And Jesus answering said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in heaven.
And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Dear heavenly Father, we do gather here in the name of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. How we praise Thee and thank Thee, knowing that Thy presence is here with us.
We only ask, Lord, that Thou wilt remove any veil that may be upon our hearts. We pray that we may all behold the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. We do pray, Lord, that Thou wilt open Thy Word to us.
May Thou make Thy Word living and operative in each one of us. We do desire, Lord, that Thou be lifted up and glorified in the midst of Thy own people. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
The theme for our time together is “Thy Kingdom Come.” As my two brothers have already mentioned, each of us is assigned a part. My part in this theme, “Thy Kingdom Come,” is the kingdom and the church.
In the verses that we have just read, you find that in Matthew 16:18 our Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church upon this rock.” Here He mentioned the church, and we know that Matthew 16 is the first time that our Lord Jesus mentioned the word church.
Then, following in verse 19, He said to Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Here we find the word kingdom. In other words, our Lord Jesus Himself joined these two words together: the church and the kingdom. He will build His church, and He has the kingdom.
We would like to consider this matter from four different angles:
This evening, we would like to consider together before the Lord the first point: the kingdom is one with the church.
In order to consider this, I think it is important for us to define what the church is and what the kingdom is. Now, we all know that the church and the kingdom are beyond definition. There is no way to define the church, because when you try to define it, you really confine it. The same thing is true with the kingdom.
But for the sake of clarity, I think we need at least to have some basic ideas of the church and of the kingdom, as we find in the Word of God. So, we will try to define the church and the kingdom in a very simple way.
You know, when our Lord Jesus mentioned this word church—“Upon this rock I will build My church”—to Him this word, or this thing called church, is very, very different from what we ordinarily think of.
As a matter of fact, it is the very opposite of our common conception. When we imagine the word church, or when we say that we are building a church, ordinarily we think of building a building with stone, brick, wood, or mud. That is what we mean by church: a physical building set apart for religious or Christian services.
Some people may have a better idea of the church. We say that the church is not a physical, material building. We say that the church is a religious organization, a Christian institution—an institution that takes the name of the Lord but is run by men.
It has a definite place of worship where people can go on a Sunday, or perhaps on other days. It has a creed, a declaration of faith, a book of rules and discipline, a set of rituals and ceremonies, and a definite form of worship.
In addition to that, there is a special class of people called clergy, in contrast with the laity, the common people. Now, that is what we know as the church on earth. It is historical in nature and traditional.
But when our Lord Jesus mentioned the word church, He had a very different concept. To Him, the church is not an organization; it is an organism. It is not a human institution; it is a divine entity.
The Lord Himself is the Builder. He said, “I will build My church.” The church is so important to Him that He will not let anybody else do the work. He said, “I will build My church.”
He Himself is the Rock upon which the church is built, and He is building the church with living stones: people who confess Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. With these living stones, He builds them upon Himself to be His church.
This church is also called the body of Christ. He is the Head. When He was on earth for thirty-three and a half years, He took upon Himself a physical body given to Him by the virgin Mary. But after His death, resurrection, and ascension, He took upon Himself another body—a spiritual body, a corporate body—and His body is His church.
He is the Head of that body, and that body is His body, “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” Or, to put it another way, this church that He is mentioning is none other than Himself.
Why? Because in 1 Corinthians 12:12, it says:
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
In other words, the church is an extension of Himself. It is the corporate Christ.
This body is to grow into maturity, and when that body is fully matured, then He will come back to receive the body to Himself as His bride, to share with Him in glory and to reign with Him in power.
There is only one church. It has its local manifestations, and yet there is only one church. Now, this is what the Lord means by the church.
Now, what is the kingdom? Our two brothers have already given us a very good definition, and somehow we find that we all received help from Brother Fox. So tonight I think I am obligated to mention Brother Fox too.
Brother Fox said that the word kingdom, as we find it in the English Bible, is not a good translation. It should be translated sovereign rule.
God is the Sovereign. He is God, the Sovereign of the universe, and He rules over all that He has created.
But, as our brothers have already mentioned—and I think I have to reemphasize it—when we talk about kingdom, we often think of it in geographical or geopolitical terms. We think of territory, realm, scope, sphere, and domain. We think in terms of geography.
