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 32: Holy Spirit — The Messiah’s Teaching with Authority: The Kingdom’s Prophetic Word, Mark 1:21-22; Matt. 5:21-48
Jesus of Nazareth is the Prophet like Moses (Deut. 18) who comes to reveal the mind and will of God’s Kingdom rule. His teaching is the authoritative prophetic word of God’s arriving Kingdom, demanding allegiance to God as King and transformation from the inside out. His commands reveal that true righteousness begins in the heart — in our desires, our speech, and our disposition toward those who oppose us. To be Kingdom people we must therefore submit every hidden motive and outward response to the standard of the Father’s own perfection, trusting Christ’s authority to reshape us into citizens of the rule of God.
Our Focus Today
The Upside-Down Kingdom of God: The Righteousness of the Heart Over External Conformity, Matthew 5:21–37
Through his repeated “You have heard… but I say to you” antitheses on murder, adultery, divorce, and oaths, Jesus illustrates the upside-down nature of Kingdom righteousness, relocating true obedience from outward compliance to legalistic rules to inward dispositions and displays of grace that redefine Kingdom righteousness.
Invocation
Thank you for the radical reorientation of your Kingdom, Lord Jesus. As I hear your authoritative Word now, I readily confess that I have measured my obedience by outward compliance to my own ethical rules while leaving my heart unexamined. Turn my righteousness upside down by your grace. Expose the anger, the lust, the broken promises, and the dishonesty I have hidden behind respectable conduct, and continue your transforming work within me, even today. 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.
Thursday: Jer. 16-18; Jer. 35
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Thursday: Psalm 9, 39, 69, 99, 129 and Proverbs 9
The Upside-Down Kingdom of God: The Righteousness of the Heart Over External Conformity, Matthew 5:21–37
Through his repeated “You have heard… but I say to you” antitheses on murder, adultery, divorce, and oaths, Jesus illustrates the upside-down nature of Kingdom righteousness, relocating true obedience from outward compliance to legalistic rules to inward dispositions and displays of grace that redefine Kingdom righteousness.
Reflection
The Kingdom of God operates by an upside-down righteousness with a focus on the hidden interior life, not just outward practices or exterior performance. Inward transformation in the Kingdom becomes the true measure of obedience before God. Anger is judged as severely as murder, lust as adultery, and evasive speech as dishonesty, because God sees the heart from which every action flows. Jesus’ redefinition of the Kingdom invites us to consider our most concealed motives, desires, and relational patterns, learning to submit to a grace that transforms us from the inside out rather than settling for the outward conformity or performance before the world, and to our own self-deception.
Engaging God’s Word Today
Where in your life are you settling for the outward appearance of righteousness — controlling your behavior while harboring anger, lustful desire, covenant unfaithfulness, or subtle dishonesty — rather than allowing the Messiah’s upside-down Kingdom to expose and transform the hidden dispositions of your heart?
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 for the upside-down Kingdom and everything that you teach us about the rule of God. I want to be a disciple. I want to please you with what I do and who I am. Now may the God who sees the heart and judges the hidden things send me from this place with an upside-down righteousness that the world cannot counterfeit. Purify my anger into reconciliation, my desire into faithfulness, my promises into covenant, and my speech into transparent truth, until my inward Kingdom life reflects the grace of the Kingdom in all things. Fill me with your Spirit, and make me new 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)
“In his humanity as Jesus, God took into himself the rebellion of the first Adam and the consequence of his sin, which was death for us all. Not only was the decomposition of the human body taken into the humanity of Jesus but also the death that hung over all the earth, all culture-making, all cities and civilization. The violence that proceeds from the human heart and extends into the political, economic, institutional, familial and personal life of us all was received in the human body of Jesus. For he who was without sin was made sin for us all.
There is a great ancient prayer that summarizes God’s immeasurable work of redemption. It begins with the words “we adore the life-giving cross” and then cites the reasons why we love that old rugged cross. For
it was there Christ renewed the nature of humanity,
it was there Christ restored the way to heaven,
it was there Christ did away with the penalty of the tree of disobedience,
it was there Christ broke the bonds of death,
it was there Christ destroyed the gates of hell,
it was there Christ annihilated the kingdom of death,
it was there Christ freed the human race,
Glory be to thee, O Lord! Christ then descended into hell. There is a powerful icon that stands by the pulpit of many Orthodox churches. In this icon we contemplate Christ with his foot firmly planted on the fallen gates of hell. His arm reaches forth into hell. We can hear him cry, “I’ve defeated Satan and all the powers and principalities of the air. I am the victor over sin and death. Come forth!” And the graves gave up their dead.
Re-creation.
Then Jesus, who had tasted death for us all who deserved death, was resurrected to new life, that we too might be raised to newness of life. The resurrection is a new beginning, a new Garden. The union with God that humans lost in the original Garden is now restored. The first Adam had brought sin, death and condemnation. Jesus, our brother, the second Adam, now reverses the sin of the first humans and brings us righteousness, life and justification.”
~ 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 370-393.
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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