THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE

The Kingdom
Message Three—The Growth, Propagation and Development of
the Seed of the Kingdom

Scripture Reading: Luke 17:20-21; Mark 4:3, 26-29; Dan. 2:34-35, 44; Rev. 1:9; 11:15, 18

I. The kingdom of God, the reign of God, is the totality of Christ being life to us with all His activities—John 14:6a; 3:5-6:

A. A kingdom is the totality of a certain life; the plant life is the plant kingdom, the animal life is the animal kingdom, and the human life is the human kingdom; in the same way the divine life (God’s life—Christ Himself) is the divine kingdom, God’s kingdom—John 14:6a; 3:5-6.

B. The kingdom in its reality is the Lord Jesus as the Spirit—2 Cor. 3:17; Matt. 12:28.

C. Just as the plant kingdom is a realm of the plant species, and the animal kingdom is a realm of the animal species, so the kingdom of God is a realm of the divine species:

1. God became flesh to enter into the human species, and man becomes God in life and nature, but not in His divine Godhead, to enter into the divine species.

2. In order to enter into the divine realm, the realm of the divine species, we need to be born of God to have the divine nature and the divine life—John 3:3-8; 2 Pet. 1:4.

3. By regeneration we have become God-men in the divine species, that is, in the kingdom of God.

II. The kingdom of God is Christ Himself as the seed of life sown into His believers, God’s chosen people, and developing into a realm over which God can rule as His kingdom in His divine life—Luke 17:20-21; John 14:6a; Mark 4:3, 26:

A. The entrance into the kingdom is regeneration, and the development of the kingdom is the believers’ growth in the divine life—John 3:5-6; 2 Pet. 1:3-11.

B. The kingdom is the church life today, in which the faithful believers live, and it will develop into the coming kingdom as a reward to be inherited by the overcoming saints in the millennium—Rev. 20:4, 6; Rom. 14:17; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5.

C. Eventually, the kingdom will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal kingdom of God, an eternal realm of the eternal blessing of God’s eternal life, which all God’s redeemed will enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity—Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5, 14.

III. “He said, So is the kingdom of God: as if a man cast seed on the earth”—Mark 4:26:

A. This seed is the seed of the divine life sown into the believers, indicating that the kingdom of God, which is the issue and goal of the Lord’s gospel, and the church in this age are a matter of life, the life of God, which sprouts, grows, bears fruit, and produces a harvest—1 John 3:9; 1 Pet. 1:23; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 3:6-9; Rev. 14:4, 15-16.

B. The Triune God in humanity is the seed, “the gene,” of the kingdom of God to be sown 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—Col. 2:9; Mark 4:26-29; 1 Cor. 3:9:

1. The intrinsic element of the entire teaching of the New Testament is that the Triune God has been incarnated in order to be sown into His chosen people and develop within them into a kingdom.

2. God’s goal is the full development of the kingdom of God:

a. In the Gospels we have the sowing of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom—Mark 4:3, 14; Matt. 9:35.

b. In the Acts we have the propagation and spreading of this sowing by thousands of sowers who had received the seed, the gene, of the kingdom—6:7; 12:24; 19:20.

c. In the Epistles we see the growing of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom—1 Cor. 3:6, 9b; 2 Pet. 1:3, 11.

d. The harvest of this seed is found in the book of Revelation with the reaping of the firstfruits and the harvest—14:4, 15-16; Mark 4:29; Matt. 13:39.

e. The millennial kingdom will be the uttermost development of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom with the Son as the King and all the overcomers as His co-kings, the “kingdom-gene people”—Rev. 20:6.

f. The New Jerusalem, God’s eternal kingdom, is the fullest development of the kingdom seed, the gene, sown by Jesus the Nazarene in the four Gospels—Rev. 21:2; 22:1, 3, 5b.

C. As the stone cut out without hands, Christ will come as the smiting stone with His overcoming bride to smash and crush the entire human government of mankind, and the corporate Christ (Christ with His overcomers) will become a great mountain (a great kingdom—the eternal kingdom of God) to fill the whole earth forever and ever—Dan. 2:34-35, 44; 4:26; Rev. 19:11, 14:

1. In Mark 4:26 Christ was sown as a seed to be the kingdom of God, but He grows in His increase to become a stone, the increased kingdom of God; He will increase further and further until He becomes a great mountain, the eternal kingdom of God for His increase in administration—Rev. 11:15.

