Our unique commission given by the Lord is that we preach the gospel; He as our Lord and Savior took the lead to preach the gospel of the kingdom, and now we as His disciples and believers need to follow Him and preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth.
The gospel is the truth in the Bible, and the light of the truth is the light of the gospel; we need to be filled with the divine truths in the word of God and speak the truth so that the gospel may be preached and man may be saved and brought into the kingdom of God.
The goal of the gospel is not merely to save man from eternal perdition but to bring people into God and make them citizens of the kingdom of the heavens (see Matt. 28:19).
We preach the gospel not merely to help men be saved and escape the coming judgement but to bring part of the old creation into the new creation (Mark 16:15-16).
Because man is fallen, sinful, and corrupt, we need to preach the gospel of forgiveness to bring redeemed people back to the God-ordained blessing; our proclamation of the gospel brings others into the jubilee, where all bondage and slavery is finished and they enjoy all the riches of God in Christ (Luke 24:46-48).
All we need to do as believers in Christ is to abide in Christ as the vine; He is the vine, we are the branches, and as we abide in Him and enjoy His constant life supply, we will bear fruit for the building up of the Body of Christ, which is Christ’s increase (John 15:16; 20:31).
Today we want to see more concerning the gospel being the gospel of the kingdom: when John the Baptist came, he preached the gospel of the kingdom, and when the Lord Jesus ministered on earth and sent His disciples to speak, He and them also preached the gospel of the kingdom. What is the gospel of the kingdom, why is the gospel called “the gospel of the kingdom”, and how can we enjoy and experience this today?
It is Crucial for us to See that the Gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God
We need to realize that the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom of God. When John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the Lord and His ministry, he proclaimed, Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near (Mark 1:14-15).
He was the first one to preach the gospel, and when the Lord Jesus came He spoke in the same way, Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near (Matt. 4:17). Furthermore, when the Lord sent His disciples out to preach the gospel, He told them to preach the kingdom of God, saying that this gospel of the kingdom will be preached on the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations (Matt. 24:14).
The disciples, after the Lord’s ascension, also preached the gospel of the kingdom, declaring the things of the kingdom of God wherever they went.
The kingdom of the heavens is the Lord Jesus Himself. The kingdom of God is a divine sphere for God to work out His plan. The kingdom of God is a realm where God can exercise His authority to accomplish what He intends. A kingdom is a realm where the king can do whatever he wants; here he rules and carries out his aim and goal.
God’s kingdom is God’s realm where He can accomplish His intention and exercises His authority. Without a kingdom, God has no place on earth to accomplish His plan and exercise His authority.
All believers in Christ are part of God’s kingdom since through regeneration we have received the King into our heart; in such a kingdom, the Lord can accomplish His desire. The church is in the sphere of the kingdom of God, and today everything that God wants to accomplish has to be in the realm of the kingdom.
To enter into the kingdom of God we need to repent, turn to God, and we will receive the divine life; unless we are born of God, we cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). To enter into the kingdom of God people need to repent of their sins so that their sins may be forgiven and that they may be regenerated by God to have the divine life which matches the divine nature of this kingdom.
The kingdom of God is the ruling, the reigning of God with all its blessing and enjoyment. By repenting and believing into the Lord we are transferred out of the kingdom of Satan, which is of sin, darkness, and death, and into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, where we enjoy God’s rule in a loving and pleasant way (Col. 1:13).
In the kingdom of God we enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as our God-allotted portion of the saints in the light. In this kingdom we have love, God, the Son of God, the life of God, and all the riches of God; all these are our blessings for our enjoyment.
The kingdom of God is the realm for God to exercise His authority so that He may express His glory (Matt. 6:10, 13); the kingdom of God goes along with His glory, and it is in His kingdom that God can express and manifest His glory.
The goal of the gospel is to bring people into the kingdom of God to be the realm where God can exercise His authority and accomplish His intention. We need to preach the gospel of the kingdom on the whole inhabited earth!
Lord Jesus, thank You for regenerating us with Your life to bring us into the kingdom of God to enjoy all its blessings and enjoyment. Thank You for transferring us out of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. We take You as our Lord, our King, and our Head. We enthrone You, Lord, and we want to be under Your rule and authority so that You may carry out Your desire and exercise Your authority. Lord, we want to be one with You to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth so that many sinners would be saved and enter into the kingdom of God!
Being Brought under the Ruling of God’s Authority through the Gospel of the Kingdom
Why is the gospel primarily “the gospel of the kingdom”, and why is the goal of the gospel to bring people into the kingdom of God? It is because the fundamental problem in the universe is rebellion against God’s authority (see Isa. 14:12-14; Gen. 3:6, 11; Rom. 5:12; 1 John 3:4).
When man fell, he rebelled against God, put aside God’s authority, denied God’s authority, and rejected God’s rule, being instigated by Satan, the one who took the lead to rebel against God.
