Churches Produced by the Propagation of Christ are the Kingdom of God on the Earth

The main subject of the apostles’ preaching in the book of Acts is the kingdom of God; the churches and the kingdom of God go together, for the churches are the kingdom of God on earth today. Amen!

The third main nugget in the book of Acts is the kingdom of God.

When the Lord Jesus came to preach the gospel, He preached the gospel of the kingdom of God. He came to bring in another kingdom, not the earthly kingdom or the Messianic kingdom, but the kingdom of God.

In the Gospels, we see again and again how the Lord spoke, Repent, for the kingdom of God has drawn near. His disciples thought that He was speaking of the restored kingdom of Israel where the Lord Jesus would be King; however, He spoke of the kingdom of God, the realm of God’s species, the realm of the divine life.

Unfortunately, because the disciples were in the natural realm and did not have the Spirit guiding them into all the reality of what Christ is, they could not understand at that time.

So the Lord had to remain a few more days after His resurrection to teach them the things concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).

After He became the life-giving Spirit and came in resurrection to breathe Himself into His believers, the Spirit entered into the believers and they began to understand what the Lord was speaking about.

In a sense, many Christians would have loved to live at the time of the Lord Jesus, to be with Him and see Him, witness the miracles He made, and hear His words.

But in another sense, all those who were with the Lord when He was on earth, before His resurrection, could only see and hear Him, but they could not receive Him.

At that time the kingdom of God had drawn near, for the Lord Jesus Himself is the kingdom of God, but the kingdom did not come into them.

The Lord Jesus spoke many things when He was on earth, and He gave the decrees of the kingdom in Matt. 5-7, He spoke concerning the mysteries of the kingdom, and He told us about the reality, the appearance, and the manifestation of the kingdom.

But all these matters related to the kingdom of God are made real to us, the believers in Christ, by Christ Himself as the Spirit coming into our spirit to guide us into the reality of all that God is. Amen!

This is why the Lord Jesus, after resurrecting from the dead, did not ascend to heaven publicly right away; He tarried, remaining with the disciples for some days, and He spoke to them concerning the kingdom of God.

He opened their understanding and guided them into the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God the Lord Jesus Christ the Divine Life Growing and Spreading in His Believers

The main subject of the apostles preaching in the book of Acts was the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3; 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31).

The fact that the resurrected Christ, in His appearing to the apostles through a period of forty days, spoke to them “the things concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3), indicates that the kingdom would be the main subject of the apostles’ preaching in their coming commission after Pentecost.

For forty days, prior to His ascension, Christ remained with the disciples, appearing and disappearing from them, and He spoke to them concerning the things of the kingdom of God.

The center of the apostles’ ministry was the kingdom of God.

Their work, their commission, was to speak the things concerning the kingdom of God.

Even though the disciples heard from the Lord Jesus concerning the kingdom of God before His death and resurrection, they were not able to understand what the Lord as their Teacher was teaching them, for He was not within them as the Spirit to guide them into this reality.

So the Lord repeated His teaching in the forty days between His resurrection and His ascension; this time, they had the spiritual insight to see and understand the kingdom of God.

In order for us to understand the kingdom of God and know this kingdom we need spiritual perception, spiritual insight.

In John 20:22 the Lord Jesus breathed Himself into His disciples as the Spirit who gives life, and as a result, now they can understand and know the kingdom of God.

Before we are saved, we cannot see or know God’s kingdom; however, when we receive Christ as our life, when we repent and believe into the Lord Jesus, we obtain spiritual insight into what is the kingdom of God.

The life-giving Spirit within us makes us able to understand the Lord’s speaking concerning God’s kingdom.

The kingdom of God is not a material kingdom visible to human sight; rather, it is a kingdom of the divine life.

It is not anything outward but something inward, Christ as life in His believers, growing in them, spreading in them, and increasing in them, to form a realm in which God rules in His life.

If we read the New Testament we will see that the kingdom of God is not a visible, material realm. On the contrary, the kingdom of God is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Luke 17:20-21).

What the disciples preached and what we speak of today is not an outward kingdom with a mighty king; we preach a person, Jesus Christ Himself, who is the seed of life sowing Himself into His believers to grow and develop in them into a realm in which God can rule and reign.

The kingdom of God is the spreading of Christ as life into His believers to form a realm in which God rules in His life.

Furthermore, the kingdom of God is the ruling of God, the reigning of God, with all its blessing and enjoyment.

The goal of the gospel of God and of Jesus Christ is to bring in the kingdom of God.

How can anