Will you please turn to 1 Thessalonians 2:12?
And that ye would walk worthily of God, Who calleth you into His own kingdom and glory.
This is the theme verse: walk worthy of God’s kingdom.
Thank God for bringing us together in His presence. This is a critical time, and He is preparing us for His imminent return. So we are looking to the Lord that He will speak to our hearts and, by His grace, enable us to walk worthy of His kingdom.
Now, for the sake of some brothers and sisters who may not be familiar with the kingdom of God, we would like to give you a little background.
We read from Acts 15, toward the end, that Paul and Silas left Antioch for their second missionary journey. They visited Phrygia and the Galatian country, and they took Timothy to be an attendant with them.
They were thinking of going to Asia—not Asia as a continent, but Asia Minor, because it was a populous country. But strangely, the Holy Spirit forbade them.
So they went on to Mysia, thinking of going to Bithynia to preach the gospel. But again, the Spirit of Jesus forbade them. So they went straight on until they reached Troas, which is a coastal city.
At that moment, Paul saw a vision. A Macedonian appeared to him and said, “Come and help us.” So they decided that it was the Lord’s mind that they should go to Macedonia. They crossed the Aegean, leaving Asia behind, and for the first time they came to Europe. That is how Europe first received the gospel of Jesus Christ.
They arrived at Philippi, a Roman colony. There were not enough Jews—that is to say, they did not have ten Jewish men willing to form a synagogue. So, in that Roman colony, there was no synagogue.
But there were a few women who met together outside the city for prayer. So Paul and his companions went outside the city by the river and joined these women who were praying. There he preached Christ Jesus to them.
The Spirit of God touched the heart of Lydia, a woman who sold purple. Now, at that time, selling purple was a very high-class business. Lydia and her household turned to the Lord Jesus, and there was such love in her heart that she constrained Paul and his companions to stay with her.
During that time, Paul and his companions went out to pray every day. But as they were on the way, a woman possessed by a demon followed them and cried, “These are servants of God. They are preaching the gospel of salvation.”
After this had happened for a few days, Paul’s heart was troubled because he did not want the devil to mix with the Spirit of God. So he turned around and cast that demon out.
But when the masters of this demon-possessed woman saw that their opportunity for earning money was gone, they tried to raise up a turmoil, saying that these people had come to preach things that the Romans should not receive. Because of that, Paul and Silas were beaten and put into jail.
At midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang songs to God. As they were doing that, there was an earthquake, and all the doors of the jail were opened.
The jailer awoke and saw that the doors had opened. He thought that all the prisoners were gone, so he tried to kill himself. But Paul said, “We are here.”
So the jailer came trembling and asked them, “What shall I do that I might be saved?” Paul said:
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.
That night, the jailer and his household believed and were baptized. The next morning, when the officers came and said that these people could go, Paul said, “We are Romans, and yet we were beaten and imprisoned without cause.” Finally, the officials came, apologized, and asked them to leave.
Paul and his companions left Philippi and went on to Thessalonica. In Thessalonica there were more Jews, and there was a synagogue. So Paul and his companions visited the synagogue and reasoned with the people, showing how Christ must suffer first and then be glorified, and that this Christ is Jesus.
Some of the Jews believed. Many of the Gentiles who worshipped in the synagogue believed, as did not a few noble women. When these things happened, the Jews became jealous, raised a mob, and sent Paul and Silas away.
Eventually they went to Corinth. In the heart of Paul, he wanted to go back to Thessalonica because this was a young church. They were new believers, and they suffered persecution from their own countrymen. Paul was concerned for their spiritual condition.
Several times he wanted to go back, but he was not allowed to. So finally, when he was in Corinth, he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to visit these young Christians and to see whether they could stand through the persecution.
When Timothy came back with good news that these young Christians had stood firm in spite of persecution from their own countrymen, Paul was greatly comforted. They were waiting for the coming of the Lord, and they served the living God.
