2023-7丨总题：经营美地所预表包罗万有的基督，为着建造召会作基督的身体，为着国度的实际与实现，并为着新妇得以为主的来临将自己预备

GENERAL SUBJECT

LIVING IN THE REALITY OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Message Eight
Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and Discipling the Nations

Scripture Reading: Matt. 12:28; 24:14; 28:18-20; Mark 4:26-29; Luke 17:21; Rev. 6:1-2; 14:4

I.　We need to follow the Lamb wherever He may go (Rev. 14:4) to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth for the propagation and development of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom to consummate this age— Matt. 24:14; Mark 4:26:

A.　The kingdom of God is Christ Himself—Luke 17:21; Matt. 12:28:

1.　The Triune God in humanity (Col. 2:9) is the seed, the gene, of the kingdom of God to be sown into God's chosen people so that He might grow in them, live in them, and be expressed from within them to develop into God's ruling realm (Mark 4:26-29; 1 Cor. 3:6-9).

2.　The intrinsic element of the entire teaching of the New Testament is that the Triune God has been incarnated in order to be sown into His chosen people and develop within them into a kingdom.

3.　God's goal is the full development of the kingdom of God:

a.　In the Gospels we have the sowing of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom— Mark 4:3, 14; Matt. 9:35.

b.　In the Acts we have the propagation and spreading of this sowing by thou-sands of sowers who have received the seed, the gene, of the kingdom— 6:7; 12:24; 19:20.

c.　In the Epistles we see the growing of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom— 1 Cor. 3:6, 9b; 2 Pet. 1:3-11.

d.　The harvest of this seed is found in the book of Revelation with the reaping of the firstfruits and the harvest—14:4, 15-16; Mark 4:29; Matt. 13:39.

e.　The millennial kingdom will be the full development of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom with the Son as the King and all the overcomers as His co-kings, the "kingdom-gene people"—Rev. 20:4, 6.

f.　The New Jerusalem, God's eternal kingdom, is the fullest development of the kingdom seed, the gene, sown by Jesus the Nazarene in the four Gospels—Rev. 21:2; 22:1, 3, 5b.

B.　In His kingly ministry for the establishing of His heavenly kingdom in the stage of His incarnation, the Lord Jesus considered Himself a Physician, a Shepherd, and the Lord of the harvest—Matt. 9:11-13, 35-38:

1.　He came to minister as a Physician, to heal, recover, enliven, and save people that they might be reconstituted to be His new and heavenly citizens, with whom He could establish His heavenly kingdom on this corrupted earth— vv..11-13.

2.　He was moved with compassion for the people, because they were harassed and cast away like sheep not having a shepherd; He saw that they were afflicted, in anguish, and in a distressed condition in which they were homeless, wandering from place to place, and helpless—vv. 35-36.

3.　The King of the heavenly kingdom considered Himself not only the Shepherd of the sheep but also the Lord of the harvest, the One who owns the crop; because the harvest is great but the workers few, we must beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest—vv. 37-38; cf. 1 Cor. 3:6-9.

C.　In His kingly ministry for the establishing of His heavenly kingdom in the stage of His incarnation, the Son as the center of the Divine Trinity was altogether not by Himself, for Himself, or to Himself; whatever He did was by the Spirit of God and for the kingdom of God the Father—Matt. 12:28:

1.　This move of the Divine Trinity with the divine coordination shows us the harmony, beauty, and excellency in the Divine Trinity and is an excellent and beautiful pattern that the Head has set up for our coordination as members of His Body; today in the church life, the Body of Christ has not been built up adequately because of a shortage of the proper coordination.

2.　What we do should not be done merely by ourselves but by some others; furthermore, what we do should not be for ourselves but for the interest, the right, of God on this earth.

D.　The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations before the end of this age (24:14); this preaching, signified by the white horse of the first seal in Revelation 6:1-2, will be a sign of the consummation of this age:

1.　God's unique purpose in this age is to have the gospel preached so that the church as the Body of Christ might be built up to consummate the New Jerusalem—Eph. 3:8-11; Rom. 1:1.

2.　The overcomers who preach the gospel of the glory of Christ become the riders of the white horse—Rev. 6:2; 19:11, 13-14.

II.　The heavenly King sent His disciples with His authority to disciple all the nations, making them the kingdom people for the establishing of His kingdom, which is the church today on this earth—Matt. 28:18-20; Rom. 14:17:

A.　To disciple the nations is to baptize them into the death of Christ (6:3-4), into Christ Himself (Gal. 3:27), into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13):

1.　The water, signifying the death of Christ with His burial, may be considered a tomb in which the baptized ones' old history is ended.

2.　Since the death of Christ is included in Christ, and since Christ is the very embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) and the Triune God is one with the Body of Christ, to baptize new believers is to terminate their old life and to germinate them with new life, the eternal life of the Triune God, for the Body of Christ; this is to baptize people out of their life into the Body life for the kingdom of the heavens.

B.　To disciple the nations is to teach them the divine truths in the divine and mystical realm so that they may learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus—Matt. 28:20; Eph. 4:20-21:

1.　We are being discipled from being a natural man to being a God-man, living the divine life by denying our natural life according to the model of Christ as the first God-man—Matt. 11:28-30.

2.　All the divine and mystical teachings of Christ are not only His unveiling and enlightening but also His nourishing to us for our growth and maturity in His divine life so that the eternal economy of God may be consummated through us—Eph. 4:15-16.