my Kingdom way. Let me be your King. I will give you true life.” Church, don’t be fooled. Don’t be tricked into giving away your life. Jesus is with us. Look up, and live for Jesus!
1 View this clip at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=291925848254403850&pr=goog-sl.
2 See Ted Larson’s picture of the first beast at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~theoson/Beast%20from%20the%20Sea.htm.
3 Dan Boone, Answers for Chicken Little, (Kansas City: Beacon Hill, 2005), 86-87.
4 You can watch this video clip on Yahoo Movies at:
5 “Frank Abagnale,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale. Downloaded 10.4.06.
6 http://www.fraudaid.com/What-a-Con-artist-Will-Tell-You.htm and
http://www.fraudaid.com/What-a-Con-artist-Looks-For-in-a-Scam-Victim.htm.
7 See Ted Larson’s picture of this at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~theoson/Mark%20of%20the%20Beast.htm.
8 Boone, 82 and 87.
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