The kingdom is the reality of the church, and for us to be built into the church we need to come under the authority of the kingdom, exercise the keys of the kingdom, and live the kingdom life in the church life.
The Lord Jesus came proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom; He didn’t proclaim the gospel of the church but of the kingdom, and the result of many believing into the gospel is that the church came into being.
The kingdom life received by us issues in the church life; when we receive the word of God through the gospel, we receive the kingdom of God, and we become members of the church, members of the organic Body of Christ.
The reality of the church is the kingdom, and as we practice the church life we need to live the kingdom life.
The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness (being right with God and strict with ourselves before God), peace (being at peace with God and with others), and joy (being in a joyful condition before God) in the Holy Spirit.
Before God, we need to be joyful, being full of joy; before men, we need to be peaceful, seeking to live in peace; toward ourselves, we need to be strict and righteous.
If we as believers in Christ do not live in the reality of the kingdom today we cannot be built into the structure of the church (Eph. 2:22).
For example, a believer may go to meetings all year round, but if he doesn’t live the kingdom life – if he doesn’t know what it is to be strict with ourselves, peace toward others, and joyful toward God, he will only live the church life outwardly.
If we do not practice and live out the kingdom life as described in Matt. 5-7, then we will simply go through the motions and activities in the church life, and we will practice the church as a common religious duty, being church-goers.
In God’s eyes, without living the kingdom life, our practicing the church life will not lead us to be built into the structure of the church. It is of utmost importance for ourselves and for all the saints to see the relationship between the church and the kingdom; the church is not just another kind of religious entity, a place of gathering, but the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God must be the reality of the church, otherwise that church will be empty, no matter how many activities and meetings it has. Only those who see what the genuine church as the kingdom of God is can be properly built up in the church, even into the structure of the church.
The Church is brought into being Through the Authority of the Kingdom of God
Without the kingdom as the reality of the church, the church cannot be built up. In Matt. 16:18-19, right after the Lord Jesus revealed that He is the One building His church, He also spoke concerning the keys of the kingdom of the heavens with the binding and the losing.
Many pastors and Christian workers like to build “their church”; their concept of building the church is to teach, preach, organise, and arrange.
But when the Lord spoke about the church He mentioned the gates of Hades trying to invade, oppose, and attack the building up of the church. We have been given the keys of the kingdom to bind and to loose what has been bound and loosed in the heavens.
The building of the church is intimately related to the exercise of the kingdom life. If we don’t know what is the kingdom life, what is to exercise the Lord’s authority to bind and to loose, we do not know what it is to build the church.
The church is brought into being through the authority of the kingdom.
A church doesn’t come into being when many people are saved, so there’s a large enough number of them in a certain place for a church to be raised up. A church is brought into being through the authority of the kingdom.
Before we were saved, we were in another kingdom – the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Satan.
Christ came to preach the gospel of the kingdom so that, by believing into the Lord, we would not only be saved from hell and receive God’s grace, but we would be delivered out of the authority of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
By believing into the Lord we were brought into a different realm, the kingdom of God as the reality of the church, where God exercises His authority through His divine life to rule and reign over us.
![When the Lord said, “Upon this rock I will build My church,” He immediately added, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens” [Matt. 16:18-19]. The keys of the kingdom are given to make the building of the church possible. Where the authority of the kingdom is absent, there the building of the church will be lacking. Anyone who refuses to submit to the authority of the kingdom can at best be a saved person; he will never be built into the structure of the church. Witness Lee, The Kingdom and the Church, pp. 261-262](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/When-the-Lord-said-“Upon-this-rock-I-will-build-My-church”-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C674&ssl=1 "When the Lord said, “Upon this rock I will build My church,” He immediately added, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens” [Matt. 16:18-19]. The keys of the kingdom are given to make the building of the church possible. Where the authority of the kingdom is absent, there the building of the church will be lacking. Anyone who refuses to submit to the authority of the kingdom can at best be a saved person; he will never be built into the structure of the church. Witness Lee, The Kingdom and the Church, pp. 261-262")
The salvation we have received is not just to cleanse us from our sins, have our sins forgiven, and justify us, but to bring us into another kingdom.
We have been regenerated into the kingdom of God, and this kingdom – a realm of life – there’s the authority of Christ and of God being exercised.
The church is brought forth, brought into being, through the authority of the kingdom. The two main criteria for having a local church is first the authority of the Holy Spirit, and then taking the boundary of the locality.
We do want to see many local churches being raised up on earth for the Lord’s testimony, but simply by having many being saved and baptised to come together – this doesn’t mean that we should establish a church.
The first criterion for the church is the authority of the Holy Spirit, which is the authority of the kingdom of God. No one can set up a church – only the Holy Spirit can set up a church.
Our seniority in the Lord or our extensive experience in the church life doesn’t give us the ground to set u a church, neither does it give us any more authority than a brother who just got saved, for the authority is the Holy Spirit.
Thank You Lord Jesus for regenerating us with Your divine life and transferring us out of the authority of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love! Hallelujah, we are now kingdom people living the kingdom life in the church life for the building up of the church. Lord, we come under Your authority and we take You as our Head and our King. We believe into You, Lord, and we acknowledge Your unique authority in the church. Cause us to realise that only the authority of the kingdom can bring forth the church. May we never exercise any authority apart from being one with the Lord and in the Body in the church life!
We need to Live the Kingdom Life in the Church Life and Exercise the Keys of the Kingdom
![The Scriptures present [a] profound aspect — that the church has been secured through the sovereign rule of heaven. Because the kingdom of heaven is able to assert its authority over a company of men, that company of men can be built up into a church....How was the church brought into being? It was by means of the authority of the kingdom. God’s purpose was to bring His heavenly dominion to the earth, and apart from the church His goal could not be attained. He needed a people who would subject themselves to the dominion of heaven so that under that dominion they might be built up into the church. Witness Lee, The Kingdom and the Church, pp. 262-263](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/The-Scriptures-present-a-profound-aspect-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C674&ssl=1 "The Scriptures present [a] profound aspect — that the church has been secured through the sovereign rule of heaven. Because the kingdom of heaven is able to assert its authority over a company of men, that company of men can be built up into a church....How was the church brought into being? It was by means of the authority of the kingdom. God’s purpose was to bring His heavenly dominion to the earth, and apart from the church His goal could not be attained. He needed a people who would subject themselves to the dominion of heaven so that under that dominion they might be built up into the church. Witness Lee, The Kingdom and the Church, pp. 262-263")
The building up of the church does not come about by grouping ourselves, organising ourselves, having proper leaders and helpers, or having a nice building where we meet; rather, to be built up we need to exercise the keys of the kingdom.
The church comes into being through the authority of the kingdom, and the church is built up by the exercise of the keys of the kingdom (see Matt. 16:18; 18:18; John 20:23).
In John 20:23 the Lord Jesus told His disciples that all authority has been given to them, so whose sins they forgive it will be forgiven to them, and whose sins they retain, they will be retained.
Who are we to forgive and retain sins? If we see that the church is the realm of the kingdom of God, exercising the authority of the kingdom of God, we will realise that the church can bind and loose one with the heavens, and the church can forgive and retain sins.
This may seem too much, even blasphemous, for only God can forgive sins – and this is true, only God can forgive sins, but when the church stands one with the Head, the church can exercise the authority of the kingdom on the earth.
Just as the Head has the authority to bind and loose, so the church has this authority; just as the Head can forgive and retain sins, so can the church. But not many churches have the right condition to exercise the authority of the kingdom to this degree.
The church is the reflection of the kingdom of God in the heavens; there should be no difference or discrepancy. May the Lord recover the church to such an extent today!
The church is not just a nice place where we can gather, chat, and encourage one another; rather, the church is the place where God’s authority is being exercised, even in the forgiving of the sins.
However, no one should try to abuse such an authority; if we are not ones who live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens and we try to bind and lose, we will not be able to do this but rather, we will get ourselves into trouble.
When the kingdom of the heavens is able to assert its authority over a company of believers, those believers can be built up into the church.
We see this in Eph. 4:16-16 – when we hold to the Head, we are built up together and we grow together into the Head for the building up of the Body. It is only when we take Christ as the Head and we hold Him as the supreme and unique authority that we can build up the church.
Christ has the unique headship, and as we hold Him as the Head, we grow up into Him in all things. Our mind, emotion, will, affections, decisions, and all things need to be governed by Christ as the Head.
In Col. 2:19 we are told of holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God. If we are subject to the Head, we have the building up of the Body.
If the headship of Christ is not known or recognised, for sure there is no building up in that church.
The purpose of the vital groups in the church life is to live the kingdom life – the God-man life; a vital group is a real representation of the church.
In Matt. 18:15-22 the Lord gives us an instance of living the kingdom life in the church life; someone is offended by a sinful brother and goes one-on-one to confront him, then if he doesn’t listen he brings along 2-3 witnesses, and if he still doesn’t receive, they tell it to the church. If the sinning brother refuses to hear the church, he should be considered as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Do we practice this in the church life? Sometimes we may practice the opposite: we may uncover situations instead of covering them, and we may gossip about a problem instead of dealing with it.
In situations where a sinning one doesn’t want to repent and turn, we need to exercise as the church to be one with the heavens to bind on earth what has been bound in heaven, and loose on earth what has been loosed in the heavens.
We need to have the spirit of a vital group to gain people and restore them (not reject them and set them aside), and we need to exercise the prayer of the vital group to fight for the saints.
In our practice of the vital groups we need to be living, active, and vital, and we need to live the kingdom life, the God-man life, to cooperate with the King and bind the enemy who is holding back the dormant ones and the weak ones, so that they may be restored and recovered.
Lord Jesus, may we learn to live the kingdom life in the church life today. Bring us on with You in the recovery of the church to such an extent that the church on earth is the kingdom of God and exercises the keys of the kingdom to bind on earth what has been bound in heaven and loose on earth what has been loosed in heaven. Amen, Lord, may the kingdom of the heavens be able to assert its authority over the saints in the church so that the church may be built up. May we all learn to live the kingdom life – the God-man life, to care for and love one another, and to release and bind on earth what has already been released and bound in heavens for the dormant and weak ones to be recovered and built up!
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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, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1957, vol. 3, “The Kingdom and the Church,” chs. 7-9, 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:
# ’Tis by His reign within our hearts / That life to us He e’er supplies; / When taking Him as Lord and King, / His wealth our being satisfies. / ’Tis by His ruling from within / His fulness vast is testified; / ’Tis when His inner kingdom rules / His Body’s blessed and edified. (Hymns #942)
# Today we must learn to submit to His throne, / How to have a strict life and His government own; / His authority then we’ll be able to share, / o’er the nations to rule with God’s Son as the heir. (Hymns #947)
# Teach us to pray that we may cause / The enemy to flee, / That we his evil pow’r may bind, / His prisoners to free. / Teach us to pray and firmly stand / Upon the battleground, / To fight and break the stronghold down, / The enemy confound. (Hymns #767)
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