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

On the Road to Emmaus, Luke 24:13-35
The risen Christ draws near to his people in their confusion and grief, revealing himself through the Word and the breaking of bread (the Eucharist). The Scriptures illuminate our minds, and fellowship at the table opens our eyes of faith to the living presence of the risen King. We are invited, in every season of doubt or discouragement, to see him in the Word and in gathered communion, trusting that he is present, active, and revealed to those who welcome him.

Our Focus Today
The Confession of Dashed Hope, Luke 24:17–24.
When Jesus asks the travelers to Emmaus what they are discussing, they recount the crucifixion and the empty tomb with sorrow, confessing that they “had hoped that he was the One to redeem Israel” — revealing a faith not yet illumined by resurrection understanding. 

Invocation
Lord Jesus, I come to you now as one of those who sometimes stand where Cleopas stood — full of facts, yet short of faith, as someone who might be acquainted with your story, yet slow to grasp its importance. Receive my honest confusion as my confession that I need your Spirit’s leading, and your help to understand what you are doing in my life. Meet me in all those places where my hope has faltered, and speak your living Word into my grief, teaching me to trust in you when my thoughts simply cannot resolve the things that I am going through. 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.
Wednesday: 2 Chron. 7; 1 Kings 9.1-14

Psalms and Proverbs for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Wednesday: Psalm 22, 52, 82, 112, 142 and Proverbs 22

The Confession of Dashed Hope, Luke 24:17–24.
When Jesus asks the travelers to Emmaus what they are discussing, they recount the crucifixion and the empty tomb with sorrow, confessing that they “had hoped that he was the One to redeem Israel” — revealing a faith not yet illumined by resurrection understanding.

Reflection
Authentic faith can be temporarily overwhelmed by circumstances that appear to contradict God’s promises, producing genuine confusion and dashed hope. The disciples’ honest confession reveals that knowing the facts of the gospel is not yet the same as possessing an understanding of the resurrection. We must bring our unresolved doubts and collapsed expectations openly before Christ, trusting that he receives our honest wrestling as the very ground upon which deeper faith is forged.

Engaging God’s Word Today
Where in your own life have you found yourself confessing, in effect, “I had hoped that Christ would have . . . ” — carrying the grief of an expectation that seemed to die? What might it mean to bring that honest, unresolved confession directly to Christ, trusting that he is not threatened by your doubt but is, in fact, already present within it?

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 know how weak and vulnerable I am, so prone to believe the wrong things about the significance of what I am going through today. I go from this time, knowing that my honest doubts and dashed hopes are not disqualifications from your presence; amazingly, they are invitations into it. You walked with those grieving disciples on a dusty road, and you walk with your people still. May the God of all hope restore what confusion has dimmed in my mind, strengthen what sorrow has weakened in my heart, and lead my halting faith into the full light of resurrection joy. 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)

“Jesus reinterpreted the prophetic hope in terms of a spiritual rather than a military conflict. The coming of the Kingdom as an eschatological event will mean nothing less than the destruction of the Devil and his angels in eternal fire (Matt. 25:41) at the Parousia of the Son of Man. This conflict between good and evil, light and darkness, God and Satan is a fundamental element in the dualistic structure of Jesus’ teachings (see pp. 118 ff.). The chief opponents of God’s Kingdom are spiritual, and the victory of the Kingdom of God is first of all a spiritual victory. Whether or not the modern man feels he must “demythologize” it, an inescapable element in the biblical concept of redemption is that man must be saved from spiritual powers which are beyond his ability to conquer. The ultimate coming of God’s Kingdom and the universal establishment of his reign will mean nothing less than the destruction of the very principle of evil in the spiritual realm.

The meaning of Jesus’ exorcism of demons in its relationship to the Kingdom of God is precisely this: that before the eschatological conquest of God’s Kingdom over evil and the destruction of Satan, the Kingdom of God has invaded the realm of Satan to deal him a preliminary but decisive defeat.

This fact is pictured in the saying about the strong man. In explanation of the exorcisms by the power of God’s Kingdom, Jesus said, “Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house” (Matt. 12:29). Luke’s version of the saying emphasizes the conflict motif even more vividly: “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil” (Luke 11:21–22).” 

~ Ladd, George. The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids: MI, 1974. Electronic Edition, location 150-151.

On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin’ 
On the Road to Emmaus, Luke 24:13-35 

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