Revelation 13 - Values-Based Leadership
I’ve been on the boards of a half dozen public companies and several private companies. I’ve also had the privilege over the last 27 years as a securities lawyer to advise many boards and executive teams as they navigate through financings, public listings, reorganizations, bankruptcies, acquisitions, and takeovers. I set up Bell Capital so that I could serve organizations and help them achieve their goals. God sees all the plans of men and women and wants us to succeed. He wants our plans to be aligned with His plans (Matthew 6:10). I love board work because you get to guide and protect an organization as a director. You get to work out the strategy and set the tone.
People need good leadership. Good leaders exemplify godly values; the tone is always set from the top. Our role as directors is not to micro-manage the CEO but rather to encourage, challenge, guide, direct, question, and support the CEO as we set high-level direction for the organization and protect the value of the organization. Increasing shareholder value means knowing and promoting the key values of the organization. As Jim Collins encourages us, it’s knowing your organizational strengths, values, and hedgehog strategy - and stalwartly sticking to it.
To lead others we have to be self-disciplined ourselves. That’s the heart of the requirements for leadership (blameless, faithful, self-controlled, wise, humble, level-headed, honest, teachable and able to teach, God-focused, respected, successful at home, experienced, generous, collaborative, and hospitable). God’s principles of values-based leadership are written on the heart of those guided by the Holy Spirit and written in ink for us in Scripture (Titus 1:5-9 and 1 Timothy 3). In a nutshell, God, who sees the tremendous potential and good soil in each of us, sets the standard that Christ’s men be men of integrity in every aspect of our life - whole men.
If you are reading this then know that I’ve prayed for you that you be a whole man for Jesus. I pray that God shows you that you have an important purpose in your life - to your dying breath - and that it is essential that you lead and serve well. Not sure where to start. Start by serving your wife and kids well. Serve those around you. Do not coast. Don’t mail it it. Do not have a fat cat retirement mindset and think you are entitled to something greater than you are. May God remove all those so-called leaders from our organizations and our Governments and give us value-based leaders who emulate Jesus Christ.
God provides the way - the only way (John 14:6) - of salvation. It is by looking to Jesus who died on the cross to pay our penalty for sin. We look to Jesus and trust Him for salvation. If you’ve never heard the Gospel before don’t take my word for it. Read it for yourself in context in 1 Corinthians 15. In that chapter, you’ll hear about God’s plan. You’ll hear that time is finite - God will bring justice and an end to this time on earth. And you’ll hear important things about what God allows and what God requires. You’ll read this, “After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the Scriptures say, ‘God has put all things under his authority’” (1 Corinthians 15: 24-26).
Those who put their trust in Jesus have their names written in the Book of Life. We are predestined in Christ. That is, God made a plan to allow all people, His creation that He made with free will, to accept or reject His Son. You’ll hear it a million times, but we sometimes need the reminder. God loves all people and desires all people to trust in Jesus. The Bible says this, “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (Romans 3:22).
So just as horribly true as it was the message John the Apostle heard in Revelation and wrote down for the early church gave the church confirmation that Jesus was reigning even through the insanity and persecution. They were to have faith and persevere. God allowed the Roman Empire 42 months to persecute the church - and to speak terrible blasphemies against God (13:5-6). Many of these early Christians knew Scripture. They knew God’s character. They knew that the same God they worshipped (God Almighty) also gave Nebuchadnezzar authority six hundred years before their time. God used that ancient king and the Babylonian armies to bring about God’s purposes and His judgments (Daniel 2:36-38). And God allowed the Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans to rise to power (Daniel 2:39-43). We don’t have time to go into tons of detail but listen to this verse, “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever” (Daniel 2:44). Don’t miss it. During the reign of all the kingdoms - ending with the Roman Empire God set up His kingdom that will never be destroyed. That’s what the early church believed, by faith as the Roman Empire still ruled at that time.
Revelation 13, it should come as no surprise, follows Revelation 12. That is, we hear of Satan’s work in 12 chasing after and persecuting the people of faith (first the people of Moses then those who are followers of Jesus). The context from Rev. 11 is a judgment on Jerusalem, the city that is figuratively called “Sodom” and “Egypt,” the city where their Lord was crucified (Rev. 11:8). That’s the context of how the devil in chapter 13 is influencing and working through the Roman Empire and its Emperors to persecute God’s holy people.
I’m no theologian or historian, but I have been reading books this year on ancient Greece and Rome. There was a reason that my Scottish ancestors studied Greek and Latin (and the cultures and histories associated with those languages) and were familiar with the political, social, and major historical events of the time of our Lord and Savior. We need the context and we need to build on the foundation that the Apostles set for us.
Several events are striking as you read through the history of the Roman Empire. A few quick ones. First, it’s amazing that even in the Roman Coliseum today Titus’ Arch (the 10th Emperor of Rome and Vespasian’s son who demolished Jerusalem in AD 70) still shows graphically the destruction of Jerusalem to this day. It was a big deal to the Romans. It was an even bigger deal to the Jews that Jesus spoke to in Matthew 21 and 23. It was a major declaration and fulfillment of the prophecy of our Lord and Savior (Luke 21, Mark 13, and Matthew 24).
