Revelation 18 is the funeral of Babylon, and its one-line sermon calls God's people to spiritual exodus: come out of her before her collapse takes you with it.
Revelation means unveiling. John, the last living apostle, exiled on Patmos, is shown realities of this present world he could not otherwise see.
The whole book in one sweep: letters to seven churches, the Lamb enthroned and worthy of the scroll, judgment and war through chapter 20, then a new heaven and new earth.
Our weekly bulletin order of service is a liturgy — "form" or "order" — a back-and-forth of revelation and response, telling the same story: God is holy, we are sinners, Christ is Savior, repent and believe.
Revelation 18 is itself a liturgy: an obituary (18:1-8), a song of lament (18:9-19), a song of praise (18:20-19:5), with the sermon in the middle.
Take heed that your life is not built around that which is about to fall under God's judgment.
The obituary: Babylon's crimes read aloud
Babylon is code for ancient Rome, but bigger — she takes her name from Babel in Genesis 11, man's attempt to reach God without God. Babylon is our world.
At Jesus' third temptation, Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world. He was offering Jesus Babylon: skyscrapers, lights, parties, wealth, the city that never sleeps.
Her crimes boil down to two: immorality (18:3) and arrogance — "I sit as a queen, I am no widow" (18:7).
No need to choose between sexual immorality and idolatry. Turn from God and in on ourselves, and we become factories for impurity.
"Her sins are heaped as high as heaven" — Babel all grown up, building her tower not brick by brick but sin by sin.
All nations were deceived by her sorcery. You think you see through the lies; the Bible says all of us are bewitched.
Worst line in the passage: "God has remembered her iniquities." The Christian's hope is the opposite — I will remember their sins no more.
The lament: tears with no repentance
Kings, merchants, and seafarers mourn, but three times John says they stand far off — afraid, knowing their own complicity.
Verse 12 lists 28 items of cargo, gold and silver to slaves, that is human souls. 28 is seven times four: completion times all the earth. John writes "the Lamb" 28 times.
Every good in all the earth, gone. Not a recession — a total collapse.
They weep because "the fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you." Purely self-centered sorrow.
Live for the treasures and status of this world and you will wake up in eternity with nothing to stand on and nothing to love you back.
The stock market, Hollywood, big tech, every government — in one hour, gone with the wind.
The praise: why heaven sings over judgment
A third mighty angel hurls a millstone into the sea — Babylon buried like Atlantis, found no more.
Heaven's choir sings hallelujah as her smoke goes up forever. We do not yet have hearts pure enough to fully understand this song, but no creature will ever question a single judgment of God.
Read the "no mores" of 18:22-24 against the New Jerusalem: no sea, no tears, no death, no sun or moon because the Lamb is its lamp. Babylon has no more weddings; the New Jerusalem is an eternal wedding.
There can be no New Jerusalem so long as Babylon exists. One strand of the virus and everything is spoiled again.
Spend time this afternoon asking what is hard for you about this passage, and why. Children, no ounce of this wrath will ever touch anyone who trusts in Jesus.
The sermon: come out of her
The whole sermon is one verse: "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues." Flee like Lot from Sodom.
Not a call to withdraw. You can't — the Amish still sell in town, the monks got their land from the king — and Jesus prayed not that we be taken out of the world but kept from the evil one, sanctified and sent into it.
This is not about location, it is about loyalty. Will you be loyal to the Lamb at work, at school, with friends, when nobody is watching?
We only make it out as a body. If you are not deeply committed to a local church, commit to one that preaches the gospel every week — join, be known, confess your sins together.
Dante's gate of hell reads "abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Revelation 18 carves the opposite into the sky: come out, my people, there is still hope.
Repent, bring your sins to Jesus, and give your life to him as King.
Key Takeaways
Babylon's crimes — immorality and arrogance — are the air we breathe every day.
Whatever you build your life on that is not Christ is already under sentence.
Coming out of Babylon means loyalty to the Lamb, not withdrawal from the world.
The clearest way to come out is to commit yourself to Jesus and to a local church.