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
The Last Supper: The Kingdom’s New Covenant, Mark 14:22-25; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
The Kingdom of God connects powerfully to the New Covenant promise of the Hebrew Bible, namely, that the Messiah will institute a new relationship with God not based on obedience to the Law but through the offer of grace and truth. At the Passover meal before His death, Jesus announces this connection; at the table He inaugurates the New Covenant promised in the prophets (e.g., Jeremiah 31) and ratifies it in His statement about His own body and blood. The Last Supper reveals facets of that single reality: one covenant, established in Christ, embodied in the meal, practiced by the Church, oriented to the Kingdom, and entrusted to the next generation.
Invocation
Gracious Father, we come to the table you have set for us in Your Son, Jesus of Nazareth. As we behold the broken bread and the poured cup, open our eyes to the New Covenant Your Son sealed for us in His own Blood. Bind our hearts to You afresh, by grace through faith. Quiet every anxious striving and all our restlessness, and let us receive what Christ, Your Son, has finished, that we may worship in gratitude and truth. 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: Matt. 20; Mark 10.32-52; Luke 18.31-19.27
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 145:1-8
Old Testament (or Acts [during Eastertide]): Jonah 3:10-4:11
Gospel: Matt. 20:1-16
New Testament: Philippians 1:21-30
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 20, 50, 80, 110, 140 and Proverbs 20
The New Covenant Inaugurated, Mark 14:22–24 and 1 Corinthians 11:23–25
In the broken bread and the poured cup of the Passover, Jesus establishes the long-promised New Covenant, binding a redeemed people to God in His own Blood, so that every believer now lives, leads, and ministers as a covenant member whose forgiveness, identity, and mission rest on Christ’s finished work rather than their own performance.
Reflection
The Kingdom flows from the truth of God’s New Covenant in His Son, and it rests on Christ’s finished work in the incarnation and the Cross, not on our effort and performance of the Law. In the giving for us of His Body and the shedding of His Blood poured out He saved us, securing our forgiveness, our identity, and our mission before we contribute anything. Therefore, we ought to remember to live, lead, and serve from our acceptance rather than for it. The regular participation at the Lord’s Supper should settle our anxious hearts and guilty consciences: what Jesus has established, no failure of ours can unmake.
Engaging God’s Word Today
Where am I still trying to earn a standing that Christ has already secured for me, revealed in the Lord’s Supper? How would my daily life and ministry change if I truly rested in His finished work rather than my judging of my efforts and performances?
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, for sacrificing Your broken Body and shed Blood for Your people. Teach me today to live as one of Your covenant people, forgiven and free. May my forgiveness in You never be in doubt, my identity in You never in question, and my participation in Your mission never be based on my effort — for all of it rests secure in Christ’s finished work. By Your Spirit, teach me to live from Your fullness, lead from Your grace, and serve in Your peace, until You drink the cup with us anew in the Kingdom to come. Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
Rev. 21:1-5, Creation’s Groaning: The Kingdom’s Cosmic Scope
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
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: The Gospel of the Kingdom
“The Biblical idea of the Kingdom of God is deeply rooted in the Old Testament and is grounded in the confidence that there is one eternal, living God who has revealed Himself to men and who has a purpose for the human race which He has chosen to accomplish through Israel. The Biblical hope is therefore a religious hope; it is an essential element in the revealed will and the redemptive work of the living God.
Thus the prophets announced a day when men will live together in peace. God shall then “judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa. 2: 4). Not only shall the problems of human society be solved, but the evils of man’s physical environment shall be no more. “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them” (Isa. II: 6). Peace, safety, security—all this was promised for the happy future.
Then came Jesus of Nazareth with the announcement, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4: 17). This theme of the coming of the Kingdom of God was central in His mission. His teaching was designed to show men [sic] how they might enter the Kingdom of God (Matt. 5: 20; 7: 21). His mighty works were intended to prove that the Kingdom of God had come upon them (Matt. 12: 28). His parables illustrated to His disciples the truth about the Kingdom of God (Matt. 13: II). And when He taught His followers to pray, at the heart of their petition were the words, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6: 10). On the eve of His death, He assured His disciples that He would yet share with them the happiness and the fellowship of the Kingdom (Luke 22: 22-30). And He promised that He would appear again on the earth in glory to bring the blessedness of the Kingdom to those for whom it was prepared (Matt. 25: 31, 34).”
~ Ladd, George Eldon. The Gospel of the Kingdom. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI: 2000. Electronic Edition (copyright © 1959, The Paternoster Press), Location 81.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
The Ascension and the Day of Pentecost: The Kingdom’s Cosmic Authority, Acts 1:6-11; 2:32-36, Eph. 1:20-23
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