Another thing that I’m amazed at is the historically documented wickedness of Nero. It’s truly hard to overstate it. Even after Galba (a Roman army commander who later became Caesar himself) declared rebellion against Nero (and the Senate declared Nero an enemy of the state) Nero still schemed, connived, and killed. Nero was rightly mocked by his own people for the fraud that he was. He was a truly evil villain. And, Nero was a coward. He put many brave Christian martyrs to their death, but when it came his time and the Roman troops surrounded Nero’s villa where he hid, he pathetically begged the help of a woman to put the dagger through his throat. Nero was the opposite of Christian values-based leadership. He’s the mentor of every evil money-hungry leader. Never understate the evil and wickedness of Nero and those who strive for empire-building on this earth. He was indeed an evil man, a beast.
We may call ourselves conservatives, but have we held tightly to the One True Faith (Titus 1:1-2) that the apostles proclaimed? Or are we really progressives who ignore or discount what the early church believed? We have to be gracious with others who disagree with us as many of us (myself included) are still learning and growing in this area of eschatology - the whole Bible is about eschatology - God’s plan of love and justice - the plan of His Kingdom. In my assessment, we don’t do a great job of teaching about what the early church believed. And we’re quick to fall for fanciful theories of chips implanted into hands and futuristic stories of American politicians or Catholic Popes that men slander to call anti-Christ. That line of thinking is tempting as it suits creative stories that tickle our ears, but we need to pay due heed to the beliefs and doctrine of our forefathers. The one true faith.
This blog is already too long, but a couple more quick points. Please dispel the notion that Revelation 13 is speaking of the Anti-Christ. It is not. Rev. 13 talks about the Roman Empire and its Caesars who were allowed by God to persecute the church in the first century. Satan went after Jerusalem as part of God’s purpose and the devil also went after the church. The word anti-Christ is not used in Revelation - at all. I’ll paste below what the Apostle John says of the spirit of Anti-Christ. As you’ll see it is anyone who denies who Jesus is and what Jesus says. Note that those of us who are Biblical literalists (meaning we believe what the Bible plainly says) believe that Jesus meant what he said about the Evil Farmers (they would be judged in the first century, Matthew 21:33-46) and we believe that Jesus' prophecy that the Temple would be completely and forever destroyed (Matthew 24) in the first century was completely accurate and true. So here’s what John says about the anti-Christ:
- 1 John 2:18 Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.
- 1 John 2:22 And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ.[a] Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.
- 1 John 4:3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
- 2 John 1:7 I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came[a] in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.
So don’t fall for those who creatively take Rev. 13 out of context to invent profitable stories about an American politician or some Pope who will come in the future. The Beast was widely understood in the first century to be the Roman Empire. Revelation 13 tells the first-century Christians that they must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful (13:10). This is consistent with God warning us today not to get entangled in the things of this world and the shipwreck-like dangers of drifting away from God. If like a dumb sheep you have drifted away, by loving money rather than God and His promises then return to Him in confession and repentance right now (Hebrews 13:5).
Revelation 13 tells the first-century readers to exercise their God-given wisdom to understand who this beast was and the number representing the beast’s name. I’ll leave it to you young historians to research Caesars Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. It’s a fascinating read - both in terms of the politics, the size of the empire, the evil that they did, and the battles all over the empire including in Judea. For the purposes of time today my challenge is to you futurists to read what the early church said in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, - etc. you get the point - all the way through to the 19th century. For every single century after Christ (up until J.N. Darby and the nonsensical progressive proliferation of dispensationalist dogma) the Church believed Revelation 13 was about the Roman Empire and its Caesars. So again, have we conserved the Church’s faith and teaching or mocked it?
I hope we can all agree that Jesus Christ is the King of kings. His righteous acts have been revealed (Rev. 15:3-4). We mourn with those who mourn. And we comfort with the love of God. We tremble at God’s greatness and justice. Jesus is our only hope. This earth and its treasures are not our hope. We set our minds on God and the things above, for our lives, are now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-4).
By God’s grace, we have been saved by faith. Praise God for His grace - His gift of eternal life. Now God is alive in us, we are made new and our minds are being renewed. We are God’s workmanship. With the power of the Spirit of Christ, we will do good works today - just as God gave us the ability and opportunity to do so (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Jesus Christ, our King, is the one who clothes us with the garments of salvation (Isaiah 61:10) - and He keeps us from falling. God encourages us, teaches, disciplines, leads, and fights alongside us as we work for and serve Him. It is Jesus who presents us to the Father, faultless and with great thankfulness and joy (Jude 24-25).
God wants all of us. He wants our strength, minds, souls. God wants our hearts. God never changes. He is reliable, whole, honest, and good. Just as He was to the first-century church that persevered through the persecution of the Sanhedrin and the Roman Empire, God remains gracious and compassionate with His Church today. He is slow to anger and known for His lovingkindness. We don’t deserve God’s grace and mercy, but He relents from sending calamity and helps us to do the work He expects us to do (Joel 2:12-13). So yes, Jesus will return to earth (Matthew 25). And yes He will destroy every element of the universe and He will make a new heaven and earth (2 Peter 3). God is just. But despite the flood of anger when God brings His justice, God’s heart for those who testify for Jesus is one of compassion and everlasting kindness (Isaiah 54:7-8). I pray that as you read Revelation you do so with an open mind and an earnestness to understand and build upon the faith of the early church.
May we be ready and willing to do good work today. Lord Jesus, please help us to be ready. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us today. Amen.
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