Campus Ministry Sermon
1 Samuel 8
September 27, 2023
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The theme is this: Jesus is the King of all.
As we begin this sermon series together, every campus ministry night and every Advent and Lent midweek service is going to focus on the Kings of Israel. We know about David and Solomon, or at least we know the books they wrote, Psalms and Proverbs. But we probably know about their lives at least a little bit.
We know David was a shepherd boy and that he slayed Goliath. We know he sinned with Bathsheba and that he killed Uriah. And we probably know that Solomon was wise and that he built the temple for the Lord. We know Solomon married 700 wives, and that caused so many problems.
But this year, I want to teach and preach about all the faithful kings of Israel. This year, we will cover kings that maybe you have never heard of, like Asa. Or maybe you have heard about Jehoshaphat, but you know nothing about him.
But even more, we will learn about the Fourth Commandment, about honoring authorities. We learn that Jesus Christ is the King of all, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We will learn more about that part of the Lord’s Prayer, Thy kingdom come.
It’s quite a project, quite a sermon series. And there is much to learn. So where do we start? Today’s reading starts where the whole kingdom began: Israel demands a king.
Our reading begins with these words: When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.
First, we need to talk about Samuel. Samuel was a priest, a holy man, and not a king at all. Samuel was given to the Lord by his mother, Hannah, to be a priest in the church of the Old Testament. Samuel was a good guy in our stories, a faithful man leading the church and the nation to obey God in all things.
But his sons turned aside. Though they were raised in the church and knew God’s Word, they thought that they knew what was best and they did their own thing and disobeyed God and Samuel, their father.
This is a pretty common thing; to go to church as a kid with mom and/or dad, but when we leave for college to skip church and do our own thing. Freedom is wonderful for a time, but faith is far more important. Making money is a great feeling, but the love of money is the root of all evil. Samuel’s sons took bribes and relied on money instead of God. What is more important to you? Making lots of money or believing in the Savior?
What happened in Israel is that the people forgot God and wanted a king to rule over them. Rather than relying on God, the people wanted a king like all the rest of the world. Our reading says, Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” Israel wanted to become like all the other nations around them.
This is something that I think we all understand, too. We think, “I want to be like so-and-so.” Boy, this is everywhere in our culture. Support this perverted idea or be silenced. Support that country or our own country will be in peril. Watch out, or you might be cancelled. It takes great courage to stand up for what you believe in. It takes great faith to be a Christian today. The pressures of campus, the pressures of friends, and the pressures of the internet all try to discourage us and to be like Israel, wanting a king, anybody other than God to rule over us.
But look at what Samuel did. And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
First things first. Samuel prayed about this problem. He prayed about his nation and his people and his church. He prayed just like his mother Hannah had prayed for a son to be born for her. Samuel knew that prayer was necessary, that God’s kingdom would come and God’s will be done.
And the Lord reluctantly grants the request of Israel. Much like Jesus says in the Gospel, “Those who reject you are really rejecting me,” so here the Lord says to Samuel, “They do not reject you, but they reject me.” The people of Israel want a king, anybody other than God.
This is exactly how it is in our world. The world wants money, the world wants to do its own thing. The world wants to tempt us and mislead us. The world wants the church to fail. We experience this on campus, we experience this in our homes, we experience this on the news, we experience this in our own country.
But this is not how it is in the church. In the church, Jesus is the King of all. In this church, we obey God rather than man. In the church, we walk in God’s ways and not in the ways that the world wants us to go.
As we begin to move through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings this year, we will learn so many things. We will realize just how our world worships anything other than God Himself. We will learn about leaders of nations, the godly ones, and yet we will recognize that they are sinners just like us.
But most importantly, let the Gospel ring true, Jesus Christ is the King of all. This is the whole point, and this is the comfort. That no matter who cancels us, no matter what the world does, no matter how hard it is at times, Jesus Christ is our King and this world is not His country. No, Christ rules heaven, that world to come, for which we yearn and about which we believe.
Nobody can take our King away from us. And nobody can kill Him anymore. Our King Jesus lives and reigns to all eternity. And we His subjects will live with Him forever.
In the holy name of Jesus, Amen.
Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog
The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack
Rev. James Peterson
St. John Lutheran Church
Curtis, Nebraska
©2025 James Peterson. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@msn.com
