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
Perfect Love That Reflects the Father’s Character and the Kingdom’s Cardinal Rule, Matthew 5:43–48
The climactic Kingdom ethic commands disciples to love even their enemies and to pray for those who persecute them, mirroring the impartial, gracious, and perfect love of the heavenly Father whose perfection is the standard of Kingdom life.
Invocation
Father of perfect love, as I hear your Son’s most demanding Word, I admit before you that all too often my love has been selective, tribal, and self-serving. I tend to love those who love me and withhold my affection and attention from those who have hurt or wounded me. Break open the boundaries of my affection and teach me this cardinal rule of your Kingdom — to love as you, Father, love, without partiality and without limit. 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: Jer. 23.33-24.10; 29.1-31.14
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Saturday: Psalm 11, 41, 71, 101, 131 and Proverbs 11
Perfect Love That Reflects the Father’s Character and the Kingdom’s Cardinal Rule, Matthew 5:43–48
The climactic Kingdom ethic commands disciples to love even their enemies and to pray for those who persecute them, mirroring the impartial, gracious, and perfect love of the heavenly Father whose perfection is the standard of Kingdom life.
Reflection
Enemy love is ingredient to a Kingdom perspective and lifestyle. It should be seen as the cardinal rule of Kingdom life, applicable to everyone and not the exceptional achievement of a few heroic disciples. Where does this powerful love originate? It is grounded in the very character of the God who withholds his goodness from no one. Love that extends only to those who reciprocate it is indistinguishable from the conduct of those who know nothing of God’s reign. God’s love must become our measuring tape; as Kingdom people we must allow the Father’s indiscriminate, self-giving love to become our standard, excluding no one, not even those who have wounded us most deeply.
Engaging God’s Word Today
Is there an enemy, an adversary, or a person who has persecuted you whom you have quietly excluded from the reach of your love and your prayers? Be specific. What would it look like for you to reflect the Father’s own impartial perfection by extending grace precisely to this person, where it costs you the most?
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 boundless, unconditional love that you, dear Father, have poured out on all people. You truly are the God who sends his sun on the evil and the good and his rain on the just and the unjust! Through your Spirit, fill me with your own perfect love. Show me what it means to love my enemies, pray for my persecutors, and reflect the impartial grace of heaven in every relationship I have today, and do this until my life becomes a living portrait of your Kingdom life and of your own perfection, to your honor and everlasting glory. 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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