Unshaken: Chapter a Day

Luke 19 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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A tax collector in a tree, a king who expects a return, a city that misses its moment—Luke 19 moves with urgency and heart. We walk from Jericho to Jerusalem tracing a single throughline: when Jesus draws near, you either open your life or defend your excuses. Zacchaeus shows us what grace can do in real time, trading status and profit for joy and restitution, while the crowd wrestles with a Savior who loves the wrong people the right way.

From there we unpack the parable of the ten minas and its bracing clarity about stewardship. Jesus portrays life between his first and second comings as an entrusted assignment, not a holding pattern. Some servants multiply what they’re given; one hides his mina and calls fear wisdom. We talk about reward, responsibility, and why inaction is not neutral but disobedience. The parable’s hard edge—justice for those who reject the King—doesn’t cancel mercy; it protects it, ensuring that love is not reduced to indifference.

Finally, we turn to the triumphal entry and the cleansing of the temple. Jesus rides a colt to fulfill prophecy and signal peace, yet he weeps because Jerusalem cannot see the hour of visitation. In the temple courts, he restores a house of prayer for all nations, confronting exploitation that blocked outsiders from God. We reflect on how prayer reopens space for seekers, how public faith invites scrutiny, and how to hold together compassion and conviction in a noisy world.

If this conversation stirs you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more chapter-by-chapter journeys, and leave a review with one takeaway you plan to practice this week. Your reflection might spark someone else’s next faithful step.

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck along with Pastor Holland. We're talking Luke 19. We're going to outline it. We're going to make some observations, some interpretations, and finally some applications for you to take with you today so that you can follow Jesus along the way. All right. So Luke 19, 1 through 10 is the story of Jesus and that we little man, Zacchaeus. He enters Jericho, sees him, calls him out, goes to his house, and changes Zacchaeus' life forever. Then we got the parable of the 10 Minas. All right. So Jesus in verses 11 through 27 comes near Jerusalem amid kingdom expectation. And then they're asking him questions and he gives them this crazy story, which we'll get into in a second. Then we've got uh the verses 28 through 40, the triumphal entry. Uh Jesus rides in on a cult, uh fulfilling scripture. Uh, and I love how he gets the cult by just telling his disciples to do a Jedi mind trick, and they just simply buy uh they just simply get the cult by saying the Lord has need of it. Then you have verses 41 through 44. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem as he approaches the city. He just cries because they don't recognize that who is visiting them. And then in verses 45 through 48, Jesus is at the temple. Uh, he drives out the cellars, he quotes Isaiah and Jeremiah, and then um that's what sort of draws upon him some murderous plots uh as the people hang on his words. All right, so what are some observations uh for you here, Pastor Holland?

Pastor Holland:

You know, I love um this uh parable of the ten minus and the concept of stewardship of what God gives us between Jesus' first and second coming. We've been entrusted with responsibility, authority, blessings, you know, all these things that we are meant to be good stewards of. Um I I just really love that. Um I thought it was wild.

Pastor Plek:

Like this whole story is crazy. Like he's been given this one servant gets a minor, and what does he do with it? Puts it in a handkerchief, hides it, and then he tells he goes, Why? He's like, Well, I knew you're an awful person. You reap where you don't sow, you're pretty much the worst ever. And I knew you just want to kill me. He's like, Well, here you go. Here you go. Okay, then okay, this is where when you look at Jesus, this is the kind and gentle Jesus, and he says this, but as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. How have we missed this? Like, this is that like when we talk about this, this is why I'm saying, like, if you're following Jesus to get a little bit better life, yeah, and you're not wholly sold out to follow him, just I'm just saying, just fair warning don't be an enemy of his, it will not go well for you. Follow him, invest the treasure he's given you, and and produce some some fruit on his behalf, or else. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

I mean, look at this. That that bring them here and slaughter them before me. This is Jesus Christ. This is Jesus. And you know, so he goes in the far country. So he goes in the far country, is this is like Jesus returning to heaven after the resurrection. And, you know, he leaves his uh his people here to invest, you know, what he's entrusted to them. And then the citizens uh don't want him to reign. That's like unbelievers. Right. Um, and so when he comes back, all the people who said, I don't want you to reign over me, slaughtered.

