1 Samuel Chapters 8-12

1. “We want a king, so that we will be like the other nations.” (1 Samuel 8:20) 1 Samuel Chapters 8-12

2. “When that time comes, you will complain bitterly because of your king, whom you yourselves chose, but the LORD will not listen to your complaints.’ The people paid no attention to Samuel, but said, ‘No! We want a king, so that we will be like other nations, with our own king to rule us and to lead us out to war and to fight our battles.’” (1 Samuel 8:11-20)

3. Kingdom of God vs. kingdom of the world

4. “I am your God, the one who rescues you from all your troubles and difficulties, but today you have rejected me and have asked me to give you a king. Very well, then, gather yourselves before the LORD by tribes and by clans.” (1 Samuel 10:19 GNB)

5. “Now here is the king you chose; you asked for him, and now the LORD has given him to you. All will go well with you if you honor the LORD your God, serve him, listen to him, and obey his commands, and if you and your king follow him. But if you do not listen to the LORD but disobey his commands, he will be against you and your king. So then, stand where you are, and you will see the great thing which the LORD is going to do. It's the dry season, isn't it? But I will pray, and the LORD will send thunder and rain.

6. “When this happens, you will realize that you committed a great sin against the LORD when you asked him for a king.’ So Samuel prayed, and on that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. Then all the people became afraid of the LORD and of Samuel, and they said to Samuel, ‘Please, sir, pray to the LORD your God for us, so that we won’t die. We now realize that, besides all our other sins, we have sinned by asking for a king.” (1 Samuel 12:13-19 GNB)

8. Saul - 1030-1010 BC • David - 1010-970 BC • Solomon - 970-931 BC

9. Chronology

11. 538 BC – Edict of Cyrus to return • 520 BC – Haggai and Zechariah Zerubbabel and Joshua • 480 BC – Esther • 458 - 445 BC – Ezra, Nehemiah …..Malachi

12. Messiah expectations

14. John the Baptist: “The Kingdom of heaven is near…” (Matthew 3:2) • “From then on, Jesus began to tell people, ‘Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near!’” (Matthew 4:17 GW)

16. ‘Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! • Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them! • Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised! • Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. • Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them!

17. Happy are the pure in heart; they will see God! • Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children! • Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers.’” (Matthew 5:1-11)

18. “Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures--either God's Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together…” (Matthew 5:17 MSG)

19. “And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles.” (Matthew 5:41 – GN) • “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. • If anyone hits you on one cheek, let him hit the other one too; • if someone takes your coat, let him have your shirt as well. • Give to everyone who asks you for something, and when someone takes what is yours, do not ask for it back. • Do for others just what you want them to do for you. • Love your enemies and do good to them

20. Lend and expect nothing back. • Do not judge others…. • do not condemn others…. • forgive others…” (Luke 6:27-37 – GN)

21. “I tell you: the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you.” (Matthew 21:31 – GN) • “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!” (Matthew 5:3 GNB)

22. “You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war…this man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen…without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability.” • Pat Robertson

23. “The greatest in the Kingdom of heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child.” (Matthew 18:4 GNB) • “They came to Capernaum, and after going indoors Jesus asked his disciples, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they would not answer him, because on the road they had been arguing among themselves about who was the greatest. Jesus sat down, called the twelve disciples, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all.’” (Mark 9:33-35 GNB)

24. “It was about that time that the mother of the Zebedee brothers came with her two sons and knelt before Jesus with a request. ‘What do you want?’ Jesus asked. She said, ‘Give your word that these two sons of mine will be awarded the highest places of honor in your kingdom, one at your right hand, one at your left hand.’ Jesus responded, ‘You have no idea what you're asking.’ And he said to James and John, ‘Are you capable of drinking the cup that I'm about to drink?’ They said, ‘Sure, why not?’ (Matthew 20:20-22 MSG)

25. “So Jesus called them all together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slave of the others--- like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.’” (Matthew 20:25-28 GNB)

26. “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, My followers would fight…My Kingdom is not of this world.” (John18:36 – NLT)

27. “Jesus said to them, ‘When you pray, say this: Father: May your holy name be honored; may your Kingdom come.” (Luke 11:2 GNB)

28. The Kingdom of God – Where is it? • “Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. His answer was, ‘The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’; because the Kingdom of God is within you.’” (Luke 17:20-21 GNB)

29. “Lord, do you wish us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elijah did? But He turned and rebuked and severely censured them. He said, ‘You do not know of what sort of spirit you are…’” (Luke 9:54-55 – Amplified)

30. “An argument broke out among the disciples as to which one of them should be thought of as the greatest.” (Luke 22:24 GNB) • “Jesus knew that the Father had given him complete power; he knew that he had come from God and was going to God. So…” • “So, he rose from the table, took off his outer garment, and tied a towel around his waist.” (John 13:3-4 GNB)

31. “Do to us what you will and we will still love you...But be assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process; and our victory will be a double victory.” • Martin Luther King, Jr.

32. “Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.” • Mahatma Gandhi

34. “Lord, are you now going to give Israel its own king again?” (Acts 1:6 - CEV)

35. “All who believed were together and held everything in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need. Every day they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:44-47 – NET)

36. “These men who have turned the world upside down…” (Acts 17:6 – ESV)

37. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse…Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil…If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:14-21)

38. “We are human, but we don't wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NLT)

39. Until 313 AD – “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” - Tertullian

40. 312 AD: “By this sign, you shall conquer” – Christianity legalized • The first time anyone ever associated the Christian faith with violence (the militant church) • 380 AD: Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire – a crime not to be a Christian

42. “If there is anyone of the Saxon people lurking among them unbaptized, and if he scorns to come to baptism…and stay a pagan, let him die.” – Charlemagne (742-814 AD) • Inflicting temporal pain to help someone avoid eternal pain is justified.

45. “…I happened to visit a July Fourth worship service at a certain megachurch. At center stage in this auditorium stood a large cross next to an equally large American flag. The congregation sang some praise choruses mixed with such patriotic hymns as “God Bless America.” The climax of the service centered on a video of a well-known Christian military general giving a patriotic speech about how God had blessed America and blessed its military troops…

46. “Triumphant military music played in the background as he spoke. The video closed with a scene of a silhouette of three crosses on a hill with an American flag waving in the background. Majestic, patriotic music now thundered. Suddenly, four fighter jets appeared on the horizon, flew over the crosses, and then split apart. As they roared over the camera, the words, “God Bless America” appeared on the screen in front of the crosses. The congregation responded with roaring applause, catcalls, and

47. A standing ovation. I saw several people wiping tears from their eyes. Indeed, as I remained frozen in my seat, I grew teary-eyed as well – but for entirely different reasons. I was struck with horrified grief. Thoughts raced through my mind: How could the cross and the sword have been so thoroughly fused without anyone seeming to notice? How could Calvary be associated with bombs and missiles...How could the kingdom of God be reduced to this sort of violent, nationalistic tribalism? Has the church progressed at all since the Crusades?” – The Myth of a Christian Nation, Greg Boyd

48. “I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.” Evangelist, 2/25/2010

50. “We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven.” (Philippians 3:20 GNB)