2. The stone refers to Christ as the centrality, and the mountain refers to Him as the universality.

IV. In order to be the proper people to receive Christ as the seed of the kingdom, we need to have the living vision and the living guidance from Him as the heavenly star—Matt. 2:1-12; Num. 24:17; cf. Micah 5:2:

A. Even if we have the knowledge of the Scriptures, we still need the instant, up-to-date, living star with the living guidance to lead us to the very place where Jesus is—John 5:39-40.

B. If we want such indispensable, living guidance, we must have an intimate relationship with the Lord; we must be one with Him—2 Cor. 2:10-14.

C. After they worshipped Jesus in the house, the magi were divinely instructed in a dream not to return to Herod, so they departed “by another way” to their country; after we have seen the living Christ, we never take the same way but always take another way—Matt. 2:12.

D. The Scripture is God’s holy writings, but we still need God’s holy presence; we need to be in the presence of God all the time; the New Testament way to find and follow the Lord is to continually keep and stay in His hidden presence—2 Cor. 2:10; 1 John 2:27; cf. Isa. 45:15; Exo. 33:11, 14.

E. Christ’s faithful followers and messengers become living and shining stars by the shining prophetic word of the Scriptures and by the sevenfold intensified Spirit—Rev. 1:20; Dan. 12:3; cf. Jude 13; 2 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6.

V. We need to live the kingdom life for the growth of the seed, the gene, of the kingdom within us—Luke 8:11, 15:

A. In order to be in the reality of the kingdom, we must be joint partakers in the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance in Jesus—Rev. 1:9:

1. We are joint partakers in the tribulation in Jesus:

a. In Jesus means that we are suffering and being persecuted as we follow Jesus the Nazarene by the indwelling Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of a Man with abundant strength for suffering—Acts 16:6-7.

b. As we are suffering today, the Lord Jesus is suffering in us and with us—9:4-5; Heb. 13:13.

c. We enter into the kingdom through many tribulations—Acts 14:22.

d. By the power of His resurrection, we are enabled to participate in His sufferings and live a crucified life in conformity to His death—Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24; S. S. 2:8-9, 14.

e. We should not love our soul-life even unto death and should lay down our soul-life on behalf of the brothers—Rev. 12:11; 1 John 3:16.

2. We are joint partakers in the kingdom in Jesus:

a. The kingdom is the church life, in which the faithful believers live for their growth in life and transformation in life—Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 3:7; 2 Cor. 3:18.

b. To practice the kingdom life, we need to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart—2 Tim. 2:22.

c. To practice the kingdom life, we need to care for the sinning brothers in order to recover them—Matt. 18:15-22.

3. We are joint partakers in the endurance in Jesus:

a. We must resist the wearing-out tactics of Satan—Dan. 7:25; cf. Mark 6:45-52.

b. When we abide in Christ, we keep the word of His endurance and have the endurance to bear suffering and opposition—Rev. 3:10.

c. We can endure with the endurance of Christ that we have enjoyed and experienced—2 Thes. 3:5.

B. In order to be rewarded by the Lord to reign with Him in His thousand-year kingdom, we need to be saved from the degradation of the church to be His overcomers—Rev. 11:18:

1. We are maintained constantly in God’s organic salvation by the continuous and constant cleansing and accusation-answering blood of Jesus—1 John 1:7, 9; Rev. 12:11.

2. We are saved from degradation by the speaking of the unlimited, life-releasing, seven-fold intensified pneumatic Christ—cf. 2:1, 7.

3. We are saved from degradation by living in our spirit to reign in life—John 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10; Rom. 5:17, 21.

VI. We need to 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, the gene, of the kingdom to consummate this age—Rev. 14:4; Matt. 24:14; Mark 4:26.