Satan’s heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and he corrupted his wisdom by reason of his brightness (Ezek. 28:17). In his arrogance Satan declared five times, “I will…,” indicating that his intention in his rebellion was to overthrow God’s authority and to exalt himself to be equal with God. Satan’s ambition for position became the motivation of all the rebellions recorded in the Scriptures (Gen. 11:4; Num. 12:1-2; 16:1-3; 2 Sam. 15:10-12; etc.). Because of his rebellion Satan became God’s adversary, God’s enemy (Zech. 3:1-2; Rev. 12:9a; 20:2a). (Isa. 14:13, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible)
Satan was the morning star, the son of the dawn, but he was cast down because he rebelled against God and wanted to uplift himself. Such a rebellious life and nature has come into man at man’s fall, and now men have become children of Satan, sons of rebellion.
All over the earth people rebel against God; this is the fundamental problem in the universe. If you read the newspapers and look around, man constantly denies God’s authority and puts it aside. Even in our personal universe we are many times putting God’s authority aside and doing things of ourselves, by ourselves, in ourselves, and for ourselves.
How can the Lord establish His kingdom on earth when man today doesn’t submit to His authority and the devil with his angels rebel against Him? It is through the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom. Through the gospel of the kingdom, God brings people back under the ruling of the heavenly authority so that they may become His kingdom, those who are ruled by His authority (Matt. 24:14; Rev. 1:5-6).
When we believe into the Lord Jesus, He entered into our spirit not as the One nailed to the cross but as the One sitting on the throne; now Christ is in us as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Whenever we call on the name of the Lord, LORD Jesus, we enthrone Him in our being and we are being brought under His authority.
Through the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom man is delivered from under the authority of Satan, out of rebellion, and is brought into the kingdom of God to be in the sphere of God’s rule and enjoy all His blessings.
When we believe into the Lord, we become His disciples; on the one hand we have His divine life in us, and on the other, we are being trained, ruled, disciplined, and dealt with by the Lord’s authority, and we preach the gospel of the kingdom.
God freely gives us grace, and He graciously gives us the riches of His divine life for our enjoyment; however, all this is for us to be brought back under God’s authority so that we may become His kingdom, the sphere where God can accomplish His intention.
When we preach the gospel to others by declaring the truth in the word of God, they are brought into a wonderful realm where the riches of God’s life are their enjoyment, and they are ruled in love by God to be part of His kingdom where God can exercise His authority and accomplish His intention.
Lord Jesus, thank You for delivering us OUT of the authority of Satan to bring us INTO the kingdom of God to enjoy God’s blessings and His riches. Lord, deliver us more and more from any rebellion in our being so that we may be fully under Your authority as part of Your kingdom. We don’t want to reject Your rule or deny Your authority but rather be one with You to preach the gospel of the kingdom so that rebellious sinners would be saved, regenerated, and transferred into the kingdom of God where God can exercise His authority and accomplish His intention!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, bro. Minoru C’ sharing in the message for this week, and What the Kingdom Is to the Believers, chs. 5-6 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Gospel (2016 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 1 / msg. 1, The Gospel of the Kingdom.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God’s kingdom is God’s reigning, / His glory to maintain; / It is His sovereign ruling, / His order to sustain. / He exercises fully / His own authority / Within His kingdom ever / And to eternity. (Hymns #941)
# I was a man who was just sin, / Which issued in a life full of sins. / My heart toward You was in rebellion, / But, Lord, You touched me with Your compassion. / Your love has conquered me, / Even Your enemy. / In love, dear Lord, You came to me. / Nothing could change me / But love and mercy. / Your love, dear Lord, has conquered me. (Song on the gospel)
# Jesus came proclaiming: / God’s kingdom has drawn near! / For this your way of thinking / Must be fresh and clear. / Repent and change your view! / Consider Him anew. / Jesus came proclaiming / And He says this to you: / Repent and believe! (Song on Jesus preaching the gospel)
A disciple is one who has been trained, ruled, and disciplined. In other words, he is one who has been dealt with by authority and who submits to authority.
When we believe in the Lord, we become believers. However, the Gospel of Matthew says that our believing in the Lord is for us to become His disciples. On one hand, the Bible reveals the gospel as the gospel of grace, which is for us to become believers through faith. On the other hand, the Bible says that the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom, which is for us to become the Lord’s disciples, those who are trained, ruled, disciplined, and dealt with by the Lord’s authority. According to the gospel of grace, God is pleased to freely grant us grace, and we can receive this grace simply by believing. However, this gospel is also the gospel of the kingdom through which God desires to bring us under the ruling of the heavenly authority so that we may become His kingdom, those who are ruled by God’s authority. (Witness Lee, What the Kingdom Is to the Believers, pp. 74, 88)