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).
Click on image above to access our Church Year Calendar
YOUR KINGDOM COME
Pastoral Resources | 2025-26 Themes At-A-Glance
Week 16: Lent — The Harvest of the King, John 4:5-42
Jesus’ sovereign mission into the world as both Messiah and King compelled him to cross every barrier separating human beings and communities, including the ethnic, social, and moral divides. As the Messiah, he offered living water to the spiritually thirsty, and he offered it to those who traditionally had been overlooked because the harvest of his Kingdom acknowledged no human boundary. True worship is neither a geographic nor a cultural achievement but a Spirit-enabled, truth-anchored encounter with the Messiah who sees us fully and loves us freely. We join in his mission as disciples of the King going across every barrier erected through history and ill will, carrying the offer of living water to those who do not yet know that their deepest thirst can only be satisfied in him.
Our Focus Today
The King Who Humbled Himself, John 4:5–6
Jesus’ deliberate journey through Samaria and his weariness at Jacob’s well reveal that the eternal Son of God fully entered human frailty and limitation, making his divine mission inseparable from his genuine humanity.
Invocation
Lord Jesus, you sat weary at Jacob’s well tired and famished, yet you never abandoned your Father’s mission. You know exhaustion and weakness. Meet me now in my own fatigue and limitation. As I come to your Word, remind me that your humanity is real and that you experienced tiredness and exhaustion, even as I do. This is not a barrier to your glory but its very dwelling place. Grant me the wisdom and grace to find in your weariness the tenderness of a Savior who understands me and grant me the courage to press on, even today. 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.
Monday: 1 Sam. 24-25; Ps. 54
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Monday: Psalm 16, 46, 76, 106, 136 and Proverbs 16
The King Who Humbled Himself, John 4:5–6
Jesus’ deliberate journey through Samaria and his weariness at Jacob’s well reveal that the eternal Son of God fully entered human frailty and limitation, making his divine mission inseparable from his genuine humanity.
Reflection
The incarnation means that Jesus did not merely visit our humanity from a safe distance; he entered it completely, bearing its exhaustion, its dust, and its physical limits as his own. His weariness at the well is not a show of human frailty and weakness but represents the very way his incarnational mission advanced. God’s strength is most clearly displayed through genuine human frailty. Let us then acknowledge the humanity of Christ our High Priest and bring ourselves and our own exhaustion and limitation to him, trusting that he understands our weariness, and is neither distant from nor diminished by our frailties and needs.
Engaging God’s Word Today
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, did not bypass human weariness but bore it fully as the very ground on which he accomplished his Father’s mission. In what areas of your life today are you tempted to believe that your weakness disqualifies you from intimacy with God or fruitful service to him? How might the image of a weary Christ Jesus reframe the way you understand God’s power working through your own limitations?
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
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are fully human like me in every way except you did not sin. You understand when I am tired, when I am weak, when I am weary. Help me to go now in your strength aware that you became weak and weary too. Help me to go now, bearing both your strength and your weariness as tokens to you, the King who bore the same. Because you entered fully into human frailty, no road is too dusty, no hour too late, and no limitation too great for you to understand in my life and help me to endure through it. May you, the God who rested at the well, now rise up to assist me in my weakness and through it to accomplish more than I could ask or imagine. Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
Matt. 11:2-6 (ESV): The Messiah’s Healing of the Sick: The Kingdom’s Compassion
2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
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 season of Epiphany)
• The Presence of the Future, George Eldon Ladd (during seasons of Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Ascension)
• Thy Kingdom Come, Rev. Terry Cornett and Dr. Don Davis (during season of Ascension)
• Kingdom, Church and World, Howard Snyder (during seasons of the Coming of the Holy Spirit, 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 “The Presence of the Future,” during season of Lent, Holy Week, and Resurrection)
This idea of “the God who comes” is one of the central characteristics of the Old Testament teaching about God, and it links together history and eschatology. The whole history of Israel, from the birth of the nation at Mount Sinai to her final redemption in the Kingdom of God, can be viewed in light of the divine visitations. God visited his people in the wilderness to call them into being and thus became their King. The Lord came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran, he came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand.… Thus the Lord became king in Jeshurun. Deuteronomy 33:2, 5
This initial coming of God was described as a mighty theophany. When the creator God visited the earth, his creation was shaken before his power and glory. Lord, when thou didst go forth from Seir, when thou didst march from the region of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, yea, the clouds dropped water. The mountains quaked before the Lord, yon Sinai before the Lord, the God of Israel. Judges 5:4–5 (Cf. Psalm 68:7–8)
In the concluding prayer in Habakkuk, the author consoles himself in the face of evil times by the recollection of God’s wonderful visitations in the past, particularly when “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran.” The mountains saw thee, and writhed.… The sun and moon stood still in their habitation.… Thou didst bestride the earth in fury, thou didst trample the nations in anger Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, for the salvation of thy anointed. Habakkuk 3:3, 10, 11, 12–13. This is obviously poetic language, but it is not merely poetry.
~ Ladd, George. The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids: MI, 1974. Electronic Edition.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
The Messiah Provides Sight, John 9:1-41
Visit our Church App for more information: Scan the QR Code below (if you have difficulty loading the app, click here for instructions how to get the app on your iPhone or Android)
