Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent; for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.”
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for gathering us again in Thy presence. We pray that Thou wilt grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation unto the full knowledge of God.
How we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast shown us that Jesus is Lord. And we do pray, Lord, this morning, that Thou wilt further reveal Thy mind and Thy heart to us, that we may be drawn into Thy purpose and glorify Thy name.
We commit this time into Thy hand and look to Thee for Thy working in each of our hearts. To the glory of God, we ask in Thy name. Amen.
I believe all brothers and sisters here know that the reason why we gather this year is to focus our attention on the King and the kingdom.
Our brother last night gave us a vision of the King, and hopefully that vision will not only continue to be with us but will be increasing during this week.
I was assigned to speak on the church and the kingdom. First of all, we need to know what is the scriptural meaning of the church, as well as of the kingdom, so that as we continue to share, we may know exactly what we are talking about.
The word church is very common among God’s people. But unfortunately, that word church itself is not an exact translation from the Greek original.
As a matter of fact, the English word church that we have today is translated from another Greek word, which means “pertaining to the Lord.” In other words, it can be explained as the assembly of Christian believers, or it can be used as the place where they worship.
I think, to most people today, we think of the church as a building where Christians meet. That seems to be the common notion. So it is not an accurate translation, and because of that, I think throughout the centuries God’s people have not had an exact understanding of what the church that our Lord Jesus is building really means.
The word translated “church” comes from the Greek word ekklesia. Ekklesia means “called-out ones gathered together.” Those who are called out of the world gather together unto the name of our Lord Jesus, and that is exactly what the church really means.
Our Lord Jesus said:
I will build My church upon this rock;
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Even though our Lord mentioned this word church at a later time in His life, after He was rejected by His people, He retreated to the border of Caesarea Philippi, which was a Gentile city.
There He asked a question of His own disciples: “Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?”
Of course, His disciples had heard lots of rumors. But, to be polite to their Master, they did not tell Him everything. They only told Him good reports. Some said, “You are Elijah, that great prophet.” Some said, “You are Jeremiah,” because You weep. Some could not identify You and said You were one of the prophets.
These were all good reports, but our Lord Jesus was not satisfied. You know, I often say, which Chinese, if people say you are like Confucius, I think that is the greatest compliment. Probably you will say, “No, no, I’m not worthy of that.”
But when His disciples reported to our Lord Jesus all these marvelous estimates—from the human standpoint, you could not give Him greater praise than these estimates—our Lord Jesus was not satisfied, because they did not know Him.
So our Lord Jesus turned to His own disciples and said, “You have been with Me for some years, day and night. You should know Me better. So what do you think that I am?”
And thank God, Simon Peter said:
Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God.
So far as His person is concerned, You are the Son of the living God. So far as His ministry is concerned, You are the Christ, the Anointed One of God, sent to accomplish a definite purpose.
When our Lord Jesus heard that, He said, “Simon, you are blessed, because this is not something that human beings can tell you. Flesh and blood will never know Me in that way. All they can know, probably, is that You are like Elijah or some other prophet. But it is My Father, Who is in the heavens, Who has revealed it to you.”
Brothers and sisters, we are blessed because, out of the millions of people, God should look upon us and reveal His Son not only to us, but in us.
Then the Lord revealed what was uppermost in His heart. In other words, He came to this world to seek and to save the lost, but there was something more than that in His heart.
Until that time, the Lord began to reveal what was really in His heart. This was the first time that our Lord Jesus mentioned the word church. He said:
Thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build My church;
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Here is a tremendous thing. Here is something that is uppermost in the heart of our Lord Jesus. Here is something that our Lord Jesus really came into this world for.
He came not just to seek and save the lost. That is only the first step. But His reason for coming is to build His church.
The way He is going to build His church is heavenly; it is not worldly in any way. Why? Because He said, “You are Peter. I will build My church upon this rock.”
In other words, the foundation of the church is the confession of Christ. The foundation of the church is Christ Himself.
But those who are to be built upon that foundation are not Simon; they are Peter. In other words, the church is not built with the natural man, the flesh. The church is built with that which is spiritual, with that life which God has given to us.
In other words, “You are Peter. My life is in you, and this is what I will be building My church with.”
And what He has built, even the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. This is something that God desired even before the foundation of the world. This is why God sent His Son into this world. This is what the Son came for.
Because this is of such tremendous importance to God, you will find that all the gates of Hades are opened against it, to prevent it. But our Lord Jesus said, “Because I am building My church, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
So, dear brothers and sisters, this is what the church is. The church is what God wants for His beloved Son.
