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The kingdom is a great and difficult subject. We must realize that any kind of life is a kingdom. The plant life is the plant kingdom, the animal life is the animal kingdom, the human life is the human kingdom, and the divine life is the divine kingdom. A life is always a kingdom. The life of God is the kingdom of God. If you want to enter into a kingdom, you need that kingdom’s particular life. If you want to enter into the botanic kingdom, you need the botanic life. If you want to enter into the animal kingdom, you need the animal life. We human beings are all in the human kingdom because we were born into it — we have the human life. The human life is our entrance into the human kingdom. In the same principle, John 3:5 tells us that we must be born of the Spirit, which means that we are born with the divine life, God’s life, the uncreated eternal life. Then we can enter into the kingdom of God. The life of God is our entrance into the kingdom of God. We must see this basic principle. When most Christian teachers touch this matter of the kingdom, they do not see this basic principle.
Now we must see the difference or the relationship between the kingdom and the church. This is very hard to discern and to understand clearly. We have seen that any kind of life is a kingdom, so the kingdom is the life itself. The kingdom of God is the life of God, but the church is not the life, nor is the life the church. The church is the product of life. The divine life is the kingdom, and this life produces the church. The New Testament concept is that the gospel brings in the kingdom. The gospel does not bring in the church, but the gospel brings forth the church. Thus, the gospel brings in the kingdom of God, and the gospel also brings forth the church of God. This is why the gospel is called the gospel of the kingdom in the New Testament (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14). There is not a verse in the New Testament that tells us that the gospel is the gospel of the church. The gospel of the kingdom brings forth, produces, the church because the kingdom is the life itself, and the church is the issue, the produce, of life. As you can see, the kingdom and the church are very closely related. The New Testament refers to the preaching of the gospel of peace (Eph. 2:17). This peace produces the church. No verse, however, tells us to preach the church. The Bible also tells us to preach forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47) and to preach the gospel of the kingdom, but it never tells us to preach the church, because the church is the product of what is preached.
The Lord told Peter in Matthew 16:18-19 that He would build His church upon the revelation of Christ, which Peter had received from the Father. Immediately after this the Lord said to Peter, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens” (v. 19). Without the kingdom as the reality of life, the church could never be produced or built up. To produce the church and to build up the church, we need the kingdom. The kingdom actually is the reality of the church. We cannot say, however, that the church is the reality of the kingdom. We can only say that the kingdom is the reality of the church.
With this understanding as a basis, we can understand many verses in the New Testament. The first preaching of the New Testament gospel told people that they needed to repent because the kingdom of the heavens had drawn near (Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7). There is no verse that says the church is coming, so repent. John the Baptist, Jesus, and the twelve apostles initiated the New Testament gospel by telling people that the kingdom had drawn near. This meant that the time had come for God to come to dispense Himself as life to people. The gospel brings God as life, and life is a kingdom. The kingdom is the realm of life for life to move, to work, to rule, and to govern so that life may accomplish its purpose, and this realm is the kingdom. Actually, the kingdom as the realm of life is life itself. If one were to take away all the animals in the zoo, there would be no animal kingdom there. When the animals are there, the animal life is there, and that realm of animal life is the animal kingdom. The gospel brings in the divine life, and the divine life has its realm for it to move, to work, to rule, and to govern so that this life may accomplish its purpose. This is the kingdom, and this divine life with its realm produces the church.
Mark 4:26 says that the kingdom is like a seed sown into the earth. The kingdom is the seed, and the seed is the seed of the divine life (1 John 3:9; 1 Pet. 1:23). When the Lord said that the kingdom is like a seed, He meant that the kingdom is the life. The kingdom grows like a seed grows, and the kingdom develops like a seed by its growing until it develops unto a harvest. Matthew 13 also shows us that the kingdom is like a seed sown into the human earth and that this seed grows in our heart to be the kingdom (vv. 8, 23). Now we can understand why in Luke 17, when the Pharisees asked the Lord when the kingdom of God would come, He told them that the kingdom of God was in the midst of them. This indicated that Jesus, He Himself, is the kingdom because He is the seed.