 

Ministry Excerpts:

THE LIFE OF GOD—
OUR ENTRANCE INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD

The kingdom is a great and difficult subject. We must realize that any kind of life is a kingdom. The plant life is the plant kingdom, the animal life is the animal kingdom, the human life is the human kingdom, and the divine life is the divine kingdom. A life is always a kingdom. The life of God is the kingdom of God. If you want to enter into a kingdom, you need that kingdom’s particular life. If you want to enter into the botanic kingdom, you need the botanic life. If you want to enter into the animal kingdom, you need the animal life. We human beings are all in the human kingdom because we were born into it—we have the human life. The human life is our entrance into the human kingdom. In the same principle, John 3:5 tells us that we must be born of the Spirit, which means we are born with the divine life, God’s life, the uncreated eternal life. Then we can enter into the kingdom of God. The life of God is our entrance into the kingdom of God. We must see this basic principle. When most Christian teachers touch this matter of the kingdom, they do not see this basic principle.

THE KINGDOM AND THE CHURCH

Now we must see the difference or the relationship between the kingdom and the church. This is very hard to discern and to understand clearly. We have seen that any kind of life is a kingdom, so the kingdom is the life itself. The kingdom of God is the life of God, but the church is not the life, nor is the life the church. The church is the product of life. The divine life is the kingdom and this life produces the church. The New Testament concept is that the gospel brings in the kingdom. The gospel does not bring in the church, but the gospel brings forth the church. Thus, the gospel brings in the kingdom of God, and the gospel also brings forth the church of God. This is why the gospel is called the gospel of the kingdom in the New Testament (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14). There is not a verse in the New Testament that tells us that the gospel is the gospel of the church. The gospel of the kingdom brings forth, produces, the church because the kingdom is the life itself and the church is the issue, the produce, of life. As you can see, the kingdom and the church are very closely related. The New Testament refers to the preaching of the gospel of peace (Eph. 2:17). This peace produces the church. No verse, however, tells us to preach the church. The Bible also tells us to preach forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47) and to preach the gospel of the kingdom, but never to preach the church because the church is the product of what is preached.

The Lord told Peter in Matthew 16:18-19 that He would build His church upon the revelation of Christ which Peter had received from the Father. Immediately after this the Lord said to Peter, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens” (v. 19). Without the kingdom as the reality of life, the church could never be produced or built up. To produce the church and to build up the church, we need the kingdom. The kingdom actually is the reality of the church. We cannot say, however, that the church is the reality of the kingdom. We can only say that the kingdom is the reality of the church.

With this understanding as a basis, we can understand many verses in the New Testament. The first preaching of the New Testament gospel told people that they needed to repent because the kingdom of the heavens had drawn near (Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7). There is no verse that says the church is coming, so repent. John the Baptist, Jesus, and the twelve apostles initiated the New Testament gospel by telling people that the kingdom had drawn near. This meant that the time had come for God to come to dispense Himself as life to people. The gospel brings God as life, and life is a kingdom. The kingdom is the realm of life for life to move, to work, to rule, and to govern that life may accomplish its purpose and this realm is the kingdom. Actually, the kingdom as the realm of life is life itself. If one were to take away all the animals in the zoo, there would be no animal kingdom there. When the animals are there, the animal life is there and that realm of animal life is the animal kingdom. The gospel brings in the divine life and the divine life has its realm for it to move, to work, to rule, and to govern that this life may accomplish its purpose. This is the kingdom, and this divine life with its realm produces the church.

THE KINGDOM SEED

Mark 4:26 says that the kingdom is like a seed sown into the earth. The kingdom is the seed and the seed is the seed of the divine life (1 John 3:9; 1 Pet. 1:23). When the Lord says the kingdom is like a seed, that means the kingdom is the life. The kingdom grows like a seed grows and the kingdom develops like a seed by its growing until it develops unto a harvest. Matthew 13 also shows us that the kingdom is like a seed sown into the human earth and that this seed grows in our heart to be the kingdom (vv. 8, 23). Now we can understand why in Luke 17 when the Pharisees asked the Lord when the kingdom of God would come, He told them that the kingdom of God was among them. This indicated that Jesus, He Himself, is the kingdom because He is the seed.

THE KINGDOM NOT BEING SUSPENDED

After the Lord’s resurrection, the book of Acts tells us that the Lord stayed with the disciples for forty days and in those forty days He taught the disciples concerning the kingdom of God (1:3). Some brethren teachers and Dr. C. I. Scofield, in their teachings regarding the kingdom held the concept that the Lord Jesus presented the kingdom to the Jews and the Jews rejected it. Therefore, He suspended this kingdom and put the kingdom aside. Then He began to touch the church. With this understanding as a basis, they say that today is not the kingdom age but the age of the church. To them, when the Lord comes back He will receive the kingdom from God and He will come back with this kingdom based upon Luke 19:11-12, 15 and Daniel 7:13-14. By that time the Jewish people will repent and believe in Him and will receive this kingdom brought back by the Lord Jesus. Then there will be the next age, the age of the kingdom. This concept is very much in contradiction with the Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation.

THE KINGDOM IN THE ACTS

The Acts shows us strongly that the Lord Jesus never gave up the kingdom and never put it aside to come to the matter of the church. Rather, after His resurrection He stayed with His disciples for forty days purposely to show them the kingdom of God. Acts 8:12 tells us that Philip the evangelist went out to preach the kingdom of God and in Acts 14:22 Paul charged the saints that through many tribulations they must enter into the kingdom of God. Also, at the end of Acts (28:30-31) Paul stayed in Rome in a rented house for the purpose of preaching the kingdom of God both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. In our concept, we always consider that in the Acts the gospel was preached only for the purpose of producing and establishing the churches. We never thought that the gospel had much to do with the kingdom.

THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

In Luke and Acts, Luke uses the word evangelize. Evangelize is the anglicized form of the Greek word euaggelizo, which means “to preach something as the gospel.” In Luke 4:43 Luke tells us that the Lord said that He had to evangelize the kingdom of God. This means to preach the kingdom of God as the gospel. The verb evangelize implies the noun, the gospel. To evangelize the kingdom means to preach the kingdom as the gospel. We cannot find a verse which says to evangelize the church, to preach the church as the gospel. Whatever was preached in the Acts was the preaching of the kingdom of God as the gospel. This is why the gospel is called the gospel of the kingdom of God. The gospel of the kingdom of God equals the gospel. The gospel of the kingdom of God equals the gospel of life because life is the kingdom and the kingdom is the life in the realm for the life to move, to work, to rule, and to govern.

THE KINGDOM AS OUR LIFE AND INHERITANCE

Then in the Epistles, in 1 Corinthians (6:9-10; 15:50), Galatians (5:21), Ephesians (5:5), and Colossians (1:13; 4:11), the kingdom of God is referred to strongly. You must live a life that is according to the Spirit. You must live a life that is Christ Himself. Otherwise, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. You need to live a life which is the kingdom today. Then this life will qualify you to enter into the coming kingdom. Today the kingdom is your life and in the next age the kingdom will become your inheritance. What you live today will become your inheritance tomorrow. For example, what you earn in wages today is your living. Then these earnings will become your coming social security. In like manner, you must live the kingdom and then the kingdom will become your coming social security. That is the coming kingdom as an inheritance to all who live the kingdom as their life.

THE REALITY OF THE CHURCH LIFE

Romans 14:17 says, “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 14 teaches us about the practical church life—how to receive the weaker believers without any kind of division. In that chapter on the church life, Paul says that the kingdom is this practical church life. Also, in Revelation 1 John stressed the church as the lampstands for the testimony of Jesus (vv. 2, 9, 12, 20). In Revelation 1:9, however, John did not say, “I John, your brother in the church” but he said, “I John, your brother…in the kingdom.” When he was in the church life he was in the kingdom because the kingdom is the reality of the church life.

The kingdom is the practical life, life’s practicality. Again, I refer to the example of the zoo where we can see an animal kingdom. The animal kingdom is the practicality of the animal life. If we live the divine life, if we live Christ as life, the practicality of this life is the kingdom. When people come among us they would see a kingdom. The kingdom is the expression of life. All the animals moving around in the zoo are an expression of the animal life and that expression is the animal kingdom. If all the animals were taken away, the animal life would be over and the expression would also be over. In the church, we are the believers living, moving, and acting in the divine life. As a result, there is an expression of this divine life. The expression of this divine life is the kingdom, the practicality of this life, and the practicality of this divine life is in the church. Now we can see that the kingdom is the reality of the church life. As long as the divine life is here, the kingdom is here. As long as the divine life is being lived, the kingdom exists. You could never suspend it and you could never put it aside. (Elders’ Training, Book 02: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 4)