What City Are You Living For? | Revelation 17 PG-13

Series: Revelation: The Best is Yet to Come

Title: “Which city are you living for? What woman are you chasing?” Revelation 17 PG-13

Scripture: Revelation 17

(Main commentary helps listed at the end)

Bottom line: “Live for the Lamb and his pure bride, not for the beast and his foul whore.” -Hamilton

Our need: “We need to be convinced that it’s better to live for the Lamb and his pure bride than for the beast and his foul whore.” -Hamilton

Context:

We have seen:

  • Jesus and his churches (1-3)

  • The throne and judgments of God (6-16)

  • Now we move to this section on the whore, the King, and his bride (17-22)

Contrast:

  • The world is the foul whore.

  • The Church is the bride of Christ.

Who do you want to live for? Which city?

  • Babylon the Great, or

    • Serves the beast

    • Sells it’s soul to the world, the beast’s foul whore

    • Lives for what will look good for a short while before being destroyed

    • Carries out his purpose

    • Leads to the Great Babylon aka Hell

  • The New Jerusalem

    • Serves the Lamb

    • Fellowships with the church the Lamb’s pure bride

    • Lives for what will last forever

    • Please God through obedience

    • Leads to the New Jerusalem

Which religion: Works or grace?

Intro/Opening story:

“Tale of Two Cities” in 11th grade English class

Also consider:

Foxes Book of Martyrs

Antipas

Outline (from Willmington’s Outline Bible):

I. The information in regard to this prostitute (17:1-6)

A. Her corruption (17:1-2, 4)

  1. She commits adultery with both potentates and people of this earth (17:2)

  2. She says blasphemous things about God (17:4b)

  3. She is utterly materialistic (17:4a)

B. Her compromise (17:3): She has aligned herself with the godless political systems of this world.

C. Her caption (17:5): On her forehead is written,

  1. “Babylon the Great,

  2. Mother of all prostitutes and obscenities in the world”

D. Her cruelty (17:6): She is drunk with the blood of martyrs she has murdered. (Share story of 21 Martyrs)

II. The interpretation in regard to this prostitute (17:7-18)

A. What John sees (17:7): He sees a woman riding a beast with seven heads and ten horns.

B. What John is told (17:8-18)

  1. The woman represents a corrupt religious system depicted by the city of Babylon (17:8)

  2. The beast represents various kings (17:9).

    1. Some have already ruled (17:10-11)

    2. One king will be the most powerful (17:13)

    3. Ten kings are yet to rule (17:12)

    4. These kings will destroy the woman but will themselves be destroyed by the Lamb (17:14-18).

Conclusion:

My sister-in-law and I were talking movies the other day and we were discussing the difference between DC comic movies and Marvel comic movies. I noted that I thought it was ironic that DC who boasts darker, more realistic stories uses fictional cities (Metropolis and Gotham) whereas Marvel, who tends to take itself less seriously uses real cities (mostly) like New York and Budapest.

How serious are you taking the city you’re living in?

John calls us to be in the world but not of the world. (1 John 2:15-17)

  1. Where do you see yourself right now?

    1. Which woman are you more identified with?

    2. Which city seems more like home to you?

  2. Where do you want to see yourself?

  3. What’s keeping you from repenting and believing that the way of the Lamb is the way to go?

Repent of your sins today. Trust and follow the Lord Jesus Christ who knows the way, the truth and the life.

Pray

Other Illustrations:

dad joke/Funny: “Everybody is talking about the apocalypse like there’s no tomorrow…”

“Keep your eyes on the clouds and the crowds.” —Greg Stier

Live in light of his imminent return.

“Jesus didn’t give the Church the book of Revelation so we’d build ourselves bigger bomb shelters, but so we’d would build longer dinner tables” - @RayOrtlund

Other thoughts wrt joy and circumstances and Jane / Nightbirdie

“Sow a thought, you reap an action;

Sow an action, you reap a habit;

Sow a habit, you reap a character;

sow a character, you reap a destiny.”

-E. Stanley Jones

Main commentary help:

  • Exalting Jesus in Revelation by Daniel Akin

  • Revelation by Jim Hamilton

  • Revelation by Paige Patterson, New American Commentary series

  • Breaking the Code by Bruce Metzger

  • 2020 Sermons by Matt Chandler

  • ESV Global Study Bible

  • Bible in One Year by Nicky Gumbel

  • Bible Knowledge Commentary

  • The Outline Bible, Wilmington

  • Discipleship on the Edge, Darrell W. Johnson

Sarah NetheryGrace Christian FellowshipLadson, SC, Bible-believing, Darien Gabriel, Revelation 17, non-denominational church