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 41 — Harvest: The Messiah’s Predicted Suffering: The Kingdom’s Path, Mark 8:31-38; 9:30-37
The Kingdom’s values clash with the world’s attempt in its petty and vain striving after glory and prosperity for the self. Everything that the world seeks and desires contrasts with the Savior’s own sense of vision and His journey to glory. The Son of Man’s suffering was no accident of history but God’s ordained route to glory, and His downward path has become the model for all who seek to honor God in His Kingdom rule. Every disciple who follows Christ must embrace the Cross as their pattern and guide. To save our lives we must lose them, and to be great we must become servants of all. Therefore, we lead and live most fruitfully only when we die to ourselves, live unto Christ, and welcome the least.
Our Focus Today
Our Cruciform Discipleship: Denying Self and Bearing the Cross, Mark 8:34–35
To come after Jesus is to deny self, take up the cross, and lose one’s life for His sake and the Gospel’s, which reveals the great paradox of the Kingdom: we truly save our lives only by losing them, and we bear fruit only by yielding to the Nazarene’s Cross and its claim on us.
Invocation
Lord Jesus, You call us not to admire the Cross (wearing it as a trinket or emblem) but to take it up and follow You in obedience and love. Loosen our grip on the lives we try to save. Teach us the paradox of Your Kingdom, that only in losing ourselves for Your sake do we find ourselves and come to truly understand Your will for us. Give us grace to deny self, take up our crosses, and walk behind You 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.
Wednesday: Mark 7.24-8.21; Matt. 15.21-16.12
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Wednesday: Psalm 9, 39, 69, 99, 129 and Proverbs 9
Our Cruciform Discipleship: Denying Self and Bearing the Cross, Mark 8:34–35
To come after Jesus is to deny self, take up the cross, and lose one’s life for His sake and the Gospel’s, which reveals the great paradox of the Kingdom: we truly save our lives only by losing them, and we bear fruit only by yielding to the Nazarene’s Cross and its claim on us.
Reflection
The form of the Christian life is dramatically different from being prosperous, avoiding struggle, and being delivered from every trial and problem. We are followers of Christ and to follow Him is not to manipulate Him through our prayers, in an effort to avoid hardship and difficulty. We are called to lay our lives down before Him. Self-denial and the Cross are the entry fees for Kingdom life, not extraordinary demands meant for a few extraordinary followers of Jesus. The Cross is the pattern for every disciple’s walk. Therefore, let us freely acknowledge that life and bear lasting fruit come only as we release our grip and yield fully to Christ’s claim upon us.
Engaging God’s Word Today
What part of your life are you still clutching to save—an ambition, a comfort, a right, a relationship or perhaps a scrap of reputation—that continues to control your allegiance to Christ? What would it look like today to lose this thing or issue for Jesus and His Gospel’s sake, trusting that only in surrender can you truly find hope and meaning?
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
Heavenly Master, the simplicity of Your Cross is lost to us in many ways. It is so plain, so clear, that the only way to please You is to take up our crosses, to deny ourselves, to follow You and to let Your Spirit lead us into Your will. We go now behind You, determined to follow the Crucified—denying self, taking up Your cross, walking Your Calvary road. Release us from the bondage of our own selfish clinging that we might be able to find in You the life You give to those who surrender. And may the One who lost His life to save the world lead us, step by step, into the fruitfulness that surrender to Him alone can bring. Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
1 Peter 2:9-10, The Church as Visible Sign: Locus and Agent of the Kingdom
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
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)
• Kingdom, Church and World: Biblical Themes for Today, Howard Snyder (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: Kingdom, Church and World: Biblical Themes for Today
The Biblical Concept of shalom
Shalom, usually translated peace, is one of the great words of the Old Testament. It occurs some 350 times and clearly underlies the concept of peace found in the New Testament, as we shall see. Shalom is so woven into the fabric of the Old Testament that to touch virtually any strand of Bible history or theology is to meet it.
As Douglas Harris notes, “The root meaning is to be whole, sound, safe.” The fundamental idea is totality. God is the source and ground for Shalom. Anything that contributes to this wholeness makes for Shalom. Anything that stands in the way disturbs Shalom. In Bishop John Taylor’s words, “the biblical vision of Shalom meant a dancing kind of interrelationship, seeking something more free than equality, more generous than equity, the ever-shifting equal poise of a life system.”
The Old Testament teaches that God’s plan is to bring a universal peace, Shalom, to His creation. This means more than the absence of conflict and immensely more than “inner peace,” or “peace of mind.” In the Old Testament sense, shalom might be called an ecological concept. It carries the sense of harmony, right relationship, and the proper functioning of all elements in the environment. At root it means well-being, with a strong emphasis on the material side, and it is closely connected in the Old Testament with covenant. The Garden of Eden before the fall provides a good model. This Shalom is “every man sitting under his own vine and under his own fig tree, with none to make him afraid” (compare 1st Kings 4:25 and Micah 4:4, an image of the eschatological fulfillment of the peace enjoyed under King Solomon.)
Shalom is, of course, directly tied to the kingly rule of the Messiah in passages such as Isaiah 9:6-7. The Messiah is the Prince of Peace and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. The clear link in the Old Testament of Shalom with God’s reign suggests that the dozens of references to the word and ideal should be studied thoroughly for their kingdom content.
~ Snyder, Howard. Kingdom, Church, and World: Biblical Themes for Today. Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene, OR: 2001. Electronic Edition. Location 18-19.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
The Messiah’s Call to Discipleship: The Kingdom’s Demands (rich young ruler), Mark 10:17-27, Luke 18:18-30
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