Well, it does have a geopolitical meaning to it. But, as Brother Fox mentioned, primarily, when you think of the kingdom, you should not think of geography; you should think of the Person.
In other words, the kingdom is the Sovereign. The Sovereign is the kingdom. He is the kingdom. His personality rules over that realm. So first of all, we have to think of the kingdom in terms of Person. God is the King. He is the kingdom.
Then, secondarily, because He is Sovereign and rules over the universe that He created, He puts His character upon the universe. That is the reason why you find that the kingdom is where He rules; and where He rules, there His character is manifested.
Wherever people put themselves under the rulership of God and allow the Holy Spirit to characterize them with the character of Christ, there is the kingdom of God.
So, when we think of the kingdom, first we think of the King, and then the domain. If we think in those terms, I think we will not be too far off.
After we have given this simple definition, we would like to describe them a little more in order to understand what they really are. We know that the word church in the original Greek is ekklesia.
Now, ekklesia means the called-out ones gathered together—the called-out ones gathered together.
We can see this in typology. You know, the children of Israel, when they were in the wilderness after Mount Sinai, were called the church in the wilderness. Or, if we want to use a more accurate translation, it is better translated assembly: the called-out ones assembled together.
So, in Acts 7:38, the children of Israel were called the assembly in the wilderness. When they were in Egypt, they were not called the assembly. They were not called the church. Why? Because they were a people under the rule of Pharaoh. They were slaves, disorganized, scattered, and under oppression.
They were not really a nation, a kingdom, or a people. So God delivered them out of Egypt and brought them to Himself, to Mount Sinai. There He gave them the law. He covenanted Himself with His people.
There, you find, the children of Israel began to become the assembly in the wilderness. Why? Because they were assembled together around a center, and that center was the tabernacle. In the tabernacle was the ark, and the ark represented God Himself.
In other words, God had called them out of Egypt and gathered them together unto Himself. That is the reason why they were called the assembly in the wilderness.
Of course, we know that this word is a Greek word, and it also has a Greek background. The Greeks had cities, and they practiced what we would call democracy. In each city, they had times of assembly.
The free people of that city would assemble together to discuss and decide upon things that concerned all of them. Slaves were not able to attend such assemblies. This kind of assembly was only for free people, citizens of the cities.
In Acts 19, when Paul was in Ephesus, there was a tumult because Demetrius the silversmith found that his trade was declining, as people turned away from idols to worship the living God. So he stirred up a mob, and the people rushed to the theater.
For two hours they did not know why they were there. Some cried one thing, and some another. After two hours, the town clerk finally calmed them down and said that if Demetrius and his associates had anything against somebody, there were the courts and the proconsuls. If there were any other matters, the regular assembly could settle them. But that day they had assembled without any reason, so he dismissed the assembly.
When you gather these things together, we come to a very simple description. What is the church? What is the assembly?
First of all, it is a people called out of this world. Out of every nation, every tribe, every tongue, and every people, God has called out a people.
This people assembles together. They assemble together in the name of the Lord Jesus. In Matthew 18, we are told that where two or three are gathered together unto His name—that is, the name of our Lord Jesus—there He is in the midst of them.
So, those who are called out first assemble together around a center, a name: the name of our Lord Jesus. Thirdly, they assemble together to be occupied with the business of God, the business of the Lord Jesus. Now, this is what the church is.
Now, how do we describe the kingdom? We know that our God is from eternity to eternity. Therefore, we find that His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
God is the Sovereign, and He created the universe for Himself. He rules over all that He has created. The psalmist said:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament showeth His handiwork.
In other words, after God created the universe, He put His character upon it. He rules over it.
Before there was rebellion in prehistorical time—our brother already mentioned how Lucifer, the archangel, rebelled—but before that happened, as God created the heavens and the earth, the angelic host, and all things upon this earth, you find that in the beginning this was the kingdom of God.
Why? Because He was the Sovereign, unchallenged. He had supreme authority over all that He ruled, and He put His character upon all. There was nothing against Him. So there you see the kingdom of God.
But we know that in prehistorical time there was rebellion among the angelic host. Not only in prehistorical times, but later on in historical times, there was human rebellion against God: Adam and Eve.
