Revelation 18 - the world system is judged
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Revelation 18: Babylon has fallen
Revelation 18: Babylon has fallen
The Fall of Babylon the Great
1 After this I saw another angel with great authority coming down from heaven, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.
2 He called out in a mighty voice: It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen! She has become a home for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, and a haunt for every unclean and despicable beast.
3 For all the nations have drunk the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath. The kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from her sensuality and excess.
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven: Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins or receive any of her plagues.
5 For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
6 Pay her back the way she also paid, and double it according to her works. In the cup in which she mixed, mix a double portion for her.
7 As much as she glorified herself and indulged her sensual and excessive ways, give her that much torment and grief. For she says in her heart, “I sit as a queen; I am not a widow, and I will never see grief.”
8 For this reason her plagues will come in just one day— death and grief and famine. She will be burned up with fire, because the Lord God who judges her is mighty.
9 The kings of the earth who have committed sexual immorality and shared her sensual and excessive ways will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke from her burning.
10 They will stand far off in fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! For in a single hour your judgment has come.
11 The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo any longer—
12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; all kinds of fragrant wood products; objects of ivory; objects of expensive wood, brass, iron, and marble;
13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine flour, and grain; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and slaves—human lives.
14 The fruit you craved has left you. All your splendid and glamorous things are gone; they will never find them again.
15 The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand far off in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning,
16 saying, Woe, woe, the great city, dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls;
17 for in a single hour such fabulous wealth was destroyed! And every shipmaster, seafarer, the sailors, and all who do business by sea, stood far off
18 as they watched the smoke from her burning and kept crying out, “Who was like the great city?”
19 They threw dust on their heads and kept crying out, weeping, and mourning, Woe, woe, the great city, where all those who have ships on the sea became rich from her wealth; for in a single hour she was destroyed.
20 Rejoice over her, heaven, and you saints, apostles, and prophets, because God has pronounced on her the judgment she passed on you!
21 Then a mighty angel picked up a stone like a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, In this way, Babylon the great city will be thrown down violently and never be found again.
22 The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters will never be heard in you again; no craftsman of any trade will ever be found in you again; the sound of a mill will never be heard in you again;
23 the light of a lamp will never shine in you again; and the voice of a groom and bride will never be heard in you again. All this will happen because your merchants were the nobility of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.
24 In her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all those slaughtered on the earth.
How do you know if our society’s beliefs, our beliefs even, are correct? I mean as a world we have learnt over the centuries what is kind. We have advanced, in general, as a society. For example, globally slavery is outlawed, where as once it was legal.
Modern medicine has drastically changed the life expectancy and quality of life of people around the world.
Broadly speaking people’s human rights are enshrined into laws that are upheld by nations.
Of course there is corruption in the world and of course not all governments or police forces treat people rightly. But in general the world is as good as it has ever been for the average person alive. Of course this is particularly true for us living in a wealthy western nation.
And then there are hte more recent changes that have come into being over the last few decades. Recently in Australia there has been the so called redefinition of marriage, there was the lockdowns throughout covid of which Melbourne was the strictest. To think of just a few, We have gone through the black lives matter movement, the me too movement, the broader environmentalism movement, the gay pride movement, and the change the date of Australia day movement.
And each and every time, these movements, these pushes to change how we live as a society is presented as the right and loving thing to do. Every time we are told somethign along the lines of
It is now 2023, get on board, to do the *insert cause here* thing. Because if you don;t you are oppressive, you are unloving, look everyone around you is already on board, already actively supporting *insert cause here*. So if you don’t get on board you are on the wrong side of history.
In 20 years time you will look back at your decisions today and you will be ashamed of the damage you caused to *insert group of people/planet here*. You will be embarrassed that you were on the wrong side of history.
And so with so many different voices screaming for our attention, demanding we change our lives, demanding we change our perspective, demanding we get on the right side of history, how are meant to navigate this world?
Because the world will tell us, if you do these things, if you sign up for these causes, if you get on board, you will be happy. You will be successful. You will be on the right side of history.
but how does God see the way the world runs? What is his view of how everything works?
you see revelation 17-21 you see the contrast between the two great cities of the world.