So Paul wrote the first letter to the Thessalonians to comfort them and further testify to them that they should walk worthy of God, Who had called them into His kingdom and glory. That is the background of this letter. Most likely, it was written around A.D. 53.
We thank God for using this as our theme: walk worthy of the kingdom of God.
Now, brothers and sisters, during this time when we come together, we will focus our whole attention on this matter of walking worthy of God’s kingdom. If the Lord wills, in my two sessions I would like to share with you this morning on the kingdom of God, and tomorrow morning on how to walk worthy of God’s kingdom.
Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Mark, Mark 1:14-15?
And after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel.
And please turn also to Colossians 1:13:
Who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
We know that after John the Baptist was imprisoned, our Lord Jesus began to preach the gospel in Galilee. He said, “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God has drawn nigh. Repent, and believe in the glad tidings.”
This is the gospel that our Lord Jesus preached. Today, we often forget this. When we think of the gospel of Jesus Christ, probably our whole attention is upon having our sins forgiven and being given the privilege of going to heaven. We call it the gospel of grace, and we think that this is the gospel.
But, brothers and sisters, when our Lord Jesus began to preach the gospel, the emphasis was not there. The emphasis was, “Repent, for the kingdom of God has drawn nigh.” In other words, He preached the gospel of the kingdom of God.
You remember in John 3, when Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus. He was a rabbi, a teacher of Israel, but he noticed that what our Lord Jesus taught had authority. So he came to visit our Lord at night and said, “We know that You are a teacher from God.”
He was thinking of receiving more teaching. He had much teaching already; he was a teacher himself. But he was hungry for more. Strangely, our Lord Jesus cut him off and said:
Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Here was an educated man, a teacher of Israel, who was seeking for the kingdom of God. Maybe he thought that he was rather near to the kingdom of God because he knew so much. Yet he thought there was not enough, so he was humble enough to come to the Lord Jesus and seek more teaching about the kingdom of God.
But our Lord Jesus immediately said, “Unless you are born from above, you cannot even see the kingdom of God, not to speak of entering it.” This greatly surprised Nicodemus. So he said, “How can it be? Can a person who has grown up go back to his mother’s womb and be born again? That is impossible.”
So our Lord Jesus said:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
You find that, in this conversation with Nicodemus, our Lord Jesus was talking about the kingdom of God. If anyone wants to enter into the kingdom of God, he must be born from above—born again.
This is the gospel that our Lord Jesus preached. If you turn to Hebrews 2:3, you will find that this great salvation was first preached by the Lord Himself and was confirmed by the apostles, God also bearing witness with signs, wonders, and distributions of the Holy Spirit to prove the reality of this gospel.
Dear brothers and sisters, it is a sad thing that today God’s people can be so self-centered, only thinking, “What will the gospel do for me?” That is the reason why we feel that if we believe in the Lord Jesus, our sins are forgiven, we receive life, we have eternal life, and our heaven is guaranteed.
In other words, we find that even the Lord Himself revolves around us. We are the center. That is our selfish understanding of the gospel.
But the gospel that our Lord Jesus preached, and that the apostles preached, is the kingdom of God. In other words, God is the center; we are not the center.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, God does something much more than we realize. If you read Ephesians 2, you will find that before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were dead in sins and transgressions.
We followed the course of this world. But behind the world, we were under the authority and power of darkness. We did not realize that. We thought we were free. We thought that we could do anything we wanted. We thought that we were masters, not knowing that we were already slaves to sin, enslaved to the enemy of God. We were under his control and under his tyranny. We were dead, and we were considered enemies of God.
But thank God for His mercy. He sent His only beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, into this world to die, to shed His own blood, and to give His own life to us, that we may be saved.
We are told in Colossians 1:13 that God has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
So, brothers and sisters, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, there is so much that God has done for us. He has not only forgiven our sins; He has not only delivered us from eternal death; He has not only justified us; He has not only given His own life to us. He gives us a new spirit, and He sends His Holy Spirit to dwell in our new spirit and to be responsible for our future.