After such rebellion happened, brothers and sisters, you find that the kingdom of God had a change. Now, I have to be very careful in saying that, because on the one hand there is no change. From eternity to eternity, God is God.
Even though there was rebellion in prehistorical time and in historical time, God’s throne had not moved one bit. His authority is still supreme. His authority is still over all that He has created. Nothing—not even Lucifer, not even rebellious men—is outside of His authority. He rules and overrules over all. That has not changed.
But there is a change, and the change is this: even though He still rules over all and nothing is outside of His authority, there is something wrong with submission.
In the beginning, His authority was absolute and perfect, and the submission that the universe gave to Him was also absolute and perfect. But now, His authority is still perfect and absolute, yet submission is no longer absolute.
You find that a third of the angels followed Lucifer in rebelling against God. Among human beings, since the fall of our forefathers, the majority—the vast majority—do not submit themselves willingly under the rule of God.
Because of that, you find that the character He put upon the universe has changed. Lucifer, in the beginning, was a bright morning star. He was supposed to lead the other morning stars to sing praises to God. Yet he rebelled against God and turned himself into the adversary of God, Satan.
The character has changed. There is no longer God’s character upon him. In other words, he threw away the character that God had put upon him and began to take up his own character: a murderer, a liar, and the origin of sin. That is the character of Satan, the power of darkness.
The same thing is true with human beings. Because of rebellion, even though we were created in God’s image, you find how that image has changed. Today, we who are born of Adam have taken up the image of Adam instead of the image of God. The character of fallen man has characterized human beings.
When you think of the kingdom of God in the strictest sense, the kingdom of God is where God rules absolutely and unchallenged, and those under His rule give Him voluntary, willing, absolute submission. Thus, He is able to put His character upon them, that they may take up His character and express God and His glory.
This is the strict meaning of the kingdom of God. When God’s character cannot be built in and expressed, then in the strictest sense, this is outside of the kingdom of God.
Brothers and sisters, you find that there is a change. On the one hand, God is still God. His throne is still set and unshaken. His authority is still supreme and perfect. But on the other hand, you find that in creation there was a change.
Therefore, fallen angels and fallen mankind can be outside of the kingdom of God. But do not think that either the angels or men can be outside of the authority of God.
Because of this, we find that God is doing the work of recovery. In other words, He is to recover the earth. He is to recover the man whom He created. He is to recover all things back to His original purpose.
That is to say, the whole earth and all created beings, especially men, will give Him willing, voluntary submission, and He will be able to put His character upon all. This is the work of God, the nature of God’s work. He is doing this work of recovery to recover His kingdom upon this earth.
In a sense, there is no problem in heaven, because Satan has been cast out. In heaven, there is no problem. The kingdom of God in heaven is perfect and continues to be perfect. But the kingdom of God on earth has suffered. The problem is on earth, not in heaven.
Therefore, God is doing the work of recovery of His kingdom upon this earth. Without going into more detail—because perhaps we will get into it tomorrow, God willing—let us simply say this: after man’s fall, it seemed as if God had lost His kingdom on earth.
So God began to work. He had a people out of the seed of Abraham: the children of Israel. He redeemed them unto Himself, led them through the wilderness, and brought them into the promised land.
What did He have in mind? He had in mind having a kingdom for Himself upon this earth. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, after they crossed the Red Sea and the Egyptian army was buried in the water, the children of Israel sang the song of victory.
In that song of victory in Exodus 15, you find that the Lord is their King. In other words, He gathered the people unto Himself that He might be King to them.
At Mount Sinai He said:
Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine:
And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.
Brothers and sisters, what God had in mind was the kingdom. He wanted a kingdom on earth that would represent Him: a kingdom of priests. All the children of Israel were a kingdom over which God ruled, and they were all priests serving God’s purpose. How glorious this is.
But unfortunately, before they were able to be a kingdom of priests, the enemy had already come in and enticed them. They fell into temptation and worshiped the golden calf.
Still, God in His patience continued with them. But they tempted God ten times in the wilderness, and finally God said that this generation of unbelief could not enter into the promised land. Yet He raised up a new generation, and by His mercy they entered into the promised land.
