Luke 19:11-12 The Wrong Kind of King
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: October 29, 2018 Luke 19:11-12
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.
(Revelation of God) The purpose of this parable was to stop people from thinking of the glory of Israel and start thinking of their duty to God. Also, it was a warning to those who were about to reject Jesus as their Messiah. In addition, it was a prediction of what would happen. Jesus was going to receive His kingdom. He knew that He would receive it in a way that no one expected. Jesus was about to leave earth and go to the courts of heaven to receive His kingdom. He had one final battle to win at the cross. Then, when He triumphed over the grave, he would go to heaven and receive His kingdom officially. Satan had taken it from Adam, so Jesus was about to come take it back from Satan for humanity. God couldn’t fight Satan as the all-powerful Creator because of the inequality in power, so God made Himself weaker than Satan and fought Him that way. The only one qualified to win back earth from Satan was a human, so God became human to win back earth.
(Understanding the Text) This verse is confirmation that the people with Jesus expected that this would be the time when He would be crowned King of the Jews. They thought that they were on a triumphal journey to Jerusalem and that Jesus would force the Sanhedrin to acknowledge Him as the Messiah and then they would throw the Romans out of Israel and things would go back to the way they were in David and Solomon’s time only better. Jesus knew their expectations and was trying to get them to understand the lessons that they needed to know through a parable since telling them directly would be useless. He’d already tried that, and they simply hadn’t been able to accept it, so they had not heard the words.
He was trying to tell them that some people would not accept Him. He wanted them to know that He expected His followers to work for Him even when He wasn’t there, and finally, He wanted them to know that He would return again.
(Application) My application for myself is that I have wrong ideas about what Jesus wants and who He is and what He is going to do. I need to study to see Him more clearly and try to listen to hear and understand. The other application is that Jesus loved me and other humans so much that when we lost the battle, He sacrificed Himself to become human and die in our place. We couldn’t handle the battle, so He fought it for us. He is worthy of worship.
(Prayer) Purify my character and my ideas about what You want, who You are, and what You are going to do. I want to know You and serve You, but I am not able to represent You well. You have done so much for me, and I am so ungrateful. Thank you for loving me even though I am unworthy.