Babylon is the city that represents the systems of power and influence that the world runs under.
IT is really a symbol for the world system.
It is how the world works.
So how are we supposed to live in this era?
How are we opposed to think about the way the world works?
And How can we be happy in this world? of the fall of babylon?
Revelation 18 gives us the answers.
So let’s have a look. And the first thing our text teaches us is:
Babylon offers us absolute freedom as the path to happiness
Babylon offers us absolute freedom as the path to happiness
What does babylon offer people as the solution to our problems?
what does she offer us as the way to make our lives and the lives of those around us better?
in rev 18 it’s these thing:
It is money,
Or power,
Or pleasure,
Or or luxury,
Or pr fame.
Babylon is a picture of all of these things.
And those are the exact same things, our world tells us will make us happy.
if you have these thigns,
if you have money,
or power, or pleasure, or luxury or fame,
you will be happy.
You will have made it.
Your life will be complete.
Notice some of the things that Babylon values,
that Babylon,
the world,
tells us to pursue.
3 For all the nations have drunk the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath. The kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from her sensuality and excess.
Drunkenness, and substance abuse
sexual expression which goes against God’ s design for sex in marriage,
, sensuality,
wealth and power,
and excess, - having and consuming more than we need.
If you have this - you will be happy. the world tells us.
This is what real freedom looks like.
Go on, pursue these things, because the more free you are to do these things the happier, better and more loving you will be.
and actually it must be right, because look
Everyone is doing it. Everyone wants the same stuff. It must be worth having. IT is what will give you life, it is what will satisfy the gnawing hunger in your soul.
And as soon as you get it, you will see, you will be happy.
We pursue our careers,
because we believe
that when we ultimately make it,
when we get that promotion,
THEN we will be satisfied,
THEN we will finally be happy.
We seek our satisfaction in relationships.
We think if I could just get that guy,
or if she would just love me,
THEN I would be happy.
We do this with our kids too
, we think that as long as our kids love us
, then we will be satisfied.
We seek our satisfaction in pleasure,
whether the pleasure of entertainment,
or drugs,
or alcohol,
or sex.
OR whatever brings us pleasure.
But ultimately the pleasure fades,
and we are back to our empty lives.
We seek our satisfaction in money.
If only I have enough,
then I will feel safe,
then I will feel secure.
If only I earnt a bit more,
then I would be satisfied,
then it would be enough for us.
And yet,
when the promotion comes,
or the inheritance comes,
ultimately that extra cash is meaningless.
And leaves you just as dissatisfied as before.
Why is this?
Why do we get surprised by this?
Friends this is because we have been living the Babylon dream
. We have been chasing the things
that the Babylon system
has been telling us
will give us what our hearts truly crave.
But the reality is
, that our world is broken,
our world doesn’t work quite the way it is supposed to.
Ever since sin came into the world,
it hasn’t worked properly.
The world is disappointing.
The greatest pleasure the world can offer us,
in the end disappoints us.And just leaves us wanting more.
And just leaves us wanting more.
It does not matter what we think the greatest pleasure is,
in the end it disappoints us.
Pursing satisfaction
, pursuing happiness in this way is foolishness.
Listenign to the world and following the world as a source of meaning in your life, is utterly foolish.
IT will never truly satisfy us.
It might give us a temporary hit of satisfaction,
but that always fades,
and leaves us ever more empty.
That is the first lesson we learn today:
Doing things the world’s way wont make you happy.
The second lesson we learn from our text is that
Babylon’s way of doin things will come to an end one day.
Babylon’s way of doin things will come to an end one day.
9 The kings of the earth who have committed sexual immorality and shared her sensual and excessive ways will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke from her burning.
10 They will stand far off in fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! For in a single hour your judgment has come.
11 The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo any longer—
12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; all kinds of fragrant wood products; objects of ivory; objects of expensive wood, brass, iron, and marble;
13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine flour, and grain; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and slaves—human lives.
14 The fruit you craved has left you. All your splendid and glamorous things are gone; they will never find them again.
15 The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand far off in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning,
16 saying, Woe, woe, the great city, dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls;
17 for in a single hour such fabulous wealth was destroyed! And every shipmaster, seafarer, the sailors, and all who do business by sea, stood far off
18 as they watched the smoke from her burning and kept crying out, “Who was like the great city?”