The purpose of bringing these people into the promised land was to establish His kingdom in their midst. They were to be God’s kingdom among the kingdoms of the earth. They were to represent God upon this earth.
Instead of waiting for God to give them a king who could represent God Himself—for God Himself was their King—they asked for a king like the nations because they could not see Him.
God answered their prayer and gave them a king like the nations: King Saul. For forty years, they had to suffer under Saul to learn what a king of the earth was.
I think by that time they were fed up with Saul and were ready to have the king of God’s choice. So, in time, God raised up David, a man after God’s own heart, who would do His will.
David was a person who knew the authority of God. Because he knew the authority of God, he was set up by God to represent God’s authority. Actually, God was King in the nation of Israel. David was simply representing God.
But even so, God did not have His kingdom upon this earth in its full reality. The nation of Israel under David and Solomon, in one sense, was the kingdom of God upon this earth. But in another sense, it was far from what God really had in mind. In a narrow sense, they were only a type, a shadow of what was to come.
As a matter of fact, the real kingdom of God upon this earth did not come until Christ was born. When our Lord Jesus came to this earth, He was born King.
He was the King, and He was the Person in whom the sovereign rule of God was absolute. Here was a Man who gave God absolute obedience and submission to perfection. Upon Him, we find God’s character fully manifested.
Brothers and sisters, never in human history do you find a person, or a people, upon whom the character of God could be manifested in such full glory.
We find in Old Testament times some individuals who may have had some character—perhaps a tiny bit—of God’s character in their lives. We find a people, in a small way, representing or manifesting some character of God. But never in human history was there a Man in whom the full character of God was manifested.
That is the reason why our Lord Jesus said, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” It is enough. You do not need to ask to see the Father, because you have already seen Me. “I and the Father are one.”
Brothers and sisters, the reality of the kingdom of God upon the earth came in the Person of our Lord Jesus.
But He came into this world to establish God’s kingdom on earth with a people—not just Himself. He came for the purpose of calling out a people from this world.
He came to deliver a people out of the power of darkness and transfer them into His own kingdom. That is the reason why He came into this world.
Not merely to save a few souls so that they would not go to hell, and not merely to save a few souls so that heaven might be inhabited. He came into this world as the King, bringing heaven upon this earth, to gain a people for Himself to be like Him, that God may have His kingdom upon this earth.
That is the reason why He came to this world. Of course, in order to accomplish that, He had to go to the cross. He had to die, be resurrected, and ascend.
When He was on earth, He said, “The kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye.” He also said, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force.”
After His resurrection, He spoke to His disciples during those forty days concerning the kingdom of God. On the day of Pentecost, when the one hundred and twenty were baptized into one body, what was the message? “God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.”
When you come to the end of the book of Acts, you find Paul in his rented house preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, brothers and sisters, this is the kingdom of God on earth.
Having defined them and described them a little, I think we can come to this point: the kingdom and the church are one. The kingdom is one with the church.
We can look at it from different viewpoints. First of all, how do we come into the church?
If our concept of the church is an organization, an institution, or a religious club, then the way to come into that organization is that you have to join it. You have to commit yourself, be initiated, and become a member of that institution.
But, brothers and sisters, knowing that this is not what the church is—that the church is an organism—there is no way that you can join it. The only way to be in that organism is that you have to be born into it.
That is the reason why, in John 1:12–13, we read:
But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name:
Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
In other words, the way that we come into the church is that we have to be born into it. There is no other way. You cannot join it. You cannot pay a fee to become a member of it. The only way is that you have to be born into it, because it is the body of Christ.
All who believe in the Lord Jesus are the children of God—not merely children by adoption in the modern sense, but children by birth. We are born of God. We receive the life of our Lord Jesus. It is the life of God. That is the way we come into the church.
Now, brothers and sisters, how do you come into the kingdom of God? I believe you know John 3.
One night Nicodemus came to see our Lord Jesus. Nicodemus was most likely an old man, very educated. He was called the teacher of Israel. He was a very pious, God-fearing person. He had really tried his best to enter into the kingdom of God, but somehow he knew within himself that something was missing.
