Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What's Your Deepest Desire? | New Testament | Revelation 18

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

Is the kingdom you're pursuing God's kingdom or something else? How will you react to the fall of Babylon? Are you more allegiant to God or to the culture around you? In today's episode, Jensen studies Revelation 18 and discusses how to live a life that is a part of God's kingdom. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Prepare your heart to celebrate Jesus. Sign up to have the 'I Am Your God' Advent Devotional delivered directly to your inbox starting Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Revelation 18

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. In 2022, the film Babylon was released, and it follows the story of one man's rise through Hollywood's ranks. Many people have speculated that the film's name in some ways is a critique on Hollywood as a place where confusion and sin run rampant. And they make those speculations because the city of Babylon, has long been used as a symbol for those very things. You see, all the way back in Genesis 11, we meet the city of Babylon. It's a city in which all the people of the world come together to build the tower of Babel.

Their efforts to build this tower wasn't just to make a cool building to reach the sky, but to build a new kind of city, a new world where they don't need God. The building of this tower was a direct rebellion against the rule and reign of God. They wanted to be like him, to unite heaven and earth by their own power. And it's because of this that God sends them into confusion, jumbling their language to end their efforts and save them from themselves. But, as we learn throughout Scripture, humans never stop rebelling against God. Specifically, the nation of Babylon is a specific place, but it is also used as a symbol of those that are and rebellion against God. Babylon is the enemy of God's people. It is Babylon that eventually conquers

the nation of Israel and brings them into exile. Babylon is powerful. It is godless, and it seemingly cannot be defeated. And it stands in complete opposition to the kingdom of God that is powerful, full of God's presence, his love, justice, and mercy. And so with this imagery and mind, we step into today's passage. You see, Revelation 18 tells us about the eventual fall of Babylon. The powerful, enduring, evil Babylon has an end date, and John is given a vision of it. Chapter 18 begins with John seeing an angel coming down from heaven, announcing, fallen. Fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of the

passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living. Babylon has long ruled on earth. All the nations have become complicit with her, benefited from her comforts, profited from her luxury. But the angel sees Babylon for what it is. A haunt for every unclean spirit, a dwelling place for demons. And so a voice from heaven warns the people of God. Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues, for her sins are heaped high as heaven. And God has remembered her iniquities. When the people of Israel were taken into exile in Babylon. They were warned by the prophets to remain distinct in exile,

to not become the nations around them, but to be a pleasing aroma to the Lord, to live faithfully as God had called them. And here we see the same warning for the people of God. Babylon will not last. She is not safe. She is not righteous. Come out of her. Do not participate. Do not join yourselves with Babylon because her time has come. This warning should give us pause. It should tell us that despite Babylon being a clear picture of a kingdom in opposition to the rule and reign of Christ, it may not be clear in our everyday lives. We live in exile in Babylon.

And like the nations, we may not realize the ways that we have become complicit with her and her sin. This warning reminds us that we should look different than Babylon, that we shouldn't give our allegiance to Babylon. And also, it's a warning that Babylon is tempting. Babylon offers wealth to the world. She offers comfort. She offers luxury. She offers social standing and power and popularity. To live in step with Babylon has been beneficial for many.

What follows in Scripture proves this point. We're given three songs of lament from kings, from merchants of the land, and from merchants of the sea, all mourning the fall of Babylon. They mourn because in the fall of Babylon, they have lost their wealth. They've lost her comfort. The fall of Babylon is not a good thing for everyone. Those who are complicit with her, those who thrive in Babylon, who have given their allegiance to her, who benefit from her comforts, her luxury. Those who love Babylon will mourn at her fall. But she will fall. Verse 21. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea saying, so will Babylon, the great city be thrown down with violence and will be found no more. The sound of harpist and musicians of flute players and trumpeters will be heard in you no more. And a craftsman of any

craft will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more, and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of a bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all 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. The picture is bleak, but it is complete. But it is complete in its destruction. Those who rebel against God, who stand in opposition to him, those who seek to build a kingdom outside of his will, will not succeed. No matter how powerful, how prosperous, how good it feels to live inside of another kingdom, it cannot stand.

Justice will win out. Goodness will win out. Babylon will fall. And while those who put their hope in Babylon and built their lives on the foundation of Babylon will weep and mourn. Not everyone will. Verse 20, rejoice over her, oh heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her. You see, to some, the fall of Babylon is a good thing. Babylon has been in rebellion against God. Babylon has laid waste to the promised land. Babylon has taken God's people into exile. Babylon has oppressed and committed evil atrocities. Babylon has been in rebellion against God. It has deceived the people of the world. It may look pleasing to the eye with its luxuries and its comforts, but it will never be good for the human heart. We were created

for the kingdom of God, not Babylon. We were made to love God, not luxury. We were made to live in peace, not war, we were made to seek God, not comfort. John's vision is clear. The kingdom of Babylon will fall. And on that day, what kind of song will we be singing? Will it be one of lament or one of rejoicing? It's honestly a hard question to wrestle with because it asks us to take a deep look at our hearts, at what we love, at what we desire, at what or who, we are chasing after. Are we allegiant to God's kingdom or Babylon? When you look at your life, where do you see yourself giving your time, your efforts, your money? What are your goals? Where do you hope to be in 10 years? Is it higher up the social, political, economic ladders of this world?

Or closer to God? Deeper into his kingdom. Looking more and more like the person of Jesus. We have been given a warning call. Come out. Come out. Come. Come. out of Babylon. Leave behind the luxuries, the comforts, the desires of Babylon, and instead root yourselves and the goodness of the kingdom of God. Only one kingdom will last. Only one kingdom can truly satisfy. And the amazing thing is that we know which kingdom to choose. We know which kingdom will last. Revelation tells us that Babylon will fall, but the kingdom of God will endure forever. Will you lament or rejoice when Babylon falls? Be honest with where you are today. Be honest with God about what your heart desires. And if you begin to realize you may mourn the fall of

Babylon, ask that God would slowly begin to transform your heart, to transform your desires. God, I pray today that each and every one of us would heed your world. warning, that we would wake up to the kingdom we're building, that we would come out of Babylon, that we would stop living for our own game, our own comfort, and instead enter into your good kingdom. So that one day, when you return and establish your kingdom here on earth, we can rejoice alongside you in your kingdom for all of eternity. May our lives be devoted to building your kingdom, and may our hearts long for the love. of King Jesus all our days. Amen.