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 29: Holy Spirit — New Kingdom, Creation, and People: Jeremiah’s New Covenant Promise, Jer. 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:8-13
Jeremiah foresaw a day when God would forge a new covenant with his people — not like Sinai, written in stone, dependent upon our own power and strength but inscribed on the heart. The apostolic witness declares this ancient promise fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth: through his Cross and Resurrection, he inaugurated the New Kingdom, ushered in a New Creation, and constituted a radically different ground for a New Covenant People, bound not by law-keeping but by his finished, atoning work.

Invocation
Gracious Father, I come before you now not on the strength of my own righteousness, but on the ground of the new covenant sealed in the blood of your Son. Write your law upon my heart and open my mind to receive the fullness of what Christ has accomplished for those who believe in him. Grant me leave into your Kingdom fully through him, and draw me deeper into the belonging you promised and secured for all those who cling to him in faith. 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: Isaiah 18-23

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 100
Old Testament (or Acts [during Eastertide]): Exodus 19:2-8a
Gospel: Matt. 9:35-10:23
New Testament: Rom. 5:1-8

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 14, 44, 74, 104, 134 and Proverbs 14

New Kingdom, Creation, and People: Jeremiah’s New Covenant Promise, Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-13
The Lord promised through the prophets that one day he would create a new covenant relationship with his people, not based on the law of Sinai but on his law being inscribed on their hearts. Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled this ancient promise through his cross and resurrection, establishing a new covenant relationship with God for all who believe today.

Reflection
God’s new covenant, foretold by Jeremiah and fulfilled in Jesus, does not improve the old covenant or restore the old order. Rather, God’s new covenant replaces the old entirely, grounding the believer’s relationship with God not in their performance of his law but in Christ’s finished work. The law once written in stone and given to the nation of Israel alone is now written on the hearts of those who believe. The Holy Spirit accomplishes this, granting us power to obey our Master from within. We live, therefore, not striving to earn God’s favor but resting in his irrevocable pledge of forgiveness and belonging. This is the heartbeat of the Kingdom invitation.

Engaging God’s Word Today
In what areas of your life are you still attempting to earn God’s acceptance through personal effort or religious performance, rather than resting in the completed, atoning work of Jesus Christ as the sole and sufficient ground of your standing before God?

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 Father for the blessed hope that we have for a new Kingdom, a new Covenant, and a new People through faith in your son Jesus of Nazareth. I claim this faith is my own today and I leave this place knowing that I belong to a new Covenant — not written in stone but inscribed upon my heart by the Spirit of the living God. My sins are forgiven. You are faithful, and your promise holds. Let the peace of Christ, who has made all things new, guard my heart and mind as I go forward with my life today. 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)

The triune nature of God’s story
Many Muslims consider the Christian understanding of the triune God to be a heresy. They charge Christians with polytheism, the belief in many gods. For this reason it is imperative that Christians understand what we mean when we confess God to be triune.

I went to a Christian college that faithfully adhered to the triune nature of the Godhead. However, theology, including the doctrine of the Trinity, was “proven” through a rationalistic, proof-oriented method. Proof for the Trinity was based on the inerrant foundation, the Bible. The method used to arrive at a triune conviction was analytical. It consisted of listing all the verses of the Bible that referred to God the Father as God, Jesus as God and the Holy Spirit as God. “See,” it was proclaimed, “God is triune.”

I remember feeling uneasy about this analysis and somewhat guilty that my response was, “Is that all there is?” and “So what?” The whole exercise felt futile to me and caused me to think that doctrine arises out of a logical analysis of Scripture. No one asked me to look for the mystery of the triune God at work in the history of the world from beginning to end.

It wasn’t until I began to study the early church fathers that I began to see that God is not static but dynamic. The static view of God is a Greek notion. God, so to speak, “sits in the heavens.” But the God of the Bible is a triune God of action. God the Creator acts in history and becomes incarnate as a man to rescue the entire created order.

The ancient church fathers follow this narrative approach: The Son reveals the Father and the Spirit. They see God’s redemptive work in cosmic history as the united work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The entire Godhead is at work in creating the universe; in establishing a covenant relationship with Israel; in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; in the birth and history of the church; and in the final outcome of history. This is why the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) affirms that Jesus is of the same essence as the Father (a view that Muslims find repugnant) and is the living Word of God, through whom everything was made.

~ 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 277.

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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