19 They threw dust on their heads and kept crying out, weeping, and mourning, Woe, woe, the great city, where all those who have ships on the sea became rich from her wealth; for in a single hour she was destroyed.
20 Rejoice over her, heaven, and you saints, apostles, and prophets, because God has pronounced on her the judgment she passed on you!
Look at what happens to all that the world offers you.
Babylon with all her riches, her glamour, her fame, her beauty, her pleasure, her power - everything she had going for her - is wiped out in a single our.
And all of a sudden those who have lived by her don’t know what to do.
the world is in deep mourning.
They sing a dirge – a funeral song,
over the death of the world system.
Why do they mourn?
Because all the things they loved have been taken away.
The kings cry because their pleasures have been snatched from them.
The merchants cry because their money making opportunities have been taken away.
The sailors and sea captains cry because the source of their power and might have been taken away.
The very things that these groups valued most
, were destroyed,
were taken away.
And it so shakes their world, that they feel as if the world has ended.
But notice who it is that cries over Babylon,
it is the kings
, the merchants
, and those who do business by sea.
These are the very people who did so well
out of the world’s existing system.
The merchants bought and sold and got rich off the sale of all the thigns Babylon offered.
The kings of the world enjoyed the visceral pleasures of the prostitute Babylon.
The ship captains mourn because the source of their great wealth and power
has been taken away from them.
And notice friends how deep and bitter their mourning is.
V19: They threw dust on their heads and kept crying out, weeping and mourning.
Friends, this is the experience of all people
who have built their entire lives on the foundation of something,
only to have that something ripped from them.
The text emphasizes how complete their sorrow is.
IT shows us how distraught they are.
They keep weeping, keep mourning, keep crying out.
Perhaps you have had this experience in your life
– where the very thing you based your whole world around
has been ripped out from underneath you.
And it feels as if your entire universe has collapsed.
Perhaps it is a job which you thought was going so very well,
and the boss calls you in to have a private chat and you think
– this is it, the promotion is finally coming.
And instead you lose the job.
And your world falls apart.
Or perhaps it is that relationship you have spent years building,
and all of a sudden it becomes clear
that that person isnt who you dreamed they would be,
or they betray you,
or they let you down,
and your world falls apart.
Or perhaps it is that money invested in the some risky business venture,
and this was the one,
this was the one which would finally get you out of debt,
or set you up for life.
And all of a sudden you wake up one morning to find all the cash is gone.
And your world falls apart.
You see friends
, whatever we base our lives on,
no matter how successful those thigns might be
, those things can be snatched away from us in a heartbeat.
Look at the text,
these kings built their lives,
their identities in the sensual pleasures they had access to as rulers
, and in a single hour the source of their pleasures was taken from them.
Look at the merchants, from v15,
who based their entire wealth on the Babylon,
they weep because all of their wealth building opportunities
have been snatched from them.
Look at the ship captains and sailors,
they built their identities on the power and might of a mighty naval army
that Babylon here had, a
nd yet within a single hour,
what they built their identities on,
was snatched away.
And snatched away in a single hour.
But don’t you see - Babylon, the world’s system, tells us to build our identities on all these other things.
You are a merchant - you have to make money by buying and selling what Babylon wants you to be satisfied with life
you are a ship captain - you are defined by your constant trips to the city of pleasures.
You are king - you can’t survive unless you do business with Babylon, and slowly get enticed by her pleasures.
Babylon has seduced each of these by redefining the individual’s identities.
Come she cries, come build your life on this new identity, and i will fulfill you.
This is how babylon ensnares you. She claims one aspect of your identity and gets you to build your life on it.
And she has seduced many this way.
She says to us, you are a scientist. That is who you are. You must only ever believe in rational, provable fact - and unless God can prove himself to you must not believe in him. And slowly what starts out as someoen with questions becomes someone agnostic, which becomes atheistic, which becomes militantly anti-belief.
