THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND THE CHURCH LIFE
Message Three
The Kingdom and the Church
Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18-19; 18:15-22; Rom. 14:17; Rev. 1:6; Col. 1:12-13
I. The Bible first presents the kingdom and thereafter presents the church; the presence of the kingdom produces the church—Matt. 4:23; 16:18-19:
A. The life of God is the kingdom of God; the divine life is the kingdom, and this life produces the church—John 3:3, 5; Matt. 7:14, 21; 19:17, 29; 25:46:
1. The kingdom 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.
2. The gospel brings in the divine life, and this life has its realm, which is the kingdom; the divine life with its realm produces the church—2 Tim. 1:10.
3. The gospel of the kingdom brings forth the church because the kingdom is the life itself, and the church is the issue of life—Matt. 4:23; Acts 8:12.
B. The kingdom is the reality of the church; therefore, apart from the kingdom life, we cannot live the church life—Matt. 5:3; 16:18-19; Rev. 1:4-6, 9:
1. 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.
2. Since the kingdom life issues in the church life, as we live corporately in the kingdom life, we spontaneously live the church life—Rom. 14:17.
3. A believer who does not live in the reality of the kingdom cannot be built into the structure of the church—Eph. 2:22.
C. Without the kingdom as the reality of the church, the church cannot be built up— Matt. 16:18-19:
1. The church is brought into being through the authority of the kingdom.
2. The keys of the kingdom are given to make the building of the church possi-ble—v. 19; 18:18; cf. John 20:23.
3. When the kingdom of the heavens is able to assert its authority over a com-pany of believers, those believers can be built up into the church—Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:15-16.
D. 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—Matt. 18:15-22.
II. The genuine church is the kingdom of God in this age; today the believers live the kingdom life in the church—16:18-19; 18:17-18; 13:44-46; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 4:20; Eph. 2:19; Col. 4:11; Rev. 1:4-6:
A. Each time the Lord Jesus spoke of the church, He mentioned it in relation to the kingdom; this indicates how intimately the kingdom and the church are related— Matt. 16:18-19; 18:17-18:
1. Romans 14:17 proves that the church in this age is the kingdom of God.
2. The kingdom of God in 1 Corinthians 4:20 refers to the church life (v. 17), implying that in the sense of authority, the church in this age is the kingdom of God.
3. The term fellow citizens in Ephesians 2:19 indicates the kingdom of God, the sphere wherein God exercises His authority.
B. The word kingdom in Revelation 1:6 reveals that where the church is, there the kingdom of God is; the church represents the kingdom.
C. In the church as the kingdom, we are under rule, government, discipline, and exercise—1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5.
D. In the Lord's recovery, at the same time we are both in the kingdom and in the church, in the treasure and in the pearl—Matt. 13:44-46.
E. Although the church today is God's kingdom, we are in the kingdom in reality only when we live, walk, and have our being in the spirit, not in our natural man—Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 25.
III. The Father has delivered us out of the authority of darkness and trans-ferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love—Col. 1:12-13:
A. The kingdom of the Son of God's love comprises three ages: the present age, in which the church is; the coming age, in which the millennial kingdom will be; and the eternal age with the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth— v. 13:
1. The stress in Colossians 1:13 is the kingdom of the Son of God's love in this age, which is the reality of the church.
2. The church life today is the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love, which is as delightful to God the Father as the Son of God is—4:15-16.
B. We need to understand the intrinsic significance of the church as the kingdom of the Son of God's love—1:13:
1. The Son of God is the embodiment and expression of the divine life; hence, the kingdom of the Son is a realm of life—1 John 5:11-12; John 1:4.
2. The kingdom into which we have been transferred is the kingdom of the Son of God's love; this realm of life is in love, not in fear—Col. 1:13.
3. The kingdom in which we find ourselves today is a realm full of life, light, and love—1 Pet. 2:9.
4. The Son of the Father is the expression of the Father as the source of life— John 1:18, 4; 1 John 1:2:
a. The Son of the Father's love is the object of the Father's love to be the embodiment of life to us in the divine love with the authority in resur-rection—Matt. 3:17.
b. The Son, as the embodiment of the divine life, is the object of the Father's love—17:5:
1) The divine life embodied in the Son is given to us in the divine love— 1 John 5:11-12; John 3:16.
2) The object of the divine love becomes to us the embodiment of life in the divine love with the authority in resurrection; this is the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love.
5. To be transferred into the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love is to be transferred into the Son, who is life to us—1 John 5:11-12:
a. The Son in resurrection is now the life-giving Spirit, and He rules us in His resurrection life with love—1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 6:4-5; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
b. When we live by the Son as our life in resurrection, we are living in His kingdom, enjoying Him in the Father's love; here we have the church life—Col. 3:4; John 6:57.
c. Because the Father delights in His Son, the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love is a pleasant thing, a matter of delight—Matt. 3:17; 17:5.
C. In the church as the kingdom of the Son of God's love, we have the reality and practicality of the organic Body of Christ—Col. 2:19.
D. In the church as the kingdom of the Son of God's love, we have the reality and practicality of the universal one new man—Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11.