Our series during Ordinary time will explore the revelation of God’s Kingdom through his Son. We will look specifically how the incarnation—the ministry, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ—reveals the long-promised Kingdom of God breaking into human history demonstrating God’s love, destroying the powers that ravaged creation, and displaying the Messiah’s promise (to continue reading this essay, click on image above).

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YOUR KINGDOM COME
Pastoral Resources | 2025-26 Themes At-A-Glance

Week 11: Epiphany — The Prophets’ Vision of the Messianic King: Isaiah’s Testimony, Isa. 9:6-7; 61:1-3 
The ultimate answer of the Lord to human darkness, oppression, and despair is a person from David’s own line, a king whose work will involve his own incarnated presence among his people through the incarnation of his divine Son. The four compound names given to the messianic child reveal that he and his Kingdom will overcome our foes and meet our deepest needs—for wisdom, strength, nurturing love, and peace. He will accomplish the destruction of evil and the end of oppression because he possesses divine attributes and exercises divine authority in his work.  

The Kingdom of God comes through the Messiah, challenging us to recognize that authentic deliverance and transformation in our personal lives, our communities, and our world depends entirely on submitting to the reign of this divine King to come. He alone owns the power to break oppressive yokes through his cross and establish lasting peace through his resurrection power. Living as citizens of his ever-expanding Kingdom, we today must bear witness to the light that has shattered our darkness and display in our churches his justice and righteousness in our theology, worship, discipleship, and mission to the world. 

Invocation
Almighty God, you who called light out of darkness at creation’s dawn, I ask for you to reveal yourself to me as I meditate upon your promise to send the divine child-king into our world’s deepest night. Open my eyes to see the great light of Messiah-Jesus shining into every shadowed corner of my life and prepare my heart to receive afresh the wonder of his incarnation. By your Holy Spirit, illumine my understanding and awaken my soul to worship you and him, the one who is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace, that I might live this day as a true citizen of his eternal Kingdom. Amen. 

Gloria Patri
Glory be to the Father,
And to the Son and to the Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning,
Is now, and ever shall be,
World without end. Amen, amen.

Chronological Scripture Readings for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the entire Bible in one year in chronological order.
Sunday: Deut. 1-3 

Lectionary Readings for Today
Our readings from the Psalms, the Old Testament, the Gospels and the Epistles are taken from the Revised Common Lectionary for this week.
Psalm: Psalm 112:1-10
Old Testament (or Acts [during Eastertide]): Isaiah 58:1-12
Gospel: Matt. 5:13-20
New Testament: 1 Corinthians 2:1-6

Click here for all of this week’s Scripture readings

Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Sunday: Psalm 8, 38, 68, 98, 128 and Proverbs 8

The Prophets’ Vision of the Messianic King: Isaiah’s Testimony, Isa. 9:1-7
Isaiah prophesies that God will transform the darkness and despair of his oppressed people into glorious light through the coming of a divine child-king who will break every yoke of bondage, establish an everlasting kingdom of peace and justice on David’s throne, and rule with divine authority as the incarnation of God’s own presence among his people.

Reflection
Isaiah’s magnificent prophecy unveils God’s dramatic intervention in human history through the coming of a divine Messiah who will reverse every effect of sin and judgment. God will visit and appear to the regions once overwhelmed by foreign conquest, bringing his light and presence to them to dispel their darkness of oppression and death. God’s visitation will produce explosive joy among them as he shatters their burdens and renders the machinery of warfare obsolete by his direct intervention. God will accomplish these mighty works through a child who will be born who is simultaneously fully human and fully divine, bearing names that declare him to be God incarnate—Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. This divine child-king will ascend David’s throne and establish a kingdom characterized by endless expansion, perfect justice, and absolute righteousness, sustained by the Lord’s own zeal to fulfill his covenant promises. The darkest history and moments of God’s people will give way to the brightest dawn when the Messiah arrives to reign forever. 

