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 Messiah on the Cross: The Kingdom’s Triumph Over Satan and Sin, Mark 15:21-40; Colossians 2:13-15
On Calvary’s Cross, that which looked like defeat was nothing other than the victorious engagement of the King against the powers of Satan and the guilt of sin. Christ’s death effected the King’s complete answer to the sin question through the ages. His shed blood erased the charge against us and shattered the dominion and domination of the Enemy. Now, through the death of the King on His Cross, the Church can live and operate as victorious agents of the Kingdom’s inbreaking, not simply hoping for victory but as those who are experiencing it, declaring His victory already won, living free from condemnation, unafraid of the powers and their effects, and living boldly to proclaim the victory and strength of the once crucified King who now reigns at God’s right hand.
Our Focus Today
The Forsaken Substitute In Our Place, Mark 15:33–34
In the unusual darkness of noonday, the observers heard Jesus’ cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In His exclamation, the sinless Messiah bore in our place the God-forsakenness that our sin deserves. Because He was our substitute, we can be assured that no one who trusts Him will ever be finally abandoned by God.
Invocation
O God and Father of our Lord Jesus, You did not spare Your own Son to save us and bring us back to You. We come into the darkness of this hour with reverence and trust in You. You turned your face from Him so You would never have to turn Your face from us. When we feel forsaken, remind us of the cry of the Nazarene on the Cross that secured our belonging. Draw us nearer to You, faithful God, and hold us fast in the assurance that Your Son won the victory for us. 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: Acts 3-5
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Wednesday: Psalm 7, 37, 67, 97, 127 and Proverbs 7
The Forsaken Substitute In Our Place, Mark 15:33–34
In the unusual darkness of noonday, the observers heard Jesus’ cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In His exclamation, the sinless Messiah bore in our place the God-forsakenness that our sin deserves. Because He was our substitute, we can be assured that no one who trusts Him will ever be finally abandoned by God.
Reflection
On the Cross Jesus endured the one thing that all of humankind most deserved and most feared: to be rejected and forsaken by God. He entered that darkness on our behalf willingly, as our substitute, so the judgment that fell on Him would never fall on us. Now, even in our darkest hours, when God feels absent and unconcerned, we can still be certain that since we are trusting in His Son, Jesus Christ, we will never be finally forsaken.
Engaging God’s Word Today
When you have felt alone, discouraged, even abandoned by God, how does it change your understanding of that darkness to know that Christ has already passed through it in your place, bearing the forsaking and rejection so that you never finally have to?
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 dying in my place so that I, through faith in You, might have access to the Father. You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to God except through You. I leave this time assured in the certainty that You will never leave nor forsake me. The darkness that fell on You has lifted forever from all of us who trust in You today. Your cry of despair and rejection on the Tree gives me the assurance of Your standing in my stead, experiencing what I deserved, that Your presence could be mine. Help me, Father, to walk through my time of shadows unafraid. And may You, the God who never abandons His own, keep me today and lead me home, to the end. 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
Fundamentally, as we have seen, the Kingdom of God is God’s sovereign reign; but God’s reign expresses itself in different stages through redemptive history. Therefore, men may enter into the realm of God’s reign in its several stages of manifestation and experience the blessings of His reign in differing degrees. God’s Kingdom is the realm of the Age to Come, popularly called heaven; then we shall realize the blessings of His Kingdom (reign) in the perfection of their fulness. But the Kingdom is here now. There is a realm of spiritual blessing into which we may enter today and enjoy in part but in reality the blessings of God’s Kingdom (reign).
We pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The confidence that this prayer is to be answered when God brings human history to the divinely ordained consummation enables the Christian to retain his balance and sanity of mind in this mad world in which we live. Our hearts go out to those who have no such hope. Thank God, His Kingdom is coming, and it will fill all the earth.
But when we pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” we also ask that God’s will be done here and now, today. This is the primary concern of these expositions, that the reader might meet the Kingdom of God, or rather, that the Kingdom of God might meet him. We should also pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” in my church as it is in heaven. The life and fellowship of a Christian church ought to be a fellowship of people among whom God’s will is done—a bit of heaven on earth. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” in my life, as it is in heaven. This is included in our prayer for the coming of the Kingdom. This is part of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
~ 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 223-226.
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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