Don't Look Back

Darin Wilt

The Things You See • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Revelation 18

Don’t Look Back

Intro: If You were locked up in prison would you try to escape? At Alcatraz federal Prison, Between 1934 and 1963. There were a total of 14 escape attempts from the prison made by 34 prisoners during this time. Two men tried twice, making for a total of 36 individual escape attempts; fifteen were caught, eight gave up, seven were shot and killed, one was confirmed to have drowned and five are listed as "missing and presumed drowned".

These men were so motivated to get out of the prison, they risked crazy escape plans, to get out of multiple wings, armed guards, walls, barbed wire. The island sits about a mile and a quarter from San Francisco. The bay has an average temperature of about 50 degrees. The myth that sharks were waiting to devour them as soon as they got a short distance from shore.

But what were they escaping? Why risk any of these things to get out? Alcatraz gained notoriety from its inception as the toughest prison in America, considered by many the world's most fearsome prison of the day. Former prisoners reported brutality and inhumane conditions which severely tested their sanity. It became the place to send America’s worst, and most dangerous prisoners.

Some prisoners knew The prison was not a place to stay.

But what if the prison is comfortable, and extravagant. It has your favorite ice cream and books and classes? Would you know or think you are in prison?

John is transmitting this vision to his audience and it coincides with chapter 17 where it talks about The great City Babylon. He gets the messages from God and an angel about How we are to live here.

Read Verses: 18:1-8

Main Point: God Encourages people to leave the World behind and Look to Him for all their needs

I. Look Forward to the World to Come

It is important to point out that throughout the book (4:1; 7:1, 9; 15:5; 19:1), the phrase “after these things” refers to the order of the visions, not to the order of events portrayed in the visions.

The Angel gives us one of the most encouraging messages in the whole book: Fallen Fallen is Babylon the great.

Human Empires have a shelf life. They do not last forever. They even eventually closed Alcatraz. In the course of History and recorded in the Bible, you have Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greek, and Rome as empires that come and go. Rome lasted quite a long time, either as Rome itself or the Roman Catholic Church. There were also Empires in China, Ethiopia (Kush), Central and South America with the Mayans, Aztecs and Incans.

But there are only remnants of these kingdoms. And so depending on how you look at who babylon represents, this is good news.

For the 1st century audience, if the World represents Rome and Babylon is a name for the world,then the Term Babylon is an allegory for Rome. I think this is spot on because the great city probably cannot be Jerusalem because Israel was thought of as a backwater portion of the Roman empire. Jerusalem did not have the influence to entice kings or merchants.

Here is why Babylon is used by John and useful to the audience. Babylon was the most powerful and wealthy empire around. Babylon was the empire that took the Israelites out of their own country and set them up in a new location. Babylonia was one of the most opulent civilizations which the world had ever seen. The provincial Hebrews from the small state of Judah must have been astounded by the wealth which they saw. Daniel was hopeful that the Israelite would only be there for a temporary time; that their exile would not last forever.

When King Cyrus allowed people to return to Their own land, some people stayed. Generations were born and raised there. They liked Babylon. They were comfortable, they had probably assimilated into the culture. They had friends there.

They lived in the big city and did not want to go back to the country. They were lured there by the bright lights and big city.

John’s audience would get the references because they were warned by the prophet Isaiah

Revelation 18:2 (R:SC): And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. This description of desolation most closely approximates the similar portrayal of Babylon’s and Edom’s judgment in Isa. 13:21 and 34:11, 14. These judgments are viewed as typological anticipations of universal Babylon’s judgment at the end of history.

But Babylon did not last, its riches did not last, its hold on their territory did not last.

The Greeks and Romans met a similar fate. So even though the first century Jews were under Roman rule, they could look to their history and know that Rome probably would last either.

The Judgment would come. Here in Revelation this is the end times so the final judgment is near.

But what Revelation and touch of the Bible Tells us is that God’s Kingdom does last forever.

To avoid the judgment, you must flee the world. Run from the city. And you will escape the coming judgment.

II. Look Forward to the Way Out

The voice from Heaven, which signifies God, tells the hearer to come out of the city.

