*Title:* The Nature of the Tyrant — Pastor Alex Mensen-Johnson, September 26, 2026

What is a tyrant? The dictionary says a cruel and oppressive ruler — but in his first sermon at Gentry, Pastor Alex Mensen-Johnson brings the question much closer to home. Drawing on two power structures in the Bible, he contrasts God's rule — the benevolent King who came “not to be ministered unto, but to minister” (Mark 10:45) — with the devil's kingdom, where power exists only to serve the self (Isaiah 14:14). Tyrants, he observes, always meet the same end: first brought down to the level of those they lorded over, then consumed by them. It happened to Julius Caesar; Scripture says it will happen to the devil himself. And the uncomfortable question underneath it all is whether the tyrant might be closer than we think — not only in a palace or a parliament, but in an office, a committee, or our own hearts.

The sermon tests that question through Saul and David, Israel's first two kings. Saul shows the tyrant's marks from the start: cowardice, disobedience, and abuse of power. He forbids his exhausted army to eat until evening so that he can be avenged on his enemies (1 Samuel 14:24), then nearly executes his own son Jonathan for tasting honey he never knew was forbidden. The pattern repeats through history — Stalin seizing Ukraine's grain for export until it rotted in storage while millions starved — and the second mark follows: the tyrant uses force to keep power, as Saul hurled a javelin at David and spent the kingdom's resources hunting a man who meant Israel no harm (1 Samuel 19:10–11). David is the opposite at every point: his kingdom was exalted “for his people's sake” (2 Samuel 5:12), and after Absalom's rebellion the people themselves invited him back (2 Samuel 19:14). He never seized the throne; it was given to him. So it is with Jesus, who knocks at the door of our lives and will not force His way in.

The third mark is the most personal: the tyrant refuses accountability. Confronted over the Amalekites, Saul confesses and in the same breath blames the people — “I feared the people, and obeyed their voice” — then asks Samuel to worship beside him, not from repentance but to save face before the elders (1 Samuel 15:24–26). David, guilty of far worse, humbled himself and confessed, and even refused a free sacrifice, insisting on paying full price for Araunah's threshing floor (2 Samuel 24:24). Pastor Alex closes with three questions to carry home and apply to ourselves first: Is the power for self, or for others? Is it taken by force, or given by choice? Is there denial — or accountability? Nobody wants to live under a tyrant, he says. Everybody wants to live under the benevolent King.

*Key texts:* Mark 10:45; Isaiah 14:14; 1 Samuel 14:24; 2 Samuel 5:12; 1 Samuel 19:10–11; 2 Samuel 19:14; 1 Samuel 15:24–26; 2 Samuel 24:24; 1 Peter 5:7 · *Also referenced:* Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, ch. 61 and p. 726

*Watch:* https://youtu.be/h3bKk298dRw · *Listen:* https://cloud-1de12d.becdn.net/media/original/4b20406b7030fe79db8f620aa59488f3.mp3