He did everything for us. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. In other words, our position has changed.
Formerly, our position was under the power of darkness. While we were under the power of darkness, we were hopeless and helpless. We could not help but sin. We had no future. We were destined for eternal death.
But thank God: when He sent His Son to save us, He delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love—a new position.
So, brothers and sisters, this is what the gospel is. When we receive the gospel, it is more than personal forgiveness of sin. It is more than receiving life. It is a transfer of position. We are no longer under the power of darkness; we are in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. This is where we are today.
Now, brothers and sisters, we are in the kingdom of God. What does that mean? What is the kingdom? I think this is something that we should understand clearly.
The apostles were in Thessalonica only for a very short time. Yet, during their time there, they labored for the Lord day and night and set their own example before the believers.
They were not at all discouraged because of the sufferings they had endured in Philippi. Instead, they endured the suffering, forgot themselves, and faithfully and patiently preached the gospel to the Thessalonians.
What they gave them was more than teaching about the kingdom. They set an example of how to walk worthy of the kingdom of God. But first of all, we need to know what the kingdom of God is.
The kingdom of God may be difficult for us to understand because this country is a democracy; it is not a monarchy. Therefore, we do not have much experience of a kingdom.
But kingdom, in Scripture, means not only a people within a certain sphere under the rulership of the king. The king is sovereign in his kingdom. In a sense, the king is the kingdom, because all the laws and rules of the kingdom come from the king. The king makes the rules. He has absolute authority over his people.
In a broad sense, the kingdom of God is from eternity to eternity, because He is the One Who created the universe. Everything is under His rule and under His control. Whether you believe in Him or obey Him does not matter; He is still the Sovereign of the universe.
But in a stricter sense, the kingdom of God refers to those people in His kingdom who are in absolute obedience to Him. They give their allegiance to Him. Even their very lives belong to Him, and the King has absolute control over them.
You remember Nebuchadnezzar, the first great emperor of the Gentile nations. God repeatedly revealed to him that the heavens do rule, that there is One Who rules over the affairs of men. He is the One Who raises up kings, and He is the One Who deposes them. He has absolute authority over the affairs of men.
God Himself is the kingdom. He is the Ruler, and He has absolute authority over His people.
There is one place that shows us very clearly what the kingdom of God is, and that is 1 Chronicles 29.
You remember David, toward the end of his reign. He was preparing materials for the temple to be built. In his affliction and in his affection, he gave much material to the Lord. Then he encouraged the people to do the same, and the people began to give in preparation for the building of the temple.
Toward the end, David prayed. This is found in 1 Chronicles 29:10-13:
Blessed be Thou, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all.
Both riches and honour come of Thee, and Thou rulest over all; and in Thy hand is power and might; and in Thy hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.
Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name.
In this praise, you find that David said, “Thine is the kingdom,” and, “Thou rulest over all.” So, dear brothers and sisters, what is the kingdom of God into which God has transferred us? This is our position today: we are in the kingdom of God.
It means one thing: that we give our God absolute obedience. He is the Ruler of His kingdom, and it is His desire that we take up His own character, that we may become faithful and true citizens of the kingdom of God.
In Colossians 1:13, it says that God has transferred us out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is the kingdom of the Son of His love. They are the same.
Why? Because this is related to the eternal purpose of God. Even before the foundation of the world, before God began to create anything, in eternity past, God made a decision.
As we find in Ephesians 1, according to His good pleasure, God has a good pleasure. There is one thing that pleases Him more than anything else, and that is His only begotten Son.
All God’s thoughts are about His Son. He wanted to give everything to His Son. He created the universe for His Son, and He wanted to sum up all things in heaven and on earth in Christ. That simply means that everything in heaven and upon earth will speak of, manifest, glorify, and show forth His Son. That is the eternal purpose of God.
In that eternal purpose, God included man in a special way, because He gave man to His only begotten Son to be His life companion. Brothers and sisters, this is such a glorious thought.
