The Bible first presents the kingdom of God and then the church; the presence of the kingdom produces the church, and the gospel of the kingdom brings forth the church as the issue of the divine life.
This week in our deeper study of the Development of the Kingdom of God in the Christian Life and the Church Life we come to the topic of, The Kingdom and the Church, which relates the kingdom of God to the corporate church life.
The general understanding among many believers today is that there’s a separation between the kingdom of God and the church; when the Lord Jesus came to the earth, He brought the kingdom and in Matt 13 when God’s people rejected Him, the kingdom was suspended until the Lord will return to bring in the kingdom.
Many believe that the kingdom of God was “suspended” because of the rejection of the people of Israel, until the time Jesus comes back again to bring in the kingdom, and then this will be the end of the church and the beginning of the kingdom age.
Such an understanding is not entirely correct according to the revelation in the Word of God.
The kingdom of God has never been suspended; yes, the Jewish people did reject the Lord and His kingdom, and in Matt. 21:43 the Lord said that the kingdom is hidden away from the Jewish nation and it has been given to a nation that will bring forth fruit, referring to the church.
Before the Lord Jesus ascended, after His resurrection, He spent forty days with the disciples talking to them concerning the kingdom of God. Then throughout the New Testament the apostles preached the kingdom of God and talked concerning the kingdom of God.
The kingdom is not something merely in the future; rather, in our practice and living of the church life today we are actually living in the kingdom of God.
The kingdom and the church are two aspects of the same thing; the kingdom is the reality of the church, and without the kingdom the church is an empty shell.
The church is the practical expression and representation of the kingdom; the kingdom of God needs a way to be expressed and represented, and this takes place through the church.
So we should not separate the kingdom and the church, thinking that the kingdom is something in the future and the church is today; no, as we are living in the church life today, we are living in the kingdom.
If we do not see the relationship between the kingdom and the church there will be a great shortage in our practice of the church life. If we don’t see how the kingdom of God relates to the church, we may go through the church life in a superficial way without being built into the structure of the church.
We do not meet as a religious entity called, the church; rather, the church is the kingdom of God, and when we serve in the church, we touch the kingdom of God.
The Gospel brings in the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom brings forth the Church
In Matt. 4:23 we are told that Jesus came proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom; He didn’t come to proclaim the church but the kingdom of God, and later in Matt. 16 He said He will build up His church.
Christ came as the sower of the seed of life, the seed of the kingdom; by His preaching or proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom He gained the believers, the saved ones, to be the kingdom people, the constituents and building material for Him to build the church.
The proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom is to dispense the divine life into God’s chosen people to produce them as the components of the kingdom of God to be members of the church which is to be built by Christ.
The life of God is the kingdom of God – the divine life is the kingdom, and this life produces the church (see John 3:3, 5; Matt. 7:14, 21; 19:17, 29; 25:46).
When we called on the Lord and believed into Him, the life of God has been imparted into us; this life is the kingdom of God. This life not only qualifies us to enter into the kingdom of God and a part of it, but this life is the kingdom of God. The divine life is the kingdom, and this life produces the church.
We need to realise that the divine life we received at the time of our regeneration not only strengthens us, supplies us, and nourishes us, but it is actually the kingdom of God.
It is similar to our human life – how can we define our human life? Is it just a DNA strand? No, the human life is embodied in us, and when we all come together, we are the totality of the human life.
The life of God is not just some organic element but it is the kingdom of God, and when we speak of the kingdom, we speak of the divine life in its totality. The kingdom of God is the divine life, and this life produces the church.
However, narrow is the gate and constricted is the way that leads to life, and no many find it (Matt. 7:14). The kingdom of God is the realm of life for life to move, rule, and govern so that life may accomplish its purpose, and this realm is the kingdom.
The kingdom is a realm for the divine life to move and do things.
The gospel brings in the divine life, and this life has a realm – which is the kingdom; the divine life with its realm produces the church (2 Tim. 1:10). We all should have an uplifted realisation of what the church is.
We may have realised that the church is comprised and constituted of the life of God, but we may have not seen to this degree that this life is actually the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is the realm in which God moves and carries out His will.
The gospel of the kingdom brings forth the church because the kingdom is the life itself, and the church is the issue of life (see Matt. 4:23; Acts 8:12).
When the gospel of the kingdom was proclaimed by the Lord, He dispensed the divine life to produce the believers to be the kingdom people, and these are brought together to become the church. The church is the issue of life, and this life is the very kingdom of God.
The kingdom is the totality of life, and this life brings forth the church. If we want to live in the proper church life today, we also have to be in the kingdom life, experiencing the kingdom life.
Thank You Lord Jesus for regenerating us with Your divine life to make us part of the church. Hallelujah, the gospel of the kingdom brings in the kingdom of God, which is the realm of the divine life, and the kingdom brings forth the church. May we really see that the kingdom of God is the realm of life for the divine life to move, rule, and govern, so that life may accomplish its purpose, and this kingdom brings forth the church. Amen, Lord, we want to live the church life by being in the kingdom life, experiencing the kingdom life in the church!
The Kingdom is the Reality of the Church; we live the Kingdom Life in the Church Life
The kingdom of God is the reality of the church; apart from the kingdom life, we cannot live the church life (Matt. 5:3; 16:18-19; Rev. 1:4-6, 9). It is not that the church is the reality of the kingdom but the kingdom is the reality of the church.
The kingdom brings forth the church, the kingdom is the reality of the church.
After the Lord Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom in Matt. 4, in chs. 5-7 He gave a long discourse concerning the constitution of the kingdom, the kingdom of God with all its elements, principles, and characteristics.
Here we see many important aspects of the kingdom people, who are they in their nature and in their influence around others, the law governing them, their righteous deeds that they should exercise, the attitude toward material riches, the principle in dealing with others, and the ground of their living and work.
These are different aspects and characteristics of the kingdom life being lived out in reality.
After we receive the gospel of the kingdom, we are produced as the Lord’s disciples, the constituents of the kingdom of God, and the members of the church, and we should exhibit the qualities and characteristics of the kingdom people as described in Matt. 5-7.
Apart from the kingdom life, we cannot live the church life; we should never think that we can live the church life by coming together, singing something, reading some portions of the word and the ministry, but without the kingdom life.
The kingdom is the reality of the church, and we can live the church life by living the kingdom life. The reality of the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 5-7) is the content of the church life; without the reality of the kingdom, the church is empty.
Therefore, since the kingdom of life issues in the church life, we we live corporately in the kingdom life, we spontaneously live the church life.
In Rom. 14, after Paul speaks of the practice of the church life in receiving the believers by exercising generality and receiving them even as God receives them, Paul said in v. 17 that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Righteousness refers to being strict with ourselves, living a strict life before God. Peace is the relationship we seek with all the other believers as members in the Body. And joy is the condition we should have before God.
This is the church life, which is the kingdom life; in the church life we need to live the kingdom life, which is being righteous toward ourselves, peaceful toward others, and joyful toward God.
If we would have the reality of the kingdom as the content of our church life, we need to enjoy Christ as our life and our life supply; through the dispensing of the Triune God into our being, we experience and enjoy Christ as our life.
We need to daily open to the Lord, enjoy Him, call on His name, stay in His presence, fellowship with Him, and allow Him to work within us to dispense all that He is, all that He has, all that He has done, and all that He is doing into our being.
The spontaneous issue of this dispensing is the kingdom life, and this kingdom life will be our church life.
Lord Jesus, we want to live the kingdom life in the church life today. We open to You, we call on Your name, and we want to stay in Your presence, fellowship with You, and allow You to work within us to dispense all that You are and have done into our being. Keep us under Your divine dispensing so that we may live the kingdom life in the church life. May our living be strict to ourselves, peaceful toward others, and joyful before God. Amen, Lord Jesus, may we live the kingdom life in the church life today!
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References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 160 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 3, The Kingdom and the Church.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God’s Kingdom on the earth is now / His sovereign government within; / ’Tis Christ Himself in us to live / As Lord and King to rule and reign. / His life with His authority / Enthrones Him now within our hearts / To govern all our words and deeds / And regulate our inward parts. (Hymns #942)
# With a life strict to self we must righteousness hold, / Kind to others in peace, and with God joyful, bold; / In the Kingdom’s reality e’er to remain, / For its manifestation prepared thus to reign. (Hymns #947)
# Cause us to grow in life divine each day / That we may be transformed and built by Thee / Into a body to express Thyself, / That Thou in us Thy Church and Kingdom see. (Hymns #829)
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