This is important to note because in verse 7, Babylon replies in her heart, that she is queen. And because of her pride, she will be judged. The World thinks she is sitting on the throne because the beast has given her the world, but she is mistaken and she has chosen to follow a fallen creature.

In verses 9-19 the Kings, the merchants and the sailors are have made their living. in providing people in the city with things to make them happy. And the city provided a way to conduct their business. But they are lamenting that the city is gone and they can’t make money. They lose their lifestyle. They are looking back to what they don’t have now. They are controlled by their lifestyle.

And as fallen men and women in a fallen world, Sin can control our life, whether it is completely or maybe just a corner of it, we can let it rule us. The sin drives your body and brain to get what it wants. How can I have another affair? How can I get just one more drink, how can I make just one more bet. But some sins are sneaky. Your words you choose just jump out of your mouth. The thoughts you have about others just bubble up in your head. Or maybe you let the world set your beliefs. “Well everyone believes that.” Those sins are just as bad.

All of those things trick you into thinking that this will be the last one. But your sin always wants and DEMANDS more.

But there is a way out. By looking toward what God offers you instead of what sin offers you. Sin offers you imprisonment, even if your cell is attractive. Sin offers you pain and destruction of your life and possibly those around you.

God Offers you freedom from your past sins. God offers redemption to you for your sins. God is your escape plan from His Judgment and your death.

Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, he has purchased your freedom. He paid your bail to get you out of the punishment you deserve. And you have been given grace that you have not earned.

Jesus’ death offers you life. This should not just make us feel better about ourselves or our behavior, because our behavior got us in hot water in the first place.

But when we don’t look back to our former lives, our lives BC, before Christ, we only see our lives with Christ. We have been rehabilitated. We are new creations.

And we serve the King of the universe.

III. The Look Forward to the King’s Arrival

Verses 21-24 tell us that Babylon is destroyed. That the city will be silent. There is no activity. No work, no lights. God makes the city go dark.

God is the only one with the lawful authority to judge His creation. Babylon leaves a wake of destruction in her path and she does not care who she brings down. In fact, verse 23 and 24 says that all the nations were deceived by your sorcery and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on earth.

but the judgment is extended to include “all” who have been slaughtered on earth. The comment is hyperbolic, as in the prophets, who charged that Babylon expanded its empire at a great cost of human life (Jer 51:49). Rome did the same as its armies overran neighboring peoples and purchased “peace stained with blood” (Tacitus, Ann. 1.10.4). Such images were part of the imperial cult (see Figures 29, 30, 33, 34). Innocent people died to further the empires. They were essentially imprisoned and paid with their lives.

Some readers may wonder whether Revelation opposes all that human culture has produced, since the author tells of the demise of political institutions, trade, and social life. Other NT writers are more positive about human government (Rom 13:1–7; 1 Pet 2:13–17), but John sees how the wealth of the few is paid for by the misery of the many, and how the security of some is obtained by the deaths of others. At the same time, John offers a contrasting picture of community life that is God-serving. Christians are supposed to Give and not take. God has every right to take, and yet He gives. He gives us grace when we do not deserve it and cannot earn it.

The Christian martyrs give their lives to resist the tyrants. The chief tyrants being the Antichrist, the false prophet, and Satan.

While Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter that “the tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants, the true freedom has been fed through the Blood of Jesus Christ at the tree of the Cross.

Conclusion

We must flee from this world. We have something much better waiting for us and look forward to.

I am going to close with a few verses from an old English poem Called The Dream of the Rood or Cross

I am not wealthy with many friends on this earth,

yet they departed from here from the joys of the world,

seeking the King of Glory—now they live

in heaven with the High-Father, dwelling in magnificence,

and I hope for myself upon each and every day

for that moment when the Rood of the Lord,

that I espied here upon the earth,

shall ferry me from this loaned life

and bring me then where there is great bliss,

joys in heaven, where there are the people of the Lord,

seated at the feast, where there is everlasting happiness

and seat me where I will be allowed afterwards

to dwell in glory, brooking joys well amid the sainted.

May the Lord be my friend, who suffered before

here on earth, on the gallows-tree for the sins of man.

If you are a believer, then you are waiting for The day when you are seated at the feast with the Lord, which is what chapter 19 is about.

If you are not a believer, you are just awaiting judgment.

Which waiting room do you want to be in?

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