Who are we? If you think of our size, how can we compare even with a little hill? We are all like dust of the earth, because we are made of dust. Yet it is the good pleasure of our God to make us the life companion of His beloved Son.
Of course, in order to be His life companion, that is not a simple thing. There must be correspondence, likeness, and agreement between His beloved Son and ourselves. How can we, full of flesh, become the life companion of our Lord Jesus, Who is full of the Holy Spirit?
We are so disqualified, unqualified. That is why, brothers and sisters, we are called into His kingdom: that we may be able, through the life that He has given to us and the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us, to be taught and transformed.
We may be delivered from everything that is not like His Son and everything that contradicts His Son. We may be remade, as it were, with His Son’s character and life, so that one day we will be suitable to His beloved Son.
This is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. He has put us in that position. What a glorious position that is.
When you think about this, it should make us ashamed of ourselves and willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow the Lord, because this is God’s way of transforming us.
So we should thank God for all the discipline, difficulties, sufferings, tribulations, and troubles that we go through in life. I often think that after the Lord saved me, the best thing He could do would be to take me to Himself. Then I would be free from all the troubles of these long years. But God knows better.
What will you be if you are full of yourself and have very little of Christ? You are not growing in the Lord. You have not taken up His character. You have not been transformed. When you come into His presence, He will say, “Unfit.” Then what will it be?
No wonder you find the five foolish virgins. When they could not enter into the marriage feast, they were cast into outer darkness, gnashing their teeth and repenting of their foolishness.
So, brothers and sisters, this is the kingdom of God. It is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. As God loves His beloved Son, likewise He loves us with the same love. He gave His only begotten Son to us that we may be like His Son, that He may be the firstborn among many brethren, and that He may lead many sons into glory. This is God’s glorious purpose for us.
What is the kingdom of God? In Matthew, a different term is used. It is called the kingdom of the heavens.
Repent ye; for the kingdom of the heavens is at hand.
The kingdom of God is also called the kingdom of the heavens, and in this sense it is especially related to Christians.
If you want to know the difference between the kingdom of the heavens and the kingdom of God, broadly speaking they are one. Strictly speaking, the kingdom of the heavens is part of the kingdom of God, because the kingdom of God is from eternity to eternity.
But the kingdom of the heavens came to this earth at the first coming of our Lord Jesus. Before our Lord came, John the Baptist, His forerunner, preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.” In other words, it was not here yet.
But when our Lord Jesus began to preach, He said the same thing: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.” Why? Because the King had come, but He had no kingdom yet. He had no people yet.
Through the preaching of our Lord Jesus and through His discipling of His people, the kingdom came into manifestation. In Matthew 11, He says that the kingdom of the heavens suffers violence, and men of violence take it by force.
In other words, the Lord Jesus had come. The King was there, and He had gathered some people around Him. So He said, “The kingdom of the heavens is here.”
Who will be able to seize that kingdom? Those who do violence to themselves. We do not like the word violence because it has a bad connotation, but the word itself is neutral. If you do violence to other people, that is sin. But if you do violence to yourself for the kingdom’s sake, that is glory.
What does violence mean? Violence simply means: deny yourself.
Peter denied the Lord three times, but he denied the wrong person. He should have denied himself. Brothers and sisters, whom are we denying today?
Do we daily delight in denying ourselves, daily taking up the cross and following Him? The cross simply means that when God’s thought and our thought cross each other, when His mind and our mind differ and go in different directions, or when our feeling and His feeling conflict, what do we do? Do we keep ourselves, or are we able to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow the Lord?
In doing that, spiritually and in reality, even while we are living on this earth, we are not only in the kingdom of God but living in the kingdom of God. We are loyal citizens of that kingdom. The heavens rule over us.
Brothers and sisters, who is ruling over you today? Is heaven ruling over you, or are you still the ruler of your own life? This is something very serious, and this is something about which we really need to come before the Lord.
You remember when our Lord Jesus was judged by Pilate in John 18. When Pilate asked Him, “Are You a king?” He said, “Yes.” But He also said:
My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence.
He came to bear witness to the truth. So we know that the kingdom of the heavens is different from the earth.
The Lord Jesus told His disciples that among the Gentiles, those who rule and are in authority set themselves high up, give commands, and let other people serve them. But He said, “Not so shall it be among you.” Those who are great among you will be the least, and those who are high must become low.
He said, “I came not to be served, but to serve, and to give My life a ransom for many.” So, brothers and sisters, the way of heaven is very different from the way of this world.
That is why, while we live on this earth, if we are under the rule of heaven, we will be able to live a heavenly life. Just like our Lord Jesus, He was in the world, but He was not of this world. This is what we should be.
What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom.
In Romans 14:17, we find:
For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom. It is not eating and drinking. In this world, people are concerned with eating and drinking: “What shall I eat? What shall I drink? What shall I wear? How can I have a rich life and enjoy all the pleasures of this world?” That is the world.
But this kingdom is not of this world. It is not composed of eating and drinking. It consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
God is righteous. Therefore, those who are the Lord’s must practice righteousness. Thank God, we were once unrighteous and condemned by God. But He saved us, forgave our sins, and clothed us with Christ Jesus.
Christ Jesus is our robe and covers our nakedness. So we have a standing before God; we are justified in the sight of God. But that is not enough.
We who have been justified need to walk righteously. We need to practice righteousness—things that are right in the sight of God, not merely in the sight of man.
There are many things that we can do and many places we can go where, in the sight of man, we will not be condemned. But, brothers and sisters, our God has a higher standard. We have to satisfy Him, Who is altogether righteous.
In 1 John, you find that we need to practice righteousness, to do everything that is right in the sight of God. How do we know? Thank God, the Holy Spirit dwells in us. He is our Teacher.
Not only in big things but even in small things, He teaches us in all things. If we obey the teaching of the anointing, we will abide in Christ. That is the way we know that we are right in the sight of God.
And then, peace. In this world there is no peace. Our Lord Jesus is our peace. We not only have peace with God; we have peace with one another.
If there is anything that we hold against our brother or sister, we need to forgive. We who have been forgiven much—how can we hold on to offenses from those who may have offended us only a little? In a sense, this is good discipline for us.
Brothers and sisters, that is the kingdom of God: our conscience has no regret. Just as Paul said, “Before men and before God, I maintain a conscience without offense.” That does not mean that I am perfect, but at least, whenever the Spirit of God touches my conscience, there is peace.
Then there is also the joy of the Holy Spirit. Real joy comes from God. People may seek happiness, but that is only superficial. Joy comes from God. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
Often, when we are passing through great difficulties, somehow, strangely, deep within the heart there is joy.
Our Lord Jesus was like that. You remember how, after He had labored so diligently and faithfully in Capernaum, Chorazin, and other places, the people still did not believe.
From every outward appearance, it was a most desperate situation. But you remember what our Lord Jesus did. He lifted up His head and said, “I thank Thee, Father, for this is Thy good pleasure.”
There was joy in the Holy Spirit. So, brothers and sisters, there may be tears, but deep within there is joy, knowing that the Lord is with you and that He is pleased with you.
Brothers and sisters, these are a few explanations of what the kingdom of God is. Thank God, He has translated us out of the power of darkness. So where are we today? We are in the kingdom of God.
Being in the kingdom of God, should we not behave like sons of the kingdom? May the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, what can we say? Thou hast done something so tremendous, so glorious, that we could never get ourselves out or get ourselves in. But Thou hast done it.
We praise Thee that in Thy beloved Son, through His Calvary cross, Thou hast transferred us out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of Thy love.
O dear God, we thank Thee for the glorious position in which Thou hast placed us. And now, Lord, work it out in every one of us, that we may walk worthy of Thy kingdom, to the praise of Thy glory. We ask in that precious name. Amen.