Where's The Image? Conclusion

 

If you’ve read Daniel and Revelation, you’ll see that one pattern is the consolidation of power.  Mankind’s quest is to consolidate power.  This is at least as old as the Tower of Babel in the book of Genesis.  A time will come when this quest for power will be consummated, and this consummation will be energized by the dragon, Satan.  That’s a pretty basic pattern.  The thing is, even though the antichrist is characterized as a beast in this chapter, he won’t look like a beast to the world, in fact he’ll look like a savior, a person who has the solution to what ails us.

However, if we spend our time looking for an individual to place the tag “antichrist” upon the chances are that we’ll miss him, because the antichrist is more than an individual, it is a way of life, a way of looking at the world, a way of thinking.  And, assuming that the antichrist is one day personified in a person (which may or may not be the case), those who have already lived their lives immersed in a certain way of thinking will not likely recognize him as other than a savior, a wonderful human being.

 

“1JN 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”

 

   I think we can say that the spirit of antichrist was manifested in Cain when he murdered his brother Able and that it’s been with us ever since.  So the first place to look for it is in here, within us, then we can worry about it elsewhere.  That won’t sell books because we don’t like self-examination, but it is something that our spiritual forebearers recognized.

 

You might say that in Revelation 13 we have an unholy trinity, a counterpart to the Holy Trinity; the dragon, the antichrist and the false prophet. 

 

There is a beast in every generation, a false prophet in every generation, an image in every generation, and the number 666 in every generation.  You’ll probably need to give that some thought, but that’s all right. That won’t sell books either, but that’s a Biblical pattern.  However, a generation will come in which this unholy trinity is ultimately personified in one manifestation or in many.  That is, a generation will come in which the power and deception of the dragon finds its ultimate expression in humanity and in a representative (or representatives) of humanity who is opposed to God.

 

The great news is that God has a plan for His people, a plan for His people to be the light of the world, a plan for His people to come into the fullness of their inheritance in Jesus Christ, a plan for His people to bear the image of God no matter how dark the darkness may be.  You see, the encroachment of the powers of evil does not mean that the people of God retreat and hide in holes, but rather that they become the bearers of the Good News of Jesus to a world that so desperately needs to hear and see Him living in and through His people.

 

This is why it is imperative that we live as Christ in this generation.  It is imperative that we bring the light and life of Christ to others, because without us they aren’t going see Jesus.

 

I once had a conversation with someone who does not live in the area, the person has no connection whatsoever with this church.  The person worked in a hospice program at the time, she is a believer in Jesus Christ, and she said to me, “Well, I don’t tell people about Jesus because that’s against policy.”  My friends, if we don’t tell dying people about Jesus then who are we going to tell?

 

We are living in mental and spiritual prisons. We are locked up in our thinking and are living in mental processes that are frankly absurd.  Do we really think on the day when we stand before our Lord Jesus that we can say, “Well Lord, I would have told my coworkers about you but it was against policy”?  Do we seriously think that God Almighty is going to accept those words?

 

How many Christians perished in the World Trade Center alongside fellow workers with whom they had never shared the wonderful news of Jesus Christ?  This is not a game; this is eternal reality.  And all the pluralistic songs and prayer services and sweet cotton candy accolades and singing “God Bless America” will not change the fact that men and women went into eternity on September 11, 2001 not knowing light and life in Jesus Christ.

 

  I do not say this to minimize the tragedy, the human suffering, the incomprehensible loss…I grieve for all of those affected…I grieve for our nation.

 

But I say this to give us a wakeup call to consider the prison our minds are in and to ask us whether we ourselves have bought into a civil religion…are we worshipping the Emperor, have we become members of the Imperial Cult, when we make no distinction between Jesus Christ and other gods?

 

People who are worried about some physical image of a beast being set up somewhere in the Middle East or wherever ought to forget about looking outward and ask God to give them an inner reality check, because the image of the beast to be concerned about is not out there, it is in here, in my heart, in my mind, in my soul…because I’ll never be what God would have me to be if that beast has a safe harbor inside of me…and if he does…then whatever occurs outside of me is really a non-issue because I’ve already internalized the image within me.

 

Well, God has got better things for us, in fact He’s got the very best for us, and we’ll continue this next week.

 

In the meantime, what images are living within our hearts and minds and souls?