Engaging God’s Word Today
In what specific areas of your life are you still attempting to dispel darkness through your own doing, i.e., human wisdom, strength, or effort rather than surrendering fully to the reign of the divine child-king who alone possesses the authority and power to break every oppressive yoke and establish lasting peace? Be specific! 

Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, The Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God,
Begotten of the Father before all ages,
God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God,
Begotten not created, of the same essence as the Father,
through Whom all things were made.

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and became human.
Who for us too, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried.
The third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and His kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Who together with the Father and Son is worshiped and glorified.
Who spoke by the prophets.

We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sin,
and we look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the age to come. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.

Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Benediction
May the Lord who multiplies joy and shatters oppressive yokes fill you with joy and gladness that comes from knowing Christ, our Savior and Lord set to reign upon David’s throne forever. Father, help me today to walk confidently in the light of his presence, bearing witness to his justice and righteousness in everything I do and say, in my relationships and responsibilities that you have entrusted to my care. And may your zeal, Lord Almighty, which guarantees the fulfillment of every covenant promise you have made, sustain me in hope and empower me to faithfully serve you today, and until that day when the government finally rests fully upon Christ’s shoulders when the increase of his Kingdom will have no end. Amen. 

Scripture Memory for this season
Isaiah 9:6-7 (ESV): The Prophet’s Vision of the Messianic King: Isaiah’s Testimony
⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Scripture Engagement
As disciples of Jesus, the Churches of Christ the King strongly seek to engage the Scriptures to discover the centrality of Christ and his Kingdom in the prophetic and apostolic writings. You will find a rich treasure of resources on engaging Scripture at the Center for Scripture Engagement of Taylor University.

Books We Are Reading this Church Year, and When
• The Most Amazing Story Ever Told, Dr. Don Davis (during season of Advent)
• Get Your Pretense On, Dr. Don Davis (during season of Christmas)
• Destined for the Throne, Paul Billheimer (during seasons of Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, and Resurrection)
• The Presence of the Future, George Eldon Ladd (during seasons of Ascension and Coming of Holy Spirit)
• Kingdom, Church and World, Howard Snyder (during seasons of Headship and Harvest)
• The Gospel of the Kingdom, George Eldon Ladd (during the seasons of Hope and Remembering the Saints, Exalting the King)

Book Reading Reflection: Destined for the Throne
(Reading “Destined for the Throne” during season of Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, and Resurrection)

“The average historian has no clue to the meaning of history, because he ignores the only infallible sourcebook, the Bible. For most people, historians included, the center of history for any given age or period is the political entity or state which is the most populous, which occupies the greatest territory, represents supreme material resources, and boasts the largest and most invincible military might. To most of us, the stuff of history is the part played by the great empires of the past, including the leading political, military, and financial figures associated with them. So men like the Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon seem to be the authentic makers of history. These empire builders and their followers considered themselves to be the architects of fate and motors of destiny. They believed that they were the central forces of history and prime movers of its events.  

But the world at large and its historians in particular have missed a point altogether. There is only one philosophy of history that makes sense, and that is the Biblical philosophy.  

The center of history is not its great empires like Egypt, Babylon, Greece, or Rome, nor their modern counterparts such as Russia, China, United States of America, or any other which may yet appear. To locate the center of history, one must bypass all these vast empires and the glittering names associated with them and find his way to a tiny land called The Navel Of The Earth, the geographical center of the world. And in that tiny land is a tiny hill called Calvary where two thousand years ago a man named Jesus was lifted up to die. This writer submits that this tiny hill and that tiny land is the center of all history, not only of this world but of all the countless galaxies and island universes of outer space from eternity to eternity.” 

~ Billheimer, Paul. Destined for the Throne: How Spiritual Warfare Prepares the Bride of Christ for Her Eternal Destiny. Bethany House Publishers, Minneapolis: MN, 1975, 1996. Electronic Edition, location 21-22. 

On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
The Time is Fulfilled: The Fall of Humankind and the Curse Overturned, Mark 1:14-15 (cf. Gen 3:1-15)

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