Babylon says to us, you are a business person. That is who you are. You must make money, no matter the cost. If you are to succeed in this world, you will do dodgy deals, just like eveyrone else. And if you don’t you will never be competitive. And what starts with swapping out good material for inferior ones, soon becomes taking the next step to a dodgy deal, then a deal which compromises your morals and character.
Babylon says to us, you are your sexual preferences. That is who you are. You have to express your sexuality, no matter the cost. You must give up your family, your church, the Bible, even Jesus himself, if any of them tells you that cannot fully express yourself.
Babylon redefines who you are, and tells you that unless you do that thing to to the fullest, you will never be satisfied with your life.
But Babylon will be destroyed.
Doing thing’s babylon’s way, won’t actually work in the long run. Eventually everything you build your life on, if that isn’t Christ, will pass away. Will be burnt up, will be destroyed.
Will you be on the right side of history then?
If you want to be happy and fulfilled in life, doing thing’s the world’s way won’t ultimatley work.
It won’t make you happy, and it won’t work.
So what is the answer?
Get on the right side of history
Get on the right side of history
21 Then a mighty angel picked up a stone like a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, In this way, Babylon the great city will be thrown down violently and never be found again.
22 The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters will never be heard in you again; no craftsman of any trade will ever be found in you again; the sound of a mill will never be heard in you again;
23 the light of a lamp will never shine in you again; and the voice of a groom and bride will never be heard in you again. All this will happen because your merchants were the nobility of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.
24 In her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all those slaughtered on the earth.
This last part of this text talks about who is on the right side of history. Everyone who buys in to babylon will be disapointed. Revelation 18 is clear, Babylon wont just fall, it will be utterly, completely and fully destroyed.
The town where only wickedness and evil dwell,
is destroyed so completely that nothing good will ever happen in it again.
The system by which the world has been governed,
will be so completely destroyed
that there will be no chance of it ever coming back.
No music,
no craft,
no food production,
no lamplight,
no wedding celebrations.
It is all gone.
The text emphasises that there will never be any more joy
, as there are no music or celebration.
There is no chance of the city being restored,
all the craftsmen and tradespeople are gone.
There is no chance of the city ever sustaining life any more,
as no food ever enters it again.
No chance of security ever being found in it again,
no lamplight ever shines in it again.
And there will be no future inhabitants will ever go there,
there will be no weddings,
and therefore no children.
The fall of Babylon is ensured in every possible way.
And in a chapter or two, the book of Revelation will show us what Babylon will be replaced with. The city of God. Jerusalem.
And in the story that travels from garden to garden city, it is has
In a sense everything has been leading to this point.
The garden city is about to apear.
God has, since genesis chapter 3,
been moving history toward this point.
Where the mighty system which governed the world,
is destroyed.
The fake glory and shininess of Babylon
is replaced with the ever more impressive Jerusalem.
In the next few weeks we will read about that new Jerusalem.
But Babylon here is described as being adorned with gold,
Jerusalem has streets made of gold.
Babylon is adorned with pearls,
Jersualem has whole city gates made of pearls.
You see friends, the finality of the destruction of Babylon,
Forces us to answer an uncomfortable question.
We are confronted with a question which every person eventually must answer.
Which city will you love?
Which city will you live for?
Which city will you live for and which city will you love?
which foundation will you build your life on?
you have a choice. You can keep chasing the Babylon dream: you can keep hunting for your happiness in the expression of absolute freedom, as Babylon says you must.
you can keep chasing drunkenness and substance abuse,
sexual expression outside of God’s design, wealth, power and excess. You can build your life on the foundation of chasing these thing, you are free to do so.
but you will ultimately be disappointed.
because even if you succeed… and you get everything offered by Babylon, in the end Babylon will be destroyed, and everything you have and pursued in this life, will be shown to be utterly worthless.
Or, you can build your life on the solid foundation of Christ. Recognise that Babylons offer of absolute freedom is a lie, recognise that Babylons way of doin things will be judged, and then Get on the right side of history!
Reject what the world offers you, reject the fake freedom offered by babylon, and accept the true freedom from sin, found only by trusting in Jesus.
In a moment we will sing about this. .
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness
V3
When He shall come with trumpet sound
Oh may I then in Him be found
Dressed in his righteousness alone
Faultless to stand before the throne
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
Amen