THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Gospel according to Matthew
Message Five—Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to the Whole Inhabited Earth
Scripture Reading: Matt. 24:40-44; 25:21; Ezek. 1:22, 26; 2 Tim. 4:8; Matt. 24:14; 28:19-20a; Gen. 9:26-27; Rev. 21:2-3
I. “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come”—Matt. 24:14:
A. The gospel of the kingdom, which includes the gospel of grace, brings people not only into God’s salvation but also into the kingdom of the heavens—Acts 20:24; Rev. 1:9:
1. The gospel of grace emphasizes forgiveness of sins, God’s redemption, and eternal life—Luke 24:47; John 3:15-16.
2. The gospel of the kingdom emphasizes the heavenly ruling of God and the authority of the Lord—Matt. 28:18.
B. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole earth for a testimony to all the nations before the end, the consummation, of this age:
1. The preaching of the gospel of the kingdom, signified by the white horse in the first seal in Revelation 6:1-2, will be a sign of the consummation of this age.
2. The gospel of the kingdom is a testimony to all the nations (Gentiles); this testimony must spread to the whole earth before the end of this age, the time of the great tribulation—Matt. 24:6.
C. The gospel is for the kingdom, and the gospel is proclaimed so that rebellious sinners might be saved, qualified, and equipped to enter into the kingdom—4:17; Mark 1:14-15; Acts 8:12.
D. Repentance is mainly for us to enter into the kingdom of God; unless we repent—that is, have a change of concept—we cannot enter into the kingdom— Matt. 3:2; 4:17; Mark 1:15.
E. Through regeneration we receive the divine life and are transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love—John 3:3, 5, 15.
F. We should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and not be anxious concerning our material needs—Matt. 6:19-34.
G. We need to be today’s Jonah, bearing the unique sign of the crucified, buried, and resurrected life that has become the reigning life—12:38-41; Rom. 5:17.
H. We should follow the Lamb wherever He may go to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth for the propagation and development of the seed of the kingdom to consummate this age—Rev. 14:4; Mark 4:26.
I. ”I believe that the churches in the Lord’s recovery will bear the burden to bring this gospel to all the inhabited earth. The gospel of grace has been preached in every continent, but not the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel of grace is the lower gospel, but the gospel of the kingdom is the higher gospel. This higher gospel will be brought to every continent through the churches in the Lord’s recovery” (Life-study of Matthew, p. 719).
II. ”Go therefore and disciple 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 that I have commanded you”—Matt. 28:19-20a:
A. In Matthew the goal of the gospel of the kingdom is to bring people into God to make them citizens of the kingdom of the heavens—v. 19; Rom. 14:17.
B. Through His death Christ entered into His resurrection to carry out His ministry in the stage of inclusion through His Body to accomplish God’s eternal economy—Matt. 28:18; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:16; 3:9-11.
C. Because all authority was given to Him, the heavenly King sent His disciples with His authority to disciple the nations, causing them to become the kingdom people for the establishing of His kingdom—Matt. 28:18-19.
D. The Lord charged us to baptize the believers “into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”; to baptize people into the name of the Triune God is to immerse them into all that the Triune God is and to bring them into spiritual and mystical union with Him—v. 19.
E. For the discipling of all the nations, the Lord Jesus charged us to teach the believers to observe all that He has commanded us—v. 20a.
F. The Lord commissioned the disciples to save and gather all God’s chosen people from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth—all the world, all the nations—Acts 1:8.
III. In order to enjoy the Lord as our reward in the kingdom age, we must preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations before the end of this age—Matt. 24:14; cf. 1 Cor. 9:27:
A. The gospel of the kingdom emphasizes the heavenly ruling of God and the authority of the Lord—cf. Matt. 28:19-20.
B. The gospel of the kingdom is the sowing of the Triune God in humanity (Col. 2:9) as the seed, the gene, of the kingdom of God, into God’s chosen people that He might grow in them, live in them, and be expressed from within them to develop into God’s ruling realm—Mark 4:26-29.
C. God’s unique purpose in this age is to have the gospel preached that the church might be built up to consummate the New Jerusalem—Eph. 3:8-11.
D. The overcomers who preach the gospel of the kingdom become the riders of the white horse—Rev. 19:11, 13-14.
E. The preaching of the gospel of the kingdom is the greatest sign of the end of this age.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE THREE GREAT ASSETS OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
We have three great assets in the Lord’s recovery, which no other Christian group has. We have the truth, we have churches all over the entire earth, and we can produce full-time serving ones. From 1922 to 1984 the Lord released more truths among us than among any other Christian group throughout history. From 1974 to 1984 we expounded the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. These messages are printed in more than one thousand Life-study messages. These truths are also in the footnotes of the Recovery Version of the New Testament. We inherited most of these truths from the believers who went before us, beginning with the church fathers in the first century to those in the Brethren assemblies in the last century. We did not invent these truths. Our understanding of the Bible is a combination of the light the church has received from the Lord over the past two thousand years and the revelation we have received from the Lord. For example, none of the believers who went before us clearly expounded the truth concerning the New Jerusalem, but in the book God’s New Testament Economy we thoroughly and clearly expound the truth concerning the New Jerusalem.
