Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why We Need a King | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 19.28-44

Starting point is 00:00:00 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. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're learning what it looks like to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. So back in 2017, Burger King, of all places, drew the ire of Belgium's king. It was kind of for this what I think was hilarious publicity stunt. At the time, they were expanding their stores into Belgium. And so to get attention, they posted an online poll. And this online poll, it's kind of a cartoon thing, and there's two characters on it. On the one side is the Burger King. And on the other side is this cartoonized version of King Philip of Belgium. And beneath the little cartoons, there's a question, two kings, one crown, who shall reign? And the burger chain then invited people who went to this website to vote. Do they want to follow the Burger King or the King of Belgium?

Starting point is 00:01:03 Now, when I saw this, I thought it was pretty funny. It kind of made me laugh. But I'm an American, right? We turned kingship into democracy, so that's kind of funny to me. Anyway, apparently it wasn't very funny to King Philip of Belgium. He said that he would have never given the campaign his approval if he understood what they were going to do. And in the end, it seemed like he actually agreed with the main point of the ad.

Starting point is 00:01:24 There really can only be one king. And he wasn't going to share his crown with the Burger King. The same thing's true of our own lives, isn't it? there can only be one king over our choices, our bodies, our desires, our everything. And these days, we're encouraged to make ourselves kings or queens over our own lives. I'm assured that I basically know what's best for me, that I can choose what's best for me, and I can provide even what's best for me. And all of that is well and good until it's not.

Starting point is 00:01:55 Right now, I'm recording this in April, and that means that we're right now in about the third week of coronavirus. And here in Columbia, we're now in the third week of Columbia's stay-at-home order. And right now, coronavirus is terrifying people. Healthy people are dying. Hourly workers and day laborers are losing their jobs. It seems like there's a lot of people who are going to follow before we know it. The stock market is crashing along with people's retirement plans. A lot of us are scared. And this episode, it's not going to come out until the middle of May. And here's the two truth right now in the middle of April, no one knows what to expect by then. When you listen to this, I have no idea if the pandemic will be over. I have no idea if we'll be seeing this like a strange

Starting point is 00:02:43 nightmare from years before. I have no idea if things are only going to be worse when you're listening to this in the middle of May. Here's the funny thing. I cannot think of another time in my life where I have been so unsure about what the next 30 days hold. I just can't remember a time where I felt disin-sure. I really have no idea. But here's the thing. Other people have felt the way that I felt. I think of dear friends of mine who have had children go through cancer or a terrible

Starting point is 00:03:13 sickness. And they never really knew if they'd have another 30 days together. They know what it's like to not know what the next 30 days hold. But for many of us, this is the first time. And this is a kind of eerie time. Perhaps if it's the middle of May and you're listening to this, you're already trying to pretend like it never happened. maybe we've moved on. But my guess is it's still gripping us. It's still with us. That's besides the

Starting point is 00:03:37 point. This takes me back to the topic at hand. And here's what we're trying to talk about, kingship. Because here's the thing. Before coronavirus, no one wanted a king. Americans, we see kings as corrupt, right? We freed ourselves from the power of kings. We believe in self-sovereignty. I can rule my own life. I can do things on my own. And again, that's all well and good until a tiny microscopic viral reality enters into our world. And that tiny little invisible threat, so small we can't even see it. It doesn't even register on our lives. We have to have a microscope to see it. That tiny little thing, it takes this lie of self-sovereignty, this lie that I can control my life and I know what's best and I know where things are going. That tiny little virus, it takes that reality and it has sent it

Starting point is 00:04:23 crashing down. It's a lie. I'm not actually in control of my life. I don't actually know what's best. All of a sudden, we're realizing that I can't protect myself or my finances. I can't secure my future. I don't even know what's best for my future. And literally, no one else does. Right now, we're in the middle of a leadership crisis because our politicians, our doctors, our economists, literally none of them know what's going to happen. Again, you're going to be listening to this a month from now, and maybe you know, what happened, or maybe you still don't know what's going to happen 30 days from now. Here's the deal. Some people may be pretending like they can see what's going to happen, but they don't know. And when we try to do it, we look ridiculous. We have no idea.

Starting point is 00:05:06 All it takes is a microscopic virus to unveil reality. We desperately need a king. We all desperately need someone who knows what to do, who knows what will happen next, who can protect and preserve our lives and what really matters, who can guide our community through this, who can guide our community even through death into life. This leads me to the story of a king, Jesus entering into Jerusalem, promising to do exactly that. We'll pick up the story in Luke 19. After Jesus had said this, he went ahead going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Beth Fage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent out two of his disciples saying to them,

Starting point is 00:05:55 go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a cult tied there, which none of you has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it? Say, the Lord needs it. Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them,

Starting point is 00:06:11 and as they were untying the cult, its owners asked them, why are you untying the cult? They replied, the Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus. They threw their cloaks on the cult, and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. And when he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully

Starting point is 00:06:32 to praise God in loud voices for all of the miracles that they had seen. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. So we see all these disciples, and they are laying down their clothes, and they are shouting out, and they're singing, and they're celebrating that the king is coming. But Luke tells us there's another reaction to this king. Luke 1939, some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, rebuke your disciples. Right here we get to the heart of the problem, the problem of Jesus' kingship. Because the religious leaders, they aren't interested in sharing their authority with Jesus, much less kneeling before him as king. And they aren't alone. Again, how many people in the

Starting point is 00:07:18 the modern West, how many of us relish the fact that we serve no king, that I have no king but myself. But check out how Jesus responds to the Pharisees. Verse 40, I tell you, if they, my disciples, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. If you don't bow down before me as king, the creation itself is going to do it. Jesus is throwing the gauntlet down. He's saying, look, there's only one crown. There's only one throne. You have to choose this day who you will serve, but I'll tell you this. I can tell you who creation serves, and it's me. And I can tell you who you ought to serve, who you ought to choose. It's me. As the psalmist says in Psalm 118, it's better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans. It's better to take refuge in the

Starting point is 00:08:08 Lord than to trust in princes. As I look right now at a world crushed by a invisible virus, no one understands or can predict or can solve. I just know that this Psalm is true. There's no use trusting humans, much less myself as king, because when things get really hard, we don't know what to do. We can't protect ourselves. We can't control the future. The thing that we need more than anything else is to have the humble king ride in. Just like he wrote into Jerusalem in this story, We need the humble king to ride in to America. We need the humble king to ride in to Times Square. We need the humble king to ride in to Washington.

Starting point is 00:08:51 We need that humble king to ride into each of our hearts. Do you want to know the three words that our world desperately needs to hear? A world right now, as I'm speaking, shattered by sickness, shattered by economic loss. Do you know what the words they need to hear are? It's not, I've got the answer. I know what to do next because that's a lie. here's the three words they need to hear. Jesus is king. Jesus is king. And unlike every other human king in real life or on TV or in our imagination, this king, he doesn't use his power to

Starting point is 00:09:28 dominate or to destroy. He uses his power to forgive, to rescue, to heal, to protect, to assure, to give, to give of himself. 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 King Jesus into something that he's not, but no, he's the king your heart longs for. He's the king your heart was made for. He's the king who knows your heart and knows exactly what you need. And when you serve him as your king, you are made new. So today, I want to challenge you to kneel before Jesus. Jesus in your heart. Maybe even do it with your body and give him your life. Ask him to help you

Starting point is 00:10:17 to trust him wholly as the king who knows what's best and does what's best. Ask him to write humbly as king into your life and your world and remake it all. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why We Need a King | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 19.28-44

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