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.
Our Focus Today
The End of the Old and the Arrival of the New Age, Jer. 31:31-34 | Heb. 8:13
By calling the Covenant “Nqàew,” God declared the Sinai economy aging and passing away, and the author of Hebrews announces that Christ’s work has ended the old order and inaugurated the final, eschatological age of redemption.
Invocation
Lord God, I confess that have been slow to release what you have declared finished and hesitant to inhabit fully what you have made new. I stubbornly still cling to old patterns, old guilt, and old habits of seeking to earn what you have given in Christ. I enter today into this new Kingdom age you have inaugurated. Lead me past every shadow and into the full light of what Jesus has accomplished once and for all, for all of us who believe. 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: 2 Kings 20.1-19; Isa. 38-39; 2 Chron. 32.24-31
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Saturday: Psalm 20, 50, 80, 110, 140 and Proverbs 20
The End of the Old and the Arrival of the New Age, Jer. 31:31-34 | Heb. 8:13
By calling the Covenant “New,” God declared the Sinai economy aging and passing away, and the author of Hebrews announces that Christ’s work has ended the old order and inaugurated the final, eschatological age of redemption.
Reflection
The declaration of a New Covenant is simultaneously the declaration of the Old Covenant’s end. The author of Hebrews announces that Christ has decisively accomplished this transition, inaugurating the final age of redemption. There is no returning to the old order, no supplementing Christ’s work with additional religious systems, and no remaining obligation to what he has brought to its appointed conclusion. We now can live with settled confidence that we are in the time in the new age — the Kingdom has come, and we are in the Already/Not Yet rule of God, thanks to what Christ has secured for the world.
Engaging God’s Word Today
In what ways might you still be living as though the old order retains its authority over you, i.e., clinging to religious systems, performance-based acceptance, or repeated attempts to atone for what Christ has already and finally dealt with? How can you better show and live out in your daily life the life of the Kingdom that his Cross and resurrection have brought into being today?
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 have ushered in a new day—your Kingdom has come! Teach me to walk with joy as a new citizen of your new age, that final, eschatological order that your Cross and resurrection have established. Indeed, the old has passed, and the new has come! I am not waiting for redemption to arrive; I am living within it now, by your Spirit. Let this confidence mark every step I take as I seek your will 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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