It was so urgent that he was willing to come and see the Lord Jesus at night. It was not convenient for him to come in the daytime, because the rabbis were there for people to visit them and learn from them. For them to go and learn from somebody else was very humiliating.
They were the learned ones, and for them to go to One who had never been to rabbinical school, in order to learn, was impossible. So he came at night because it was urgent to him. He really wanted to enter into the kingdom of God.
Brothers and sisters, here was a man who really wanted to enter into the kingdom of God. He wanted it so badly that he was willing to come to the Lord.
This must have been his question to the Lord. He tried to be polite and said a few words of courtesy: “We know that Thou art come from God, because Thou teachest what men could not teach.”
The Lord knew his heart, so right away the Lord said:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now, brothers and sisters, Nicodemus thought that he had certainly already seen it. He thought that he was not very far away, just one step from it. But he knew that he had not entered it yet.
The Lord was saying, in effect, “No, you have not seen it. Your whole concept of the kingdom of God is wrong. If you want to see the kingdom of God, you need a spiritual life.”
Brothers and sisters, without a spiritual life, not only can you not enter into it; you do not see it, because what you see is not the thing itself.
So the Lord Jesus said:
Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
There are, of course, different interpretations of this. But my own understanding is that when our Lord Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, John the Baptist was there baptizing people with water for repentance.
So when our Lord Jesus said, “Unless you are born of water,” He referred most likely to John’s baptism—in other words, repentance. You need to repent.
Do not think that because you are the teacher of Israel, because you are well educated and knowledgeable, because you are God-fearing, or because you have achieved a great deal, that by achievement you can enter into the kingdom of God.
No. You have to repent—not only repent of your sins, but even repent of your good deeds. You have to repent, turn around completely, and be born of the Spirit of God.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Brothers and sisters, here you see very clearly that the way to enter into the kingdom of God is by birth—not by achievement, not by development, but by birth.
You enter into the church by birth. You enter into the kingdom by birth. So here you find that the kingdom and the church are one.
Secondly, we are initiated into the church by being born into it, and we are initiated into the kingdom by being born of the Spirit. But this is only the beginning. We have to think of the progress.
God has saved us. He has given us a new life. We are members of the body of Christ. He has done it for us. There is nothing that we do, nothing we can do, and nothing that we did. It is all by grace that He has saved us and given us a new life, that we may be in the church.
But, brothers and sisters, what is the church? The church is the called-out ones assembled together.
We are saved by grace through faith. Here we are: saved out of every nation, every tribe, every people, and every tongue. God has called us out. But after we are out, there is another end.
If we are just out and are not assembled together, then you do not have the church yet. Or, to put it another way, our Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church.” The church has to be built. Without building, there is no church.
If you want to go back to typology, you find that Adam is a type of Christ and Eve is a type of the church. But how was Eve formed? She was built.
God put Adam to sleep, opened his side, and took out something—perhaps a rib. God used that which was taken out of Adam and built it into a woman.
The same thing is true with the church. The church has to be built, and after it is built, then you have the church.
So, brothers and sisters, the question is this: Are we in the church? Well, we say that we are born into the church, into the body of Christ. But are we being built up together?
Building is not just throwing things together. When you go to a place where they are going to build, first of all, all the materials are transported to the spot, but they are all lying around. That is not building.
You may have all the materials ready, but you need to put all these materials together in an organic way. A building is very organic, in a sense. It is not just a pile; it is not just a heap.
These living stones have to be built up together. The assembling together is not merely coming together physically, with no interrelationship. No, that assembling together is to be so built together organically that we become one building, one body. There is coordination, unity, and functioning together.
Now, brothers and sisters, the question is this: we are in the church because it is by grace; He has done it. But are we of the church?
I try to borrow this phrase from Scripture. The Lord Jesus said, “Ye are in the world, and yet ye are not of the world.” Brothers and sisters, we are in the church. All who are born again are in the church. But are we of the church?
That is to say, are we living the church? Are we just scattered around individually?
There are many believers who are loners, individuals. Their cry is, “My Lord and I. I do not need any other brothers and sisters, because they are troubles.”
You find all these stone materials lying there. That is not the church. They are not built; that is not organic.
