Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Who's Your King? | New Testament | Luke 19

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Everyone needs a king to rule over their life. It could be a political leader, yourself, a parent, God, etc. So who should you choose to rule your life? In today's episode, Patrick unpacks the need for a true king and Luke 19. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Luke 19

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Back in 2017, Burger King drew the wrath of Belgium's King for a hilarious online stunt. At the time, Burger King was preparing to expand their stores into Belgium. And so to get attention, they posted an online poll with two cartoon characters, the Burger King on one side, and a cartoon of King Philip of Belgium on the other side. side. Beneath the Kings reads a question. Two kings, one crown, who shall reign? The burger chain then invited everyone in Belgium to vote, which kind of made me laugh. I mean, how American

to turn kingship into a democracy. Anyway, apparently King Philip was nonplussed. He said he didn't give the campaign his approval. In the end, it seems he agreed that there really can only be one king in Belgium. The same thing is true of our own lives. There can only be one king over our choices over our bodies, our desires, our everything. These days, we're encouraged to make ourselves kings and queens over our own personal lives. I'm assured that I know what's best for me, I can choose what's best for me, and I can provide what's best for me. All that is well and good, until it's not. I remember the very first day of Columbia's stay-at-home order during the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, coronavirus was scaring everyone. Healthy people were dying, hourly workers and

day laborers were losing their jobs. The stock market took a dip, kind of a little crash, and that happened to really affect a lot of retirement plans as well. And when we got the stay-at-home order and no one really knew what COVID was, no one knew what to expect in the coming months. Now, when you listen to this, you know what happened. You know how the story unfolded. But can you remember what it felt like? It was like a strange nightmare. Everybody was wondering if everything is just going to get worse. I can't think of another time in my life where I've been so unsure about what the next month or two months or three months were going to hold. But the truth is, other people have experienced similar things. I think of multiple dear friends who had children

go through cancer or terrible sickness, and they didn't even know if they'd have another month to live. But still, for many of us, the coronavirus and the collective sense of not knowing what was going to happen, that was an eerie time. But this takes me back to the topic at hand, kingship. Because before coronavirus, no one wanted a king. Americans seek. Kings as corrupt. That's a power we should be freed from. I mean, we fought a war to do it. Self-sovereignty is king in America. I can rule my own life well enough. I don't need any of your help. And that's, again, all really well and good until it's not, until a tiny microscopic reality. A little virus showed up in our country and turned everything upside down. It was an invisible threat

so small that it wouldn't even register with our eyes. That's all it took to send the lie of self-sovereignty. I can rule everything, I can control everything. That's all it took to send that lie crashing down. All of a sudden, we all realized that maybe I don't know what's best. Maybe I can't protect myself. Maybe there's nothing I can do for my finances. I can't secure my future. I don't even know what's best for the future.

And literally, no one else at the time knew either. There was a leadership crisis because our politicians, our doctors, our economists, literally none of them knew what was going to happen and they couldn't even agree what the best next steps were going to be. some pretended like they could see into the future and said if we just do this we're all going to be safe but now looking back at it in retrospect we can see that a lot of the things we thought were saving us like masks maybe weren't as effective as we thought no one knew how to rule themselves no one knew how to rule one another all it takes is a tiny microscopic virus to unveil reality we are all in desperate need of a king we are all in desperate need of someone who knows exactly what to do next we all need someone who can protect us and preserve our lives no matter what happens who can guide us, guide our communities through terrible, death-inducing situations, and who can guide us even through death unto life. A week before his crucifixion, Jesus rode into Jerusalem as that kind of king,

as a king offering hope for rescue, restoration, and wisdom to know what's next. We pick up the story in Luke 19, verse 28. After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem, as he approached Beth Fage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives. He sent two of his disciples saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you'll find a cult tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it? Say this, the Lord needs it. Those who were sent went ahead and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the

cult, its owners asked them, why are you untying the cult? They replied, the Lord has need of it. They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the cult, and put Jesus on it. As he once along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near to the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.

Right here, we get to the problem at the heart of Jesus' kingship. because the religious leaders aren't interested in sharing their authority with Jesus, much less kneeling before him as a king, and they aren't alone. Again, how many people in the modern West relish the fact that we serve no king, no king but me? The story continues, and Jesus responds, I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. If you don't bow down to me as king, the creation itself will bow down to Jesus. The creation itself will throw the gauntlet down. There is only one crown.

There is only one throne. There is only one king of the universe. Choose this day who you will serve. But I tell you, creation chooses me. And I can tell you, listening to this, who you ought to choose to rule your life. It's not yourself. As the psalmist says in Psalm 118,

it is better to take refuge in Yahweh than to trust in humans. It's better to take trust in Yahweh than to trust in princes. And as I look back at a world that was crushed by an invisible, virus that no one understood, no one could predict, no one could solve. I know this Psalm is true. There's no use trusting humans, much less myself as king. What we need more than anything else is our humble king to ride into our lives, to ride into America, to ride into Times Square, to ride into Washington, our king to ride into our hearts and say, I'm here to rule for your good because I do know the future.

I do know how to protect you. I do know how to rescue you. Do you want to know the three words our world desperately needs to hear? Jesus is king. And unlike every other human king in real life or on TV or in our imagination, this king, Jesus, does not use his power

to dominate and destroy. He uses his power to forgive, to rescue, to heal, to protect, to assure, to give. And like every other king in history, he spilled blood to take his throne, but they spilled the blood of others. This king spills his own blood. You can caricature this king into something that he's not, but no, he's the king your heart longs for, the king your heart was

made for, the king who knows your heart and knows what you need. And when you serve him, you are by his grace and his power made new. So today, kneel before Jesus in your heart, maybe even with your body, give him your life, ask him to help you to trust him wholly as the king who knows what's best for you and does what's best for you. Ask him to ride humbly as king into your life and into your world and to remake it all. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that's going to help you beat that midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.