In 1972, in a summer conference in Los Angeles, I gave messages on the kingdom. In those messages I indicated that the kingdom is the “King” plus “dom.” Jesus is the King. When Jesus expands, He becomes the kingdom. The King plus the “dom” is the kingdom. The prepositional phrase in the midst of you in Luke 17:21, where Jesus told the Pharisees that the kingdom of God was in the midst of them, can also be translated using the word within. The kingdom of God is within you. Both of these translations are right. At that time Jesus, the seed of the kingdom, was sown in the midst of the Jewish people, and He was also sown into some of them like Peter, James, and John; the kingdom was not only in the midst of them but was also within them. According to the Pharisees, however, the kingdom at that time was only in the midst of them. This kingdom is Jesus as the seed of life sown into humanity.
Now we should be able to have a clear understanding of John 3:5. For years I could not understand why regeneration had something to do with entering into the kingdom of God. Then I began to see that regeneration is to receive the divine life and that this divine life is our entrance into the divine life’s kingdom. You must have this divine life; otherwise, there is no way for you to enter into its kingdom. If a chicken or tiger wanted to enter into the human kingdom, they would have to be reborn, to be regenerated with the human life. Once they received the human life, that human life would become their entry into the human kingdom. In the same principle, if we want to enter into the kingdom of God, we need to be born of the life of God. Once we have the life of God, this life is our entrance into the kingdom of God.
After the Lord’s resurrection, the book of Acts tells us that the Lord appeared to the disciples through a period of forty days, and in those forty days He taught the disciples concerning the kingdom of God (1:3). Some Brethren teachers and Dr. C. I. Scofield, in their teachings regarding the kingdom, held the concept that the Lord Jesus presented the kingdom to the Jews, and the Jews rejected it. Therefore, He suspended this kingdom and put the kingdom aside. Then He began to touch the church. With this understanding as a basis, they say that today is not the kingdom age but the age of the church. To them, when the Lord comes back, He will receive the kingdom from God, and He will come back with this kingdom, based upon Luke 19:11-12 and 15 and Daniel 7:13-14. By that time the Jewish people will repent and believe in Him and will receive this kingdom brought back by the Lord Jesus. Then there will be the next age, the age of the kingdom. This concept is very much in contradiction with the Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation.
The book of Acts shows us strongly that the Lord Jesus never gave up the kingdom and never put it aside to come to the matter of the church. Rather, after His resurrection He appeared to His disciples through a period of forty days purposely to show them the kingdom of God. Acts 8:12 tells us that Philip went out to preach the kingdom of God, and in Acts 14:22 Paul charged the saints that through many tribulations they must enter into the kingdom of God. Also, at the end of Acts (28:30-31), Paul stayed in Rome in a rented house for the purpose of preaching the kingdom of God both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. In our concept we always consider that in the Acts the gospel was preached only for the purpose of producing and establishing the churches. We never thought that the gospel had much to do with the kingdom.
In Luke and Acts Luke uses the word evangelize. Evangelize is the anglicized form of the Greek word euaggelizo, which means “to preach something as the gospel.” In Luke 4:43 Luke tells us that the Lord said that He had to evangelize the kingdom of God. This means to preach the kingdom of God as the gospel. The verb evangelize implies the noun gospel. To evangelize the kingdom means to preach the kingdom as the gospel. We cannot find a verse that says to evangelize the church, to preach the church as the gospel. Whatever was preached in the Acts was the preaching of the kingdom of God as the gospel. This is why the gospel is called the gospel of the kingdom of God. The gospel of the kingdom of God equals the gospel. The gospel of the kingdom of God equals the gospel of life because life is the kingdom, and the kingdom is the realm for life to move, to work, to rule, and to govern.
