The Second Sunday After Epiphany

SERMON

In Nomine Jesu!

Text: 1 Samuel 3:1-10

Then the boy Samuel ministered in the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation. And it came to pass at that time, while Eli was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see, and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the LORD where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down to sleep, that the LORD called Samuel. And he answered, "Here I am!" So he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." And he said, "I did not call; lie down again." And he went and lay down. And the LORD called yet again, "Samuel!" So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." And he answered, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." (Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor was the word of the LORD yet revealed to him.) And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. Then he arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you did call me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD had called the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, LORD, for Your servant hears.’" So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Then the LORD came and stood and called as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel answered, "Speak, for Your servant hears."

In Christ Jesus, whom we are to serve and to whom we are to listen, dear fellow redeemed:

“Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it” (Mark 10:15). We heard those words earlier in our service when we baptized little Caleb. It is indeed true that Jesus prizes little children and the simple faith they possess. On Palm Sunday after Jesus had entered the temple in Jerusalem, we are told that the chief priests and scribes “were indignant” when they heard “the children crying out in the temple and saying, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’” (Matthew 21:15). When they told Jesus to stop the children, Jesus responded, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’” (Matthew 21:16). The chief priests and scribes that day had something to learn from those little children, for in the simplicity of their faith, they acknowledged Jesus as the promised Savior, while Jesus’ enemies did not.

We can learn many things from little children, and the things we learn are often important! Today’s text provides just such an opportunity through “the boy Samuel.” LET US LEARN FROM A CHILD! Yes, let us learn to be eager to serve, and let us learn to be willing to listen!

I.

Samuel was a special child. Now, every child can properly be called "special," for God creates every child with his or her own unique characteristics. The Psalmist writes, “The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men…. He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works” (Psalm 33:13,15). Yesterday, I had the privilege of baptizing the identical twin daughters of Wesley and Leah Kranz, Aubree and Ashlyn. It will be most interesting for those young parents to discover the unique characteristics God has given each of their daughters. Yet, in several ways Samuel was a very special child. First of all, he was the gift of God to Hannah, a devout woman of Old Testament Israel, who had been unable to conceive a child for many years. Hannah had prayed and prayed for a child, and finally God had granted her Samuel in answer to her prayers. Secondly, Hannah had promised God that if He would give her a male child, she would give him back to God. Consequently, when Samuel was approximately four years old Hannah had brought Samuel to Eli, the Lord’s High Priest, to serve God at the Lord’s tabernacle. There, the Bible tells us, “the child ministered to the LORD before Eli the priest” (1 Samuel 2:11). He did so faithfully, in spite of the very poor example of Eli’s own sons, Hophni and Phinehas, whom the Bible describes as being completely “corrupt” (1 Samuel 2:12). Each year Hannah would visit her son, when she and Elkanah, Samuel’s father, came to worship.

We are not told Samuel’s exact age at the time of the incident recorded in our text. He may have been as young as seven or eight, or perhaps as old as twelve. What we can tell, however, is that already at this young age Samuel was eager to serve in a place and at a time when service to God or man was an uncommon thing! In fact, the Bible tells us that “in those days…everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Our text adds that “the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.” Genuine spirituality was in short supply, even as it is in our day, and up to that time God had not spoken directly to Samuel.

We are told that the incident in our text took place late at night—“before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle,” which generally occurred near dawn. Both Samuel and Eli were sleeping. The LORD called out to Samuel, and Samuel thought it was the elderly Eli calling him. He got up immediately and ran to Eli saying, “Here I am!” Eli, failing initially to understand what was happening, simply told Samuel to go back to bed, for he had not called him. This happened three times with the same result—Samuel got up immediately and ran to Eli’s side inquiring why he had called and asking what he might do to assist him. Notice that Samuel did not get upset. When called, he did not cover his head with his pillow and pretend not to hear. He did not grumble or complain about how unfair it was that he had deal with this old man, rather than Eli’s own sons. He did not call Eli "senile" or plot how he would run away because of mistreatment. He did not go into Eli’s chambers and say, "Listen, old man, stop playing tricks on me, because I have a right to eight hours of sleep!" No, Samuel sought to honor the Lord by honoring Eli. He understood that God had given him his life, and he was prepared to fulfill the calling God had now given him, for in so doing Samuel would both be a blessing and receive the LORD’s distinct blessing!

My dear friends—how much we can learn from Samuel’s example! Do we recognize that God has given each of us life, and that in view of that gift coupled with Jesus’ redemptive work, we are not our own? The apostle Paul in our Epistle Lesson this morning asks, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” He then concludes, “You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We live in a world, which rejects these truths, and we all too often are influenced by the world’s attitudes. Yet, the Bible is very clear. The Psalmist declares, “The earth is the LORD’s and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). While the world demands its rights and glories in its ability to make self-centered choices, let us rather learn from young Samuel to be eager to serve.