Pastor Plek:

Okay, so who is the guy with one minor? Is he a follower or maybe a like this is a goat and the lamb kind of thing that he looks like a follower and he's given the one minor and he doesn't do anything with it. He buries it, and then Jesus is like, Okay, um I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant.

Pastor Holland:

He yeah, so he he says in verse 27, but as but as for these enemies of mine, so he seems to like make a distinction between the ones who have the minus and the enemies. So does that make a loss or reward for that guy? That's what it seems like, isn't it?

Pastor Plek:

And condemnation, destruction, complete slaughtering for those who reject his kingship. Okay. That is that is that is intense. Okay, how about Jesus Zacchaeus? We've all heard this story about a billion trillion times. Um what'd you see out of here?

Pastor Holland:

Um, I love he's small in stature. I think you what did you say? We little man, the song, is it the song?

Pastor Plek:

Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Uh I didn't grow up in church, so you know, I didn't I didn't learn all the songs.

Pastor Plek:

I listen, I only hear it got in retrospect because I didn't hear me.

Pastor Holland:

But I love that one. Um he climbs up a tree to see Jesus. And his response, you know, unlike the rich young ruler who's like, I can't give away all this stuff, he, without being prompted to, decides of his own volition, I'm gonna, you know, make right the people that I, you know, messed over, and I'm gonna give away, you know, all these possessions. And like he just out of the um the joy of salvation, right? Out of the joy of um of Jesus.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, he's not giving him back feeling like he just got you know, the personal injury attorney just sued him. Right. It's like I've yeah, I gotta, you know, pay, you know, the um uh uh a percentage more, like the interest rate would you know, get him back. It's like I want to bless these people who I really hurt. That's wild.

Pastor Holland:

I love that. Uh and I love you know, the son of man came to seek and save the lost. There's the mission statement of Jesus. Here's why he came, seek and save the lost. And it's still still what he's doing today. He is seeking and saving the lost. And that's what the church should be doing, seeking and saving the lost. The body of Christ and the world.

Pastor Plek:

Okay. How about uh Jesus uh when he comes into the city and he is on this cult, he's fulfilling prophecy, as we know. Um I just thought it was wild that the people are all just like, I mean, how how I mean this like one it's one thing to know you know the Jedi mind trick on getting the cult. Okay, I'm good with that. How did everybody know it was his time to enter the city as the Messiah? That's the part that I always like. It just seems like an organic movement during the Passover. Here comes Jesus, he gets the cult, and everyone sort of knows what that means. Do you think they knew? Oh, here comes Jesus. It's his disciples, so clearly they knew. But do you think they're putting together the Zechariah?

Pastor Holland:

Uh yeah, I mean, three three years now of Jesus' ministry where he's healing, he's teaching, he he's preaching, right? He's amassed crowds who are following him, his you know, his descent. So he's a well-known figure now. And yeah, it seems like people are going, seems like this is the guy. And Passover, I guess, would like why Passover?

Pastor Plek:

Like that's the thing. Like, why would you know? I guess there's three religious festivals of the year, uh, Passover, Pentecost, and uh Yom Kippur, right?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Uh, and so perhaps you know, that was the first one of the season, and so of course he would come then. Yeah, uh, at least that's when all of Israel has gathered together at the temple. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Okay, yeah. And you know, God's style from the beginning, you know, is to choose what is weak to shame, you know, the strong. He loves doing that. And so Jesus, you know, in total fulfillment of that, comes in on a cult. He's coming in peace. Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Okay. Um, what do you think about? I love how the Isaiah Jeremiah quote my house shall be a house of prayer, uh, but you have made it a den of robbers. Um, and I think uh is it Matt which one is Mark? My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations, uh, but you have made it a den of robbers. Here's this it's like the whole point of the temple and the places where these guys were buying and selling was where the foreigners could come and worship, and it was now a market. It was, you know, it's it's as if um it's not you know, I don't think anyone's against buying and selling um animals, but if you do it in the middle of a worship service, that would be weird. Yeah, like if as the peer preacher is preaching or as everyone's praying, uh get your get your lamb over here, get your lamb, and like that's not the place that's appropriate. This is a place of prayer. But because they disregarded the foreigner, like they don't count anyway. So it's just it just makes it easier to self-contain it in this building area.

Pastor Holland:

Uh and we can kind of yeah, over I mean, the fact that he calls them robbers, there's some extortion, there's some you know, uh you're overcharging, you're you're making money.

Pastor Plek:

This is a money-making opportunity, not something simply to help people grow draw near to God.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, and yeah, he's driving people out. So again, this is Jesus kind of uh walking in authority here. Yeah. Um, and you know, the Pharisees hate this. The chief priests, the scribes, uh, the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, it says. But I love this. They did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. I mean, imagine what it'd been like to hear Jesus preach. Man.

Pastor Plek:

All right, let's get into some uh interpretations. Um how about humans, people will do whatever they can to get a glimpse of the truth. I like that. Yeah. I I think you know, we'll go down rabbit holes if we feel like there's truth there. And in this case, a Piscamore tree.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. We we have a tendency to um make excuses to you know get out of doing what God calls us to do. I think I think of the one who put the Mina in the in the napkin and then he gives it all his reasons. He's like, here's why I did it. You know, it's like I feel justified in doing this. And so, like, you know, we we want to not obey God and feel justified in doing that.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

And that's bad.

Pastor Plek:

That's very bad. How about people's proper response to salvation is joy and generosity? Yeah. Um yeah. How about what else you got? Um, how about people have different uh fruit capabilities for that are believers? And yeah. How about character of God? God seeks and save the lost. Yeah, that's what he does.

Pastor Holland:

He seeks and save the lost, he um rewards the faithful, yeah. Back to the minus parable, and he will execute justice on those who reject his kingship, his lordship.

Pastor Plek:

How about God entrusts resources for kingdom gain? That's good. Like he is expecting the kingdom to prosper in your hands because of the way that you steward his resources.

Pastor Holland:

God wants it, uh God values you know, having a house of prayer, a people marked by prayer. Um I I think I don't know, I'd skipping ahead to application though, of just like, man, that we as a church would be a church that prays.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, let's just go jump into some application. So Sindh void, promise to claim, example to follow, command obey, knowledge to believe.

Pastor Holland:

And you said, uh My house should be a house of prayer, and we go, okay, the church, you know, is the household of God. The church ought to be a you know, we ought to be a praying people. Right. Prayer's gotta matter to us.

Pastor Plek:

Okay, how about example to follow? Uh Zacchaeus is eager, like wanting to see Jesus and response to his call.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Be like Zacchaeus. Man, I get I get amped up by uh the parable, the minus parable again. Yeah. Um, Lord, your minor has made 10 minors more.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

That like motivates me. Example to follow. I was like, man, I want to multiply what God's given me 10 times over, you know?

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Yeah. And like to think, has that already happened? Yeah, maybe. You know, am I in the am I at then let's go for a hundred. Yeah, let's go. Yeah, like where am I at? Am I a multiplication of minds? As faithful as I can be. Right. And it's a platform I can. I just love that he uses money as like and business, yeah. Business as like the thing to sort of emulate the kingdom of God. Like steward it well. Maybe that's it. Steward the kingdom of God well. Yeah. Like you have the ability with your resources and wealth.

Pastor Holland:

Better than you found them.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, and expand it. Okay, that's good. Um, how about knowledge uh to believe? Uh Jesus is the seeking savior who reclaims the marginalized as heirs. Like, here is a person like tax collector, so bad. He wants him. He says, I have to be at your house today. Claims him, takes him. So no matter how bad it is for you, how wicked you are, he wants you to be his and to save you, and then something really glorious will be done with you.

Pastor Holland:

Love that. Anything else? Um, maybe example to follow for the last verse. Um, the people were hanging on his words. I just go, man, that should be us. When we open the word, uh, hang on his words, let them, you know, uh ruminate, meditate on them. Um, just be hanging on every word of Jesus. Nice.

Pastor Plek:

How about one more sin to confess? How about a fearful inaction with the gifts God has given you? Yeah, yeah. Don't waste your gifts, move the kingdom forward. And we'll see you tomorrow on a chapter, a day.

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