Then there are other people: here a pile, there a heap. You just put all these odd stones together and pile them together. That is easy work. You do not need to cut any corners. You can leave all these stones as they are, with all their corners and roughness, and just pile them together—a great heap here and a great heap there.
Now, is that the church? There is no relatedness there.
All these living stones have to be properly related according to Christ, He being the foundation and the cornerstone. We are being fitted together, united together, and built up together—related together and organically put together. There is no way that we can go off by ourselves.
Brothers and sisters, we are in the church, but are we of the church?
I think this is something that we have to ask ourselves. Do we have church life? Do we know how to live together as the church of God?
Read the first few chapters of the book of Acts. There you find these early believers: one hundred and twenty, with one accord, praying together for ten days until the Spirit of God came upon them. They were baptized in one Spirit into one body. What a body there was!
There was unity there. When Peter stood up, the eleven stood up with him. Then three thousand were added to them on that same day. The three thousand with the one hundred and twenty immediately continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
You find that they were together—not only physically together, but spiritually together. They were one. They were built together. Now, that is the church.
They were living the church. The church was not merely a term or a theology to them. The church was their life.
You can be in the church by the grace of God, but you can live outside of it. You are not living as the church.
Brothers and sisters, this is why we feel it is so important that we see what the church is and ask ourselves: Am I of the church? Am I living as a living member in the body of Christ? Am I being built up together with my brothers and sisters?
We will leave it there and look at the kingdom. We are born into the kingdom of God. The Lord has already translated us into the kingdom of His love. We are in His kingdom.
But, brothers and sisters, what is the kingdom? The kingdom is where the King is accepted, where His authority is unchallenged, where His rule is willingly accepted, and where we give our Lord, our King, absolute obedience, that He may put His character upon us.
Brothers and sisters, let us ask ourselves: Is this true with us? By the grace of God, we are in the kingdom, but do we take up kingdom character? We know our Lord Jesus is our Savior, but do we really acknowledge Him as our Lord?
The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force.
The Lord was saying these things to His own disciples. On the one hand, these disciples were in His kingdom. On the other hand, He said, “If you really want to take the kingdom, you have to take it by violence.”
The violence here simply means that you have to do violence to yourself—not to other people. You have to do violence to yourself.
What does it mean to do violence to yourself? It is none other than denying yourself. Now, that is to do violence to yourself.
Who wants to deny himself? We want to recognize ourselves. We want others to recognize us. But, brothers and sisters, the Lord said that you have to do violence to yourself. Do not be too kind to yourself. Do not be too gentle to yourself.
You know, we are strict with other people, but we are very lenient with ourselves. That is human nature.
But the Lord said, if you really want to be in the kingdom—of the kingdom—you have to do violence to yourself, because only the violent seize upon it.
Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Brothers and sisters, are we living under the kingship of Christ? Are we taking up the character of the King?
This is not merely in a personal way, but in a corporate way. Are we really taking up the character of the King in our assembly?
Where two or three are gathered together unto His name, it means that we put ourselves under His name. We confess that His name is above every name—above my name, above your name, above everything.
We put ourselves under His authority. Brothers and sisters, He said, “I am in the midst.” That is the church. He is manifested.
When people come into our midst, immediately they will say, “God is indeed among you,” and they will bow down and worship God. Now, that is the church. That is the kingdom of God upon this earth.
So, we can be in it and yet not be of it. This is something for us to consider very carefully before the Lord.
Let me conclude by saying this: the church and the kingdom are one. They are two aspects of one thing.
When you think of the church, you think of life—the life of Christ. When you think of the kingdom, you think of authority—the authority of Christ.
When you think of the church, you think of growth—how we need to grow together. When you think of the kingdom, you think of government. Government is upon His shoulder, and we are all under His government.
When you think of the church, you think of love. Life is love, built up in love. When you think of the kingdom, you think of discipline.
So, brothers and sisters, actually the kingdom and the church are just the two sides of one thing. We need to know the fullness of His life, and we need to know the fullness of His authority. May the Lord help us.
Dear heavenly Father, we commit these words, weak and scattered, into Thy hands.
We look to Thee to quicken Thy Word into our hearts. We pray that we may not merely have the knowledge of the church and of the kingdom, but that we may really live the church and live the kingdom.
May it be real to all of us. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.