A theological seminary in the Far East put out a publication in which they said that for the past forty years the local churches have influenced the exposition of the Bible among the Chinese. This is the situation in the Far East and in the West. There are many different Christian groups and broadcasters in America who use our publications as material for preaching. Christians cannot deny that during the past sixty years God has commissioned us with the truth. Therefore, the truth is our first asset.
The churches that have spread over the six continents are our second asset. In a little over twenty years more than three hundred churches were raised up in the West. This was not the work of man. Nearly eighty percent of these churches were raised up through reading our publications. At present there are about one hundred churches in the United States and Canada, approximately one hundred churches in South America, Central America, and Mexico, and about one hundred churches in Europe, Africa, and Australia. These are the three hundred churches that are in the Western hemisphere. There are more than three hundred churches in the Eastern hemisphere. From Japan and South Korea in the north to Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia in the south, there are one hundred churches. There are eighty churches in Taiwan, and there are one hundred twenty churches on both the northern and southern islands of the Philippines. Therefore, there is a total of six hundred churches in the Lord’s recovery in more than thirty different countries on the earth. No other Christian group has spread throughout the entire globe as the Lord’s recovery has spread.
The ability to produce full-time serving ones is our third asset. There is no place on the earth that can compare to Taiwan in relation to producing full-time serving ones. In Taiwan transportation and communication are developed, education is widespread, public security is good, and the economy is well developed. These factors create the best situation for us to produce full-time serving ones. If we sent one thousand full-time brothers and sisters to South America, they would not meet the need; neither would three to five hundred full-time serving ones meet the need in Africa. Of course, the ones going to South America would need to speak Spanish, and the ones going to Africa would need to speak English. Taiwan needs to produce five hundred full-timers every year, and they must be fluent in foreign languages. We must gospelize Taiwan within the next five years and then go abroad to spread the truth.
SPREADING THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM TO
THE WHOLE INHABITED EARTH
In the upcoming full-time training the saints will be trained in foreign languages. We need to strengthen the trainees in their ability to speak foreign languages, and we must teach them how to preach the gospel, that is, how to visit people from house to house in order to lead people to salvation. We must also teach the trainees how to establish churches. After the gospelization of Taiwan we will send a group of trainees abroad. They will go to Latin America, Indonesia, and Africa. Then they will learn Arabic in order to go to the Arabic-speaking world.
Matthew 24:14 says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth.” The Gospel of Matthew is a book on the kingdom. It presents the gospel of the kingdom, which is different from the gospel of the forgiveness of sins presented in Mark and Luke. According to the Lord’s word in Matthew 24:14, the gospel of the kingdom must be preached wherever there are people. At the end of the Gospel of Matthew the Lord said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple 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 that I have commanded you” (28:18-20). This word means that the Lord wants us to go and make all the nations His disciples.
The end of the Gospel of Mark says, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all the creation” (16:15). The end of the Gospel of Luke says, “That repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations” (24:47). The gospel referred to in these two portions is the general gospel. Only the gospel referred to in Matthew is the gospel of the kingdom. After the Lord rose from the dead, all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him. Therefore, He wants us to establish His kingdom by discipling all the nations. He does not merely want us to go out and gain believers, but even more, He wants us to go out and gain disciples. Disciples are those who are trained and who live the kingdom life.
Our authority to announce the gospel of the kingdom depends on our knowledge of the truth. Many of our publications are concerning the truth of the kingdom presented in Matthew and the truth of the divine life presented in John. Paul also spoke of the kingdom and of life, because he considered the church to be the kingdom. Our commission is to go and preach the gospel of the kingdom to every part of the inhabited earth and to cause every believer to become a disciple of the kingdom. In this last age the Lord has given us the highest and the final truths. This is His sovereign arrangement. In the past missionaries from different countries traveled great distances across the oceans to preach the gospel in China. Now Chinese “missionaries” must go to the different countries to preach the truth. They will not go as pioneers; rather, they will go to fight the battle with the truth, to bring the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth.
THE NEED FOR HUMAN RESOURCES
After we gospelize Taiwan, every town and village will have churches with Truth Lessons classes. This will be a glorious sight. Our current practice is to build up the church life in the homes; however, we still need a large meeting hall. The large meeting hall in Linkou will not only be a meeting place for the saints; it can also be a training center. The training will be held every year, and there will constantly be new people coming through it. Soon people from around the world will come to attend the training; therefore, we will need to prepare two thousand beds.
Even though every aspect of society in Taiwan is good, it is not sufficiently ethical or moral. The newspaper contains many articles concerning arson, murder, assault, and robbery. This means that there is not enough truth in this land and that there is a lack of the gospel of the kingdom. Hence, we need to bear the burden to gospelize the island of Taiwan, after which we must go to every country and gospelize the entire earth. Do not think that this is merely a dream; this can be put into practice. If we have one thousand people today who are equipped with the truth and have a foundation in foreign languages, we could send them out immediately. We receive phone calls from South America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and many other places, saying, “Please send us someone; we need help.” There are more than ten countries in South America that are open to us. They receive the Life-study messages as if they are receiving a treasure. We cannot translate the publications fast enough to meet their needs. Every place needs the truth. Therefore, in the future it will not be sufficient to send out only the publications to spread the work. We must also send out people. After the full-time brothers and sisters pass through the training in the truth, receive experiences in serving the Lord, and learn some foreign languages, they will go and gospelize the world. This is not idle speculation.
THE NEED FOR FINANCIAL RESOURCES
We need a budget for any move we make. Most of the saints who answered the Lord’s call to serve full time are recent college graduates. Thus, during their time of training and after they are trained and enter into the Lord’s work, the churches will need to bear the burden of their monthly support. Their support will not be a small amount. Our goal is to take care of the full-time serving ones and then build the large meeting hall. I have full assurance concerning our financial budget. Initially we said that of the saints who regularly attend meetings, one in every twenty should serve full time. In other words, nineteen saints should support one full-time serving one. There are 42,000 brothers and sisters in the Lord’s recovery on the island of Taiwan, and approximately 18,000 of them attend the meetings. If we calculate one-twentieth of those who attend the meetings, there should be nine hundred full-time serving ones. It is possible for the number of saints in the meetings to reach 20,000 by 1988. This means that there can be one thousand full-time serving ones. Hence, it will not be difficult for us to obtain the human and financial resources needed to gospelize Taiwan.
There are two things that we need to consider. We need to consider who is willing to serve the Lord full time and whether the brothers and sisters are faithful in their material offerings. According to our present situation, it will be easy for us to produce one thousand full-time serving ones by 1988 if the brothers and sisters give one tenth of their income for this. The building of the large meeting hall is not only for the churches in Taiwan; it is also for the churches around the world. In these next few years the brothers and sisters should do their best to offer money for the building of a large meeting hall. Since we agree with the present way that we are taking, we must give our offerings according to the ability the Lord has given us.
THE LORD’S BLESSING AND THE ONE ACCORD
I believe that the Lord will bless this island and that this move will bring in a further blessing. The Lord’s blessing is the basis for our consecration. If the Lord does not bless us, we have nothing to offer Him. There are three great assets in the Lord’s recovery: the truth, the churches throughout the earth, and the base for producing one thousand full-time serving ones. The human and financial resources are being produced in Taiwan. Because of the presence of the churches in Taiwan, God is taking care of His testimony, and He is blessing this country. We are in the last days of this age, but the gospel that has been preached over the earth is the general gospel, not the gospel of the kingdom. God has given us the responsibility to preach the gospel of the kingdom, and He wants us to take the gospel of the kingdom to North and South America, to Africa, to Australia, and to the whole inhabited earth.
More than twenty years ago I went to America by myself. At the time I was almost sixty years old. I still remember the first conference we held on “The All-inclusive Christ.” In this conference I spoke for ten days on the three verses of Deuteronomy 8:7-9. This conference surprised the pastors and professors who were there. They had never studied or even heard the truth that was released in that conference. I hope that when those who are sent out to preach the gospel of the kingdom speak, the local people will marvel and say, “Where did these people learn such truths?”
The move to gospelize Taiwan has begun. The full-time brothers and sisters will go out in groups to every part of the island, and they will leave on the same day. This will be very impressive. They will move forward quickly. The present situation does not allow us to advance slowly. Most armies send supplies to a place before they send the troops; hence, I hope that the brothers and sisters are able to match the Lord’s leading in their material offerings. The brothers and sisters who are trainees should be in one accord and care for one another while they are in the training. They must also learn to be frugal and show mutual concern by taking care of their necessities and giving the surplus to others. May the working saints do their best to give in order to cooperate with the church and to accomplish the Lord’s move. (Three Crucial Matters for the Increase and Building Up of the Church, msg. 7)