Knowing that we belong to God and that He Himself is pledged to take care of our every need, frees us to serve and to be a blessing to others. When we come to know the love of God in Christ—that God “did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,” we can then ask with confidence the rhetorical question of the apostle Paul, “Shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) At the same time, while we are called upon by Christ to be each other’s “servant” (cf. Matthew 20:25-28), He assures us through the apostle Peter that we are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, (and) His own special people” (1 Peter 2:9). Consequently, we can agree with Martin Luther, who wrote concerning each of us: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none, while at the same time a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all!” (Three Treatises, “The Freedom of a Christian,” Fortress Press, p. 277). Dear friends—LET US LEARN FROM A CHILD! Yes, let us learn to be eager to serve!

II.

Let us learn as well to be willing to listen! After three interruptions to his rest, Eli finally understood what was happening. He knew that there was something special about Samuel, whose faith and resulting conduct stood in such stark contrast to that lack of faith and sin, which were so evident in the lives of his own two sons. He, therefore, told Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, LORD, for Your servant hear.’” When the LORD called Samuel for the fourth time, we hear Samuel saying, “Speak, for your servant hears.”

What a precious attitude is revealed in that simply response. Samuel was expressing his willingness to listen—to learn and then to follow the LORD’s instructions. That is an attitude we want to cultivate in our individual and congregational lives. The thematic verse of Scripture chosen for today’s worship service, as found on the front page of your bulletin, mirrors that attitude. It is taken from Isaiah 66:2, “The LORD says, ‘On this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.” God will bless those who are willing to listen to Him!

My dear friends—we live in a world in which God’s word is ridiculed and rejected. That is to be expected, for unbelief blinds men’s hearts to the truths of God, and without the Holy Spirit’s intervention, it is impossible for anyone to accept and understand those truths (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14; 12:3). What is more tragic, however, is that many within the church today claim the name of Jesus Christ, but choose to ignore His word. They sit in judgment of the Bible, rejecting its claim of inspiration and inerrancy, and believing only that which their reason can comprehend. In this way they strip the Bible of its Spirit-intended meaning, and Satan is able to undermine the very central teachings of our salvation—the virgin birth of Christ, the deity of Christ, the physical resurrection of Christ, and the atoning work of Christ, without which there is no salvation!

That, however, my dear friends, is not the principle danger here at Immanuel, for we still do believe and teach the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture and the truths of salvation by God’s grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ. What is a danger here at Immanuel in our individual lives is when we are unwilling to listen to the will of God as expressed in the Bible and apply it to our lives. This can be seen when we find ourselves thoughtlessly taking the name of our Lord in vain, or when we assume that we can "party" with the best of them out in the world, and so violate God’s commandment to lead sober lives and not to drink to excess. But let us consider what God has to say about those issues identified in our Epistle Lesson—the sins of sexual immorality.

There is perhaps no commandment suffering greater challenges today than the Sixth Commandment, and I fear there are many in our midst being deceived by the world and sucked knowingly or unknowingly into defiant opposition to God in this matter. What form does this opposition take? It can take a multitude of forms, which present innumerable dangers and temptations. Living together outside and apart from marriage has become a plague upon the church and our society. God forbids fornication and, therefore, irrespective of what the world thinks, living together outside and apart from marriage is sin. I might add that even worldly sociologists now recognize that this action is one of the greatest factors undermining marriage and damaging families in our society today. Pornography likewise has become a plague upon our church and our society. It is readily available virtually anywhere today, and you do not even have to go out to look for it, because it comes directly into our homes and offices via the Internet. Viewing pornography is addictive, and it is sin! It is destroying minds and marriages at an unprecedented rate. Suggesting that homosexuality is simply an acceptable, alternate lifestyle directly contradicts the Scripture and does violence to the clearly expressed will of God. That is no way suggests that those guilty of these sins be harmed or persecuted by anyone within our society, much less Christians. But, the fact remains that such activity is sin and must be avoided, and that those involved in such sins must be called upon to repent. We are not dealing with human opinions here, but rather with the clear word and will of God. The question is "are we willing to listen?" The apostle Paul asks in the verses leading up to our Epistle Lesson today, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, not adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 9-11). Sins against the Sixth Commandment are not an option for those claiming the name of Christ. If you are involved in such sins and do not repent, you will lose your soul. That is clear. However, what is equally clear is that there is forgiveness with our Lord. There were members of the Corinthian congregation, who had been involved in such sins, but who were led by the Spirit to repent of those sins and to rejoice in the forgiveness, strength, guidance, and blessing of the Lord.

My dear friends—LET US LEARN FROM A CHILD—from the boy Samuel—to be eager to serve and to be willing to listen, for then we will continue to enjoy God’s distinct blessings as we fulfill our respective callings to His glory and for our mutual benefit! Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting