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 27: Holy Spirit — God’s Love, Christ’s Grace, and the Spirit’s Fellowship, 2 Cor. 13:11-14
In his closing benediction to the Corinthian church, the apostle Paul weaves together the distinct yet inseparable work of the Trinity, the three Persons of the Godhead — the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship (koinōnia) of the Holy Spirit — offering what is arguably the most explicit Trinitarian formula in Paul’s library. The believer’s experience of salvation is finally both relational and communal: it is initiated by the Father’s love, mediated through the Son’s self-giving grace, and made real in our lives through the Spirit’s ongoing communion that binds us to God and to one another. This affirmation grounds the church’s life together in the very life of the triune God, making the fellowship of the saints our participation in and reflection upon the eternal fellowship within the Godhead itself.
Our Focus Today
The Triune Benediction: the Ground of the Church’s Common Life, 2 Cor. 13:14
The closing phrase “with you all” confirms that the work of Father, Son, and Spirit is directed toward the whole people of God corporately, thus making the church’s shared existence a living experience and participation in the eternal fellowship of the Godhead.
Invocation
Triune God — Father, Son, and Spirit — you have pledged your presence to your people, not as scattered individuals but as your gathered and redeemed people. As I open your Word now, awaken me to the weight of our shared life in you. Let me come to know in a deeper way that our communion with one another is a participation in your own eternal fellowship. Be with us all, even now. 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.
Saturday: Pss. 98-100; 102; 104
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Saturday: Psalm 6, 36, 66, 96, 126 and Proverbs 6
The Triune Benediction: the Ground of the Church’s Common Life, 2 Cor. 13:14
The closing phrase “with you all” confirms that the work of Father, Son, and Spirit is directed toward the whole people of God corporately, thus making the church’s shared existence a living experience and participation in the eternal fellowship of the Godhead.
Reflection
The church is the family of God, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. As a collection of members united in Christ, our life is grounded in and sustained by the fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit. Paul’s emphatic “with you all” teaches that the triune God directs his self-giving toward a people, making the quality of the church’s shared existence a direct witness to life of the Godhead. We are one in the Spirit; we must stop treating the gathered community as incidental to our faith and begin recognizing that every act of mutual love, shared worship, and corporate faithfulness is a participation in the very life of the triune God who has pledged himself to be “with us all.”
Engaging God’s Word Today
If the church’s common life is truly a participation in the fellowship of the Godhead, how does this truth raise the significance of even the most ordinary moments of our shared life? How would your church community change if you began to treat each member as one beloved by God Almighty?
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
What a marvelous mystery that you have come to us and dwell with us, that you, Father, love us, that you, Jesus, humbled yourself and gave everything for us, that you, Holy Spirit, dwell within us and lead us! We are overwhelmed by your love for us and for your people around the world. I leave this time as one of your people in whom the triune God has taken up residence. May the grace of Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be not merely words I read or hear but the living ground upon which my hope rests. You are with us, and with me, because you are the God who is with us all. Show me how to live accordingly and to go in peace. Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
Colossians 2:13-15 (ESV): The Messiah on the Cross: The Kingdom’s Triumph Over Sin.
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
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)
• Who Gets to Narrate the World?, Robert E. Webber (during seasons of the Coming of the Holy Spirit, and Headship)
• Thy Kingdom Come, Rev. Terry Cornett and Dr. Don Davis (during season of 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 “Who Gets to Narrate the World?” during season of Coming of the Holy Spirit and Headship)
“What is that story of God—that story which so desperately needs to be recovered in all its significance and power?
First, let me make it clear that I am not saying that the average Christian cannot recite the framework of God’s story. In Sunday school, preaching, worship and small group Bible studies everyone will recognize the creation; the Fall; the patriarchs; Moses and Israel; the prophets; the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the new heavens and the earth as the pieces of the story. What I am saying is that the fullness of God’s story is lost. As with a puzzle, there is too much concentration on this or that piece without seeing the whole picture. God’s story suffers from reductionism and privatism. The failure to put the whole biblical picture together is a result of the cultural accommodationism identified in the introduction.
Specifically, it is the problem of reductionism. The Christian faith has been reduced to a few doctrines of self-interest. In my own background, my dad and his pastor friends concentrated almost exclusively on five doctrines: sin, sacrificial atonement, conversion, sanctification and premillennialism. What was missing was a thoroughgoing connection between creation, incarnation and the re-creative acts of God (such as the resurrection and restoration of creation). My dad, though a devoted Christian and a passionate preacher, lost the fullness of the Christian story because he created a story around five pieces of the puzzle instead of the whole picture. The Christian faith was reduced to the problem of my sin, the work of Christ for me, the necessity of my conversion and the expectation of my faithfulness to live like a Christian. I was made the center of the story. I needed to invite Jesus into my life and my journey so he would walk with me and bless my life and my ministry.
By contrast, the original story, the one delivered by the apostles to their successors in the early church, was not nearly so much my narrative as it was God’s. And God speaks his narrative through the Bible. God’s story is about the whole world from its very beginning to the very end. It includes all the nations and governments of the world; it includes the earth, sun and sky; it includes the entire universe. This story even includes you.”
~ Webber, Robert E. Who Gets to Narrate the World?: Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL: 2008. Electronic Edition. Location 231-246.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
God’s Love, Christ’s Grace, and the Spirit’s Fellowship, 2 Cor. 13:11-13.
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