The church is to be the body of Christ, as we find in Ephesians 1:22-23:
And He put all things in subjection under His feet,
and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body,
the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.
So, dear brothers and sisters, the church is not a small thing. We cannot play church. The church is something deep in the heart of God, in the heart of our Lord Jesus.
This is not something man can build. The reason why we find so-called churches being destroyed by the enemy throughout the centuries is because they are not the church that Christ Himself is building. If it is built by the Lord Jesus Himself, the enemy cannot prevail against it.
Thank God, in the Bible, as you read the Word of God, our Lord Jesus mentioned the word church only twice in His earthly life: once in Matthew 16, and then again in Matthew 18.
He said that if a brother sins against you, you go and try to restore him. If he listens to you, thank God. If not, your responsibility is not finished yet. You need to find two other brothers, probably respected by that sinful one, and go to him again with two or three witnesses, telling him what he has done wrong.
If he listens to you, you will gain a brother. If not, then you go and tell the church.
Now, brothers and sisters, the church is universal. From the first one who believed in the Lord Jesus to the very last one before His return, they compose the church. It expands through time and space. How can you go and tell the church? Where can you find it?
Here we find that the church has another aspect. It not only has a universal aspect; the church is one universally. From the very first one who believed in the Lord Jesus to the very last one, we are all members of the same body, and our Lord Jesus is the Head of the church.
All the spiritual principles of the church can be found in the universal church, such as the headship of Christ and the coordination of the members of the body of Christ. These are principles of the universal church.
But we are still in this human body, and as long as we are in this human body, we are limited by time and space. Even though spiritually we have fellowship with all the members of the body of Christ throughout the ages, physically we are limited by time and space.
That is the reason why the church has another aspect: the local church, such as the church in Jerusalem, the church in Antioch, the church in Ephesus, and so forth. This is because of our human limitation.
In Matthew 18, the Lord Jesus showed us the other aspect of the church. He said in Matthew 18:20:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name,
there am I in the midst of them.
This is the simplest term of the local church. In other words, we live in a community. When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He visited cities and villages. Remember, the cities at that time were not like our cities today.
Ours are metropolitan cities that include many, many communities. But at that time, a city was a unit, and a village was a unit, where people congregated, knew each other, and lived together.
So our Lord Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together.” That is the smallest proper number. There are two or three who believe in the Lord Jesus, and they are gathered together.
They do not gather together under any other name. They gather together unto the name of our Lord Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, sometimes we take a name very casually, as if it means almost nothing. But to God, a name is very important.
The local church is gathered together unto the name of our Lord Jesus. By that, it simply means that when you take the name of the Lord Jesus, you take Him as your Head.
You allow Him to have full control over your life. These two or three all put themselves under the headship of Christ, and they gather together to worship Him, to serve Him, and to glorify Him.
The Lord Jesus said, “This is a local church.” So, brothers and sisters, basically speaking, this is the church we are talking about.
Now, as to the kingdom, our brother last night already mentioned that the emphasis of the kingdom is not on territory; it is on the person, the King.
I believe Brother T. Austin-Sparks said that the word kingdom is not rightly understood. If you really understand what the kingdom means, it simply means sovereign rule.
In other words, when you think of the kingdom, you do not think of the territory in the first place. You think of the King in the first place. The King, as a matter of fact, characterizes what the kingdom is.
So when we are talking about the kingdom, as our brother has already mentioned, the focus is really upon the King Himself, upon our Lord Jesus Himself.
So far as the kingdom of God is concerned, that term is very broad. From eternity to eternity, He is God. Therefore, everything that He has created is His kingdom. His rule is over all.
We can find that in Psalm 145:13:
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
Again, in 1 Chronicles 29:11-13:
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 honor 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.
When you think of the kingdom of God, it spans from eternity to eternity, and it covers heaven and earth, because our God is the Creator and Ruler of all.
But when you talk about the kingdom of the heavens, which is a special term, you find it only in Matthew.
Now, if you search the Scriptures, you may find two other places—one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament—that bear the same thought. For instance, in Daniel 4, it says that the heavens do rule. In the New Testament, you find that in 2 Timothy 4, toward the end, where the apostle Paul is looking forward to the heavenly kingdom.
But other than that, this is a special term used in the Gospel according to Matthew.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, when we think of the gospel, we usually think of the Gospel according to Luke. Why? Because in Luke we find the gospel of grace: that our Lord Jesus has come to seek and to save the lost.
It is for our salvation. It is grace from the beginning to the very end. So when we think of the gospel, we really only think of grace and nothing else.
But according to God’s thought, the Gospel according to Matthew is sovereignly put before the Gospel of Luke. From man’s standpoint, the gospel is the Gospel of Luke, the gospel of grace. But from God’s standpoint, the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens.
So in Matthew we find that this term is a very special term. Now, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the heavens are not exactly the same. The kingdom of the heavens is within the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is the overall rule of God. But within that overall rule, there is a section we call the kingdom of the heavens. That section begins with the first coming of Christ.
When our Lord Jesus came, He began to preach, “Repent; for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.”
His first coming brought in the kingdom of the heavens, and it will be completed at His second coming. At His second coming, He will establish His kingdom of heaven upon this earth. In other words, at that time heaven will rule upon this earth.
So, when we talk about the kingdom, our emphasis is rather on the kingdom of the heavens. Why? Because it has a special relationship with us.
We all know that this world in which we are living today has gone through a catastrophe. We do not know when it happened, but we know by searching the Scriptures.
As we find in Genesis 1:1:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Brothers and sisters, when God created something, He would never leave it half done. When He created anything, He said it, and it was done. So we believe that when God created the heavens and the earth, the heavens and earth were complete.
Just as we find in the book of Job, when God laid the foundation of the earth, the morning stars—which refer to the angels—sang for joy.
In the first heaven and the earth, there was harmony. God ruled over all, and He was worshipped without any problem.
But unfortunately, you find in Genesis 1:2 that the earth became waste and void. In other words, a catastrophe in prehistoric time had come into this world.
We do not want to get into it, but if you want to know about it, search Isaiah 14. There you will find Lucifer, the archangel, and how he rebelled against God. That is the reason why the earth went through a catastrophe, covered with water. Everything was dead.
Thank God, we find that the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep. His love came upon this ruined earth and brought it back to be habitable.
In six days, God created and made this earth habitable. It is only on the sixth day that we find man, such as we are, was created.
But when God created man, it was wonderful, because He created man in a way that He never did before. He never created the angels in that way. Even though the angels were spirits, when He created man, He created man according to His own image, after His own likeness.
Why was it so? It was because God had a purpose behind it. He wanted to use man, a little lower than the angels, to defeat the rebellious angel.
It is no glory to God for Him to destroy Satan. But it gives Him great glory when He can use someone lower than the angels, who will submit himself to Him in such a way that he becomes the instrument to defeat His enemy.
That is the reason why our Lord Jesus came into the world in the first place. God sent His Son into this world to be the Man to defeat His enemy.
So, brothers and sisters, when our Lord Jesus first came into this world, He began to preach. The gospel that He preached was the gospel of the kingdom.
He said, “Repent; for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.” Brothers and sisters, He came into this world as King.
But at that time, He had no kingdom yet. In other words, the King had come, but where were the citizens, the people of the kingdom?
That is the reason why, when our Lord Jesus was thirty years old, He came forth and began to preach the gospel—the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens: “Repent; for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.”
He said it was drawing nigh because the King was here. But He had no people yet. So He was here preaching the kingdom of the heavens, seeking to find a people for Himself.
In Colossians 1, it says:
Who delivered us out of the power of darkness,
and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this is why our Lord Jesus came in the first place. He came to deliver us out of the kingdom of darkness, out of the power of darkness.
We know that since Adam’s sin, we were all under the power of darkness. You find that in Ephesians 2.
When our Lord Jesus came, He came to deliver us out of the power of darkness. Brothers and sisters, it is more than a personal thing. Thank God, it is personal, because we were dead in sins and transgressions, hopeless, without God and without hope.
Thank God, in His love and mercy, He sent His beloved Son to come and save us. By His blood, our sins were forgiven. By His death, His life was released and given to us. Today we are born again.
We have been delivered, so far as our position is concerned. But, brothers and sisters, it is not just personal; it is corporate. We have been delivered out of the power of darkness. We are no longer under the power of darkness as we were before.
He has delivered and translated us out of it and into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. That is our position today.
So, in a sense, positionally speaking, brothers and sisters, we are all in the kingdom of the heavens.
Then, when you come to Matthew 11, the Lord Jesus began to say that the kingdom of the heavens suffers violence, and men of violence seize it.
In other words, here you find that our Lord Jesus had already called and had disciples. There were people who not only believed Him, but people who submitted themselves to Him and followed Him.
So He said, “The kingdom of the heavens is not only nigh now; the kingdom of the heavens is now here.” How can you get into the kingdom of the heavens in reality—not in position only, but in reality? He said, “The violent shall take it.”
These are very strong words, almost like battle words. The kingdom of the heavens is to be seized. It is not something that you drift into. It is not something that is automatically yours.
Even though you have that position, it does not mean you have that possession. How are you going to really possess the kingdom of the heavens? He says there needs to be violence.
The word violent is a very bad word to us because it has very bad connotations. But strictly speaking, the word violent is neutral. It depends upon whom you exercise that violence.
If you exercise violence against other people, that is really sinful. But if you exercise violence upon yourself, that is something commendable.
Just see our Lord Jesus. Throughout His life, He did violence to Himself. He never tried to cater to His flesh. He never tried to do anything to please Himself. Even His timing was not in His own hand.
Brothers and sisters, you find our Lord Jesus lived a life that did violence to Himself. He laid down Himself, submitted Himself, and obeyed His Father even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
You find the struggle in the garden of Gethsemane, because He was human. But there you find Him saying:
Not My will,
but Thy will be done.
What violence He did to Himself. Brothers and sisters, because He did violence to Himself, He brought the kingdom to us.
That is the reason why, if you want to really gain the kingdom, there is a price you have to pay.
Now, this morning, we would like to talk about how the kingdom builds the church.
You know, as you look at the church today, probably you will be disappointed. As a matter of fact, if you honestly look at yourself, you will be disappointed with yourself.
Why is it that we are not what we should be? Why is it that the church is not built? Everywhere you look, there is decay. Even when you look at yourself, there is defeat.
Why is it so? Must we be like that? Is there any hope for the church?
I think it is a very urgent question, not only for us individually but also for us corporately. Why is it that the church is not built? Or, putting it positively, how can the church be built? Even personally, how can I be built in Christ?
The church is built by the kingdom. If we allow the kingdom truth to really work in our lives, then we find that the church will be built.
For instance, I like to use a simple formula. You know, in the 1960s, Brother Sparks, Brother DeVern, and I used to minister together in the Mahanaim Conference.
One year we were talking about this, and I tried to help brothers and sisters come to a clear understanding of what the church really is. So I turned to Brother Sparks and said, “You have to excuse me, because I know Brother Sparks is so spiritual that he is against all formulas.”
So I said, “I am going to use a formula. If in this world you have only three Christians, and these three Christians are the best Christians in the world—for instance, Peter, John, and James—nothing could be better than that.”
“Now, you would find that with these three people together, you have a glorious church.” But I think if you read the Scriptures, you will find this is not true.
Peter always liked to be the head. John and James were not different, because when they saw the last opportunity, when our Lord Jesus was journeying into Jerusalem, they felt that the Lord was to be crowned.
What could they do? They had been striving among themselves all these years, but nothing happened. So you find they got their mother out.
Humanly speaking, their mother was our Lord’s aunt, and the word of an aunt has weight. Of course, their mother was glad to do that. She took these two boys, went to the Lord Jesus, and said, “We have a request.”
“Promise You will answer us.” I think they did not feel very well saying it. They felt a little ashamed of it, but they wanted it so much.
The Lord never writes a blank check. The Lord said, “What do you really want?”
So they answered, “My two sons, when You sit on the throne, one on Your right and one on Your left.”
The Lord said, “This is not something I can give. My Father will give it. But can you drink the cup that I am going to drink? Can you be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with?”
Without really knowing what it was, they said, “We can.” But the Lord said, “It is for My Father to give.” And you know the other ten were indignant. Why? These two brothers had outmaneuvered them.
So, brothers and sisters, if you have the best Christians in the world to form the church, you have a problem.
So I said, “Now, if this is not so, let us use another formula. What is the church? The Christ in Peter, plus the Christ in John, plus the Christ in James, equals the church. Is that right?”
Many people said, “Yes.” Well, you say yes. Oh, no. I said, “No.” Why? Because even if you have the Christ in these three persons, how about these three persons outside of Christ? They are also there.
As long as they are there, there is a problem. No matter how good you are, as long as the flesh is there, there is always a problem.
So finally, I said, “Now, what is the church? The church is Christ in Peter minus Peter, Christ in John minus John, Christ in James minus James, equal to the church.” And everybody said, “Amen.”
Brothers and sisters, the building of the church is not as simple as we think. If the Lord should ask us to build a church, what would come out? It would come out as a tower of Babel. That is all we can do.
So the problem of why the church is not built—we often say Satan is the problem. But strictly speaking, he is not the problem. The problem is I, you, ourselves. That is the problem.
That is the greatest problem to our Lord Jesus. He has no problem dealing with Satan or dealing with the world, but He has a problem dealing with us. We are the problem.
No matter how sweet you are, you are the problem. That is the reason why you find the demand is high.
There is nothing that can really build the church but the kingdom truth. When the kingdom truth really sinks into our hearts and we know what it requires, then, brothers and sisters, unless we do violence to ourselves, we cannot seize it.
This is the only way: the way of the cross.
That is the reason why you find in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, we often say that we are obeying the Great Commission: “Go to the world and evangelize the world.” That is the Great Commission.
But, brothers and sisters, if you read very carefully, you are wrong. Not that God does not want us to go to the world and evangelize the world. This is the first step; that is true.
But when you read carefully, what does the Great Commission say?
Go, make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit;
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you:
and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
That is the Great Commission. The Great Commission is discipleship. But you cannot have a person become a disciple if he is not a believer. He has to be a believer in order to be discipled.
But believers and disciples—these two things are together. You cannot separate them. The problem with us today is that we separate believer and disciple. We think we can be a believer and not be a disciple.
But in the heart of God, in the will of God, these two things go together.
What do you mean by being discipled? Again, we can so misunderstand it. We think that we are sent out to disciple all nations—that is to say, to disciple them to ourselves.
Now, that is a great error. In a sense, in this country, in the 1960s, you had the charismatic movement, a great movement. Many people got saved—Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox. A glorious beginning.
But then, as you went on, discipleship began to come in. When this discipleship teaching came in, people tried to make it work. Instead of discipling unto Christ, they tried to disciple people to man.
It caused a great problem among God’s people. It almost broke up the charismatic movement.
Brothers and sisters, what do you mean by being a disciple? A disciple simply means that you leave everything behind, put yourself completely under your Master, and allow Him to change you and transform you until you come out almost like Him.
This is discipleship. Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is our only Master. He said, “Do not call people teacher. You have only one Teacher.”
The Lord Himself is our Teacher. We can direct people, help people seek the Lord, and bring them to the Lord. That is all we can do. We cannot change anybody.
But we can bring them to the Lord. If we bring them to the Lord and let the Lord disciple them, let the Lord change them, then, brothers and sisters, you will find what work He can do.
So the church is to be built by the kingdom. Number one: the preaching of the kingdom.
The preaching of the kingdom of the heavens has to be revived and has to go on. When it reaches the whole world, then the end shall come. This is promised by our Lord in Matthew 24.
When the gospel of the kingdom of heaven has gone over the whole world, to the end of the world, then the end shall come. First of all, we need to spread the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens.
Number two: it is not only preaching. When we have heard that the kingdom of the heavens is coming, what should we do?
We have a position in that kingdom, but are we in possession of that kingdom? If we want to possess the kingdom, there is only one way: we need to do violence to ourselves.
Not to cater to ourselves, but to put ourselves totally under the absolute sovereign rule of Christ and let the Holy Spirit guide and lead us.
You know, when He deals with us, He deals with us very gently. God never deals with anything in such a way that it almost puts you to death. No.
When the Holy Spirit deals with us, He deals gently, softly, but steadily.
When God appeared to Elijah, he heard the wind, but God was not there. He saw the fire, but God was not there. He saw the shaking, the earthquake, but God was not there. But in a still, small voice, God came.
So, brothers and sisters, when our Lord Jesus, by His Spirit in us, deals with us to bring us into the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, He comes in such a gentle way.
He measures our condition. He knows exactly how much He can work in us, but He will faithfully and persistently work in our lives until the work is done.
So we say, “How can the church be built?” It is built by the kingdom. May the Lord prepare our hearts to really surrender ourselves into His hand.
There is nothing better, sweeter, than that.
Let me share with you a secret. How can we endure such violence? We cannot.
But thank God, when the Holy Spirit leads us into death, He reveals to us God’s love. Only His love brings us through. That is the secret.
So may the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we acknowledge that in ourselves there is no good.
Will Thou now reveal Thy love to us in such a way that will melt our hearts and allow us to do what we cannot do?
That we may be able to yield ourselves today totally, that Thou mayest be able to really build Thy church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Glorify Thyself. We ask in Thy name. Amen.