In 1 Corinthians (6:9-10; 15:50), Galatians (5:21), Ephesians (5:5), and Colossians (1:13; 4:11), the kingdom of God is referred to strongly. You must live a life that is according to the Spirit. You must live a life that is Christ Himself. Otherwise, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. You need to live a life that is the kingdom today. Then this life will qualify you to enter into the coming kingdom. Today the kingdom is your life, and in the next age the kingdom will become your inheritance. What you live today will become your inheritance tomorrow. For example, what you earn in wages today is your living. Then these earnings will become your coming social security. In like manner, you must live the kingdom, and then the kingdom will become your coming social security. That is the coming kingdom as an inheritance to all who live the kingdom as their life.
Romans 14:17 says, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 14 teaches us about the practical church life — how to receive the weaker believers without any kind of division. In that chapter on the church life Paul says that the kingdom is this practical church life. Also, in Revelation 1 John stressed the church as the lampstands for the testimony of Jesus (vv. 2, 9, 12, 20). In Revelation 1:9, however, John does not say, “I John, your brother in the church” but he says, “I John, your brother...in the...kingdom.” When he was in the church life, he was in the kingdom because the kingdom is the reality of the church life.
The kingdom is the practical life, life’s practicality. Again, I refer to the example of the zoo, where we can see an animal kingdom. The animal kingdom is the practicality of the animal life. If we live the divine life, if we live Christ as life, the practicality of this life is the kingdom. When people come among us, they would see a kingdom. The kingdom is the expression of life. All the animals moving around in the zoo are an expression of the animal life, and that expression is the animal kingdom. If all the animals were taken away, the animal life would be over, and the expression would also be over. In the church we are the believers living, moving, and acting in the divine life. As a result, there is an expression of this divine life. The expression of this divine life is the kingdom, the practicality of this life, and the practicality of this divine life is in the church. Now we can see that the kingdom is the reality of the church life. As long as the divine life is here, the kingdom is here. As long as the divine life is being lived, the kingdom exists. You could never suspend it, and you could never put it aside.
In the Gospel of Matthew the Lord’s teaching on the mount in chapters 5 through 7, His parables by the seashore in chapter 13, and His prophecy on the Mount of Olives in chapters 24 and 25, when added together, unveil to us the entire situation of the kingdom. His teaching in Matthew 5 through 7 shows us the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, His parables in Matthew 13 show us the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens, and His prophecy in Matthew 24 and 25 shows us the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens.
First, this kingdom has its reality, and this reality is the living of the divine life. Matthew 5 through 7 is not a matter of morality or a high standard of ethics but the living of the divine life by the believers. The living of the divine life is the expression and the practicality of the divine life, so it is the kingdom in reality. We must be impressed that Matthew 5 through 7 is not a sermon on a high standard of ethics. It is the unveiling of the living of the divine life, which we possess. This living is the expression, the practicality of the divine life, which is the divine life’s kingdom, the reality of the kingdom.
In Matthew 13:24-42 the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens is revealed in the parables of the tares, of the mustard seed, and of the leaven. In Matthew 13 the evil one is portrayed as the birds in the air (vv. 4, 19). Chapter 13 also tells us clearly that this enemy is the devil (v. 39). While this kingdom is advancing on the earth, Satan endeavors to do everything to frustrate the growth and development of this kingdom.
