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 20: Resurrection — Blessed Are Those Who Believe and Do Not See, John 20:19-31
Jesus rose from the dead and demonstrated to his apostles that the Father raised him from the dead through present and sufficient encounters to his apostles and their company. The resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact and an eschatological certainty; it does not merely reassure the discouraged — it radically reorients them toward mission, empowerment, and worship. Christ’s gift of peace is inseparable from his call to go, and his breath of the Spirit equips what his commission demands. We are invited, like Thomas, to move beyond our doubts and misgivings, even our secondhand faith into a living, personal encounter with the risen Lord that compels our own wholehearted confession.

Invocation
Lord Jesus, you passed through locked doors and breathed new life into your frightened disciples, those who needed your presence and power before their commission. Come now to me into this time of worship and reflection. Dispel my fears, quiet my doubts, and make yourself known to me in a new way. Grant to me the grace to move from uncertainty to surrender, and from hesitation to wholehearted faith, as I seek to understand better the meaning of your resurrection for my life. 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: Pss. 103; 108-110; 122; 124

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 16
Old Testament (or Acts [during Eastertide]): Acts 2:14a, 22-32* 
* During Eastertide a reading from Acts is often substituted for the lesson from the Hebrew Bible.
Gospel: John 20:19-31
New Testament: 1 Peter 1:3-9 

Click here for all of this week’s Scripture readings

Psalms and Proverbs for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Sunday: Psalm 12, 42, 72, 102, 132 and Proverbs 12 

From Fear to Faith: The Risen Lord Transforms His Disciples, John 20:19-31
The risen Christ appeared to his fearful disciples after his resurrection, bestowing peace, commissioning them, and breathing the Spirit upon them in anticipation of Pentecost. His appearance culminated in Thomas’s transformative confession of Jesus as both Lord and God.

Reflection
Our risen Lord Jesus, the Messiah-King, breaks through every barrier — locked doors, entrenched fear, and stubborn doubt — to bring his disciples from paralysis to peace, from confusion to commission, and from hesitation to wholehearted confession. The identity of Jesus reaches its summit in Thomas’s declaration that Jesus is both Lord and God, overcoming Thomas’ doubt and demonstrating the transforming power of a personal encounter with the risen Savior.

Engaging God’s Word Today
In what area of your life are you still “behind locked doors” — held back by fear, doubt, or the absence of visible proof? What might it look like for the risen Christ to enter that space this week for you, speak peace over it, and call you into a deeper, more personal confession of his lordship?

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, risen Lord Jesus, for the blessed assurance of your resurrection. You are the God of all comfort and have refreshed us with your Word of truth. Help me now to go forth in the peace that only you, the risen Christ, can give — commissioned by your Word, empowered by your Spirit, and anchored in the confession that you are my Lord and God. May every locked door in my heart be opened by your presence, and may I bear witness, with Thomas, to you, the One who is alive forevermore. Amen.

Scripture Memory for this season
Mark 8:31-38 (ESV): The Messiah’s Predicted Suffering: The Kingdom’s Path 
³¹ And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 

³⁴ And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ³⁷ For what can a man give in return for his soul? ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” 

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)

THE KINGDOM COMES IN THIS AGE

“There is however another element in Jesus’ teaching which sets it in contrast to Judaism. We have seen that Jesus taught that before the eschatological consummation, an actual fulfillment of the Old Testament hope was occurring in his own person and mission. This same note of present fulfillment is found in sayings about a present coming and working of the Kingdom in the world. This brings us to our central thesis: that before the eschatological appearing of God’s Kingdom at the end of the age, God’s Kingdom has become dynamically active among men in Jesus’ person and mission. The Kingdom in this age is not merely the abstract concept of God’s universal rule to which men must submit; it is rather a dynamic power at work among men. This is not only the element which sets our Lord’s teaching most distinctively apart from Judaism; it is the heart of his proclamation and the key to his entire mission.

Before the apocalyptic coming of God’s Kingdom and the final manifestation of his rule to bring in the new age, God has manifested his rule, his Kingdom, to bring to men in advance of the eschatological era the blessings of his redemptive reign. There is no philological or historical or exegetical reason why God’s Kingdom, God’s rule, cannot manifest itself in two different ways at two different times to accomplish the same ultimate redemptive end. The rabbis had such a twofold concept of God’s malkuth. God’s reign could be accepted in this age, and it would appear dynamically at the end of the age. Jesus followed this basic pattern but went beyond the rabbis by teaching that God’s kingly reign was manifesting itself dynamically in this age in his own person and mission before its eschatological appearing.” 

~ Ladd, George. The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids: MI, 1974. Electronic Edition, location 138.

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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