Sermon Tone Analysis

Good afternoon.

Last week we saw kind of the thousand foot view of the final battle that is yet to come.

And now we are going to spend the next two weeks at around the hundred foot mark.

We are going to be given a more detailed picture of what is to happen during that final battle between Jesus and Satan.

But because we are still a good ways overhead there are going to be a lot of details that we simply will not be able to see clearly.

The next two chapters are dedicated to the fall or destruction of Babylon.

And Babylon is representative of all of the worldly systems that stand against Christ Jesus as King.

And the big question that the next two chapters is going to beg us to ask and in fact one of the questions that the entire book begs us to ask over-and-over again is.

Whose side are you really on?

This world is and has always been spiritually bankrupt.

And yet we all at times seem to go to the world in order to find those things that only Jesus is able to provide.

Look.

If you end your day feeling good about yourself because the world respects you or sees value in you?

What is that truly worth?

Or perhaps we find security in the fact that we have been diligent in saving enough money to ensure a nice retirement?

Or perhaps we feel good about where we are in life because we know what our agenda is, our goals are set, and we are chasing our dreams.

Now hear me out and I need you to listen well.

Please don’t tune me out just yet.

I am not saying that these things in and of themselves are necessarily evil or bad.

What I am saying is that all too often we allow the world and its lies to distract from the true source of respect, or security, or self worth.

Just to name a few very subtle ways that our world seeks to replace Jesus with the lies and distractions of Satan.

What we need is to be freed from the spiritually bankrupt and broken promises of this world, and instead we need to see God’s power to provide freely everything that the world is trying to sell us.

One of the most difficult things for us to see and understand is that this world doesn’t love us.

It says it does, but it simply does not.

Fallen humanity loves only themselves.

And we need to see every foothold that Babylon has in our lives fall away.

We need to hear the clear call of Jesus to come out of Babylon and to find rest and refuge in the Land of Promise.

And my hope is that we can see here in Revelation chapter eighteen exactly what we need.

So let’s begin.

In the first three verses we read the announcement so to speak of Babylon’s Fall

In verse one we read.

An angel from heaven appears and we are told that this angel has great authority.

That is because it has been sent by God Almighty.

It has come in the authority of God Almighty.

Also I would say that this angel comes forth from the very presence of God and that is why it says that the earth was made bright with the glory of the angel.

We saw something similar but on a much smaller scale when Moses descended from the mountain after speaking with God.

He literally glowed from the glory that had been revealed to Him by the mere presence of God almighty.

And I believe that here we are seeing a very similar experience.

Then in verse two the angel calls out and we read.

One of the traps that we have a tendency to fall into when reading these last several chapters is not seeing Babylon clearly.

Here we are told that Babylon has already fallen and that Babylon has become a dwelling place for demons, unclean spirits, birds, and detestable beasts.

We need to remember that this is speaking of the world in which we live right now, not simply the seat of power of Satan during the end times.

We need to remember that we are living today in Babylon.

This is how we should see this passage here and now today.

Most of us don’t like to look for or see the demonic powers that are at work all around us each and every day.

I also want to argue caution in regards to this as well.

We can not go through life blaming Satan for everything bad that occurs within our lives.

Then in verse three we read just why such judgment is going to come upon Babylon and we read..

This says that ALL nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.

This means ALL nations.

No nation is separated out.

Not Israel.

Not America.

We like to look at our founding principles and say that they are based upon Christian principles and so therefore we live in a “Christian” nation.

But, this says that America has been seduced by Babylon and is fallen.

Also this statement concerning sexual immorality is simply speaking of only those sins that are sexually immoral, but rather this is used symbolically of the myriad of sins that our world is caught up in.

Now, we might claim that it is very interesting that our world has truly been caught up in a very unique in striving to give a stamp of approval on sexual immorality in a way that we have never seen in the history of our world.

Is there a connection?

I don’t know, there are certainly similarities.

This essentially says that those who are the political leaders (the kings) and the economic leaders (the merchants) of the world have been seduced by worldly desires and passions and they have succumb.

They have ALL fallen.

Not one stands apart from the world as a truly godly leader.

David the greatest king of Israel was seduced by power and riches to make foolish sinful decisions concerning his rule.

Solomon his son who is said to be the wisest man to have lived was just as easily seduced by the false promises of the world.

And rather than looking to Jesus to fulfill their every need, they sought fulfillment in the seductions of Babylon, the worldly systems in which we find our lives so entangled every day.

We will one day have the opportunity to see David and Solomon face-to-face in heaven.

Because our salvation from the seductions of Babylon do not come from our great deeds.

Instead our hope is found only in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Then there is a shift and there is a warning that comes from a voice from the heavens.

This warning is found in verses four and five where we read.

The fall of Babylon has been announced and a voice calls out to the people of God to flee from the destruction that is to come upon Babylon.

There are very clear allusions here to the angels who were sent to Lot and told Lot to take his family and flee from Sodom.

And here’s the question we should each ask ourselves.

First, are we fleeing from Babylon and the world.

Are we actually trying to flee from the seductions of the world to sin? Are we like Lot? Or are we like his wife, who longingly looks back and only sees the loss of where her heart truly wants to be.

Don’t be like Lot’s wife.

Because if you are you will take part in her sins and you will share in her plagues.

This is a picture of repentance.

When we repent are we truly turning away from the world and the sins of this world and turning to Jesus and Jesus alone to fulfill the needs that we have in life.

There is another shift in verses six through eight and the voice from heaven now cries out for vengeance against Babylon.

And we read in verse six.

This is language that is very similar to what we saw in chapter six where the martyred saints cried out for God to enact vengeance upon those who martyred them.

Now we need to all remember today that this cry for vengeance is not the enactment of vengeance by those who were martyred.

In Matthew chapter five we are told by Jesus to walk kindly and in love towards our enemies.

This should be a characteristic that marks the life of a disciple of Jesus.

In fact in Romans chapter twelve verse nineteen where God tells us to never take vengeance into our own hands, but rather God says “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.”

God alone knows the heart of the person who wronged us and He alone will act justly.

We simply do not and will not.

And so when this fallen world falls all over your life.

Cry out for vengeance while allowing the Holy Spirit to control your life.

This cry continues and we read in verses seven and eight.

Babylon has seduced the world into believing that safety and security and prosperity will surely follow wherever she treads and so just follow in her footsteps she says and receive the blessing of her presence.

However all those who follow here have been deceived and they walk each day of their lives straight towards destruction all the while thinking they are living the good life.

And when God chooses to finally act he will act swiftly.

This will not all come to pass in a single day.

But those several years that His wrath is felt will feel by the end as though it had been one endless nightmare.

The destruction of Babylon will be complete.

So, I ask what in this world, within this Babylon are you hanging on to?

Now there is yet again another shift in our passage and the kings of the earth, the merchants of the earth, and the seafarers (I don’t know where they came from in our passage, but they are going to pop up) they are all going to mourn the destruction and fall of Babylon.

But, this is what I want each of us to see.