First, Satan sowed the tares among the wheat to frustrate the life of the wheat from growing. This is the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens, which is full of tares, full of nominal, false Christians. These false Christians many times are very hard to discern. It is not possible to discern tares from the wheat until the fruit is produced. The sprout and leaves of the tares look the same as those of the wheat. When the fruit is produced, though, the wheat bears golden-colored grain, but the fruit of the tares is black. When the fruit is produced, you can discern what is real and what is false. Sometimes even among us, things may be like this. Before the fruit is produced, we all look alike, but one day some will become golden, and some will become black, and there will be no need to discern. By that time the growth of life with the wheat will have been greatly frustrated by the tares. Wheat signifies all the believers of the divine life and with the divine life. The tares were sown by the enemy to frustrate the proper growth of this divine life in the believers. Nevertheless, the wheat still grows with the divine life and produces the grain to be ground into powder. This is the fine flour (v. 33) to make a loaf (1 Cor. 10:16-17) for an offering to God, which means to make the church as a total offering to God for His enjoyment and satisfaction.
The church, as the practical kingdom of the heavens, with Christ — the unleavened fine flour — as its content, must be the unleavened bread (5:7-8). However, the enemy endeavored to put leaven into this fine flour until the fine flour was altogether leavened (Matt. 13:33). Once the flour is leavened, there is no way to purge it, no way to purify it. We all must realize that we are still under a certain kind, or a certain extent, of leavening. All the truths we have heard and received in the past have been leavened by the enemy. If this were not the case, it would not be so hard for us to minister the word. Even the seeking Christians today do not realize how much their mentality has been preoccupied already by the leavened truth. Even before people get saved, they have already become leavened by the practices, by the atmosphere, by the color, and by the flavor of Christianity. After they are saved, many of these leavened truths still remain in their mentality.
The parable of the mustard seed (vv. 31-32) shows us that Satan is very subtle. He not only sows the tares among the wheat and puts the leaven into the fine flour, but he also is able to change the principle of life, to make the mustard seed grow not according to its kind. According to the law of God’s creation, every plant must be according to its kind (Gen. 1:11-12). Satan, however, made the mustard seed to grow not according to its own kind. It should be an herb to produce the proper food for people, but Satan made it a tree to become a lodging for so many birds. Now this tree lodges many evil persons and things. The nature of the mustard seed has been changed. It is no more an herb to feed people but a tree to lodge so many birds. This great tree is today’s Christendom.
This is all the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens: many tares, a great tree as a lodging for evil persons and evil things, and much leaven. In today’s Christendom we can see tares, leaven, and a great tree. We do not see much fine flour.
When the Lord Jesus comes, the kingdom will be manifested. This is the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. Those who will enjoy the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens are those who are now living in the reality of the kingdom. If we live the kingdom today, the kingdom will be our inheritance as a realm for us to enter in and enjoy the eternal life for a thousand years as the reward with its joy and kingship (Matt. 24:45-47; 25:19-23).
This kingdom in the next age will be the heavenly part of the millennium, and the earthly part will be the restored tabernacle of David (Acts 15:16), the restored kingdom of Israel (1:6). The saved remnant of the Jews in the restored Davidic kingdom will be the priests teaching the nations to worship God (Zech. 8:20-23). The kings, the overcoming believers, are not in the restored Davidic kingdom, but they are in the manifestation of the kingdom in the heavenly part of the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6).
We should not forget that a number of God’s chosen and redeemed people in the time of the patriarchs, the dispensation before the law, were not perfected. Also, a great number of God’s chosen ones in the dispensation of law and a greater number of God’s chosen ones in the dispensation of grace were not mature before the millennium, the fourth dispensation, the dispensation of the kingdom. As a result, all these immature ones will be perfected in the fourth dispensation, and the perfection will not be so pleasant. That perfection will be a kind of discipline or punishment to force them to “make up their lesson” to grow into maturity.
Then all these will be mature, and God’s work to perfect His chosen and redeemed ones will be completed. This will be the end of the old creation, and the new heaven and the new earth will come in. At that time all the believers who needed perfecting in the millennium, the overcoming believers in the heavenly part of the millennium, and the Jews who were the priests to teach the nations will be completely perfected and matured. They will be the complete kingdom of God for eternity because all of them will be full of life, and this life is the consummation of the kingdom of God, which will be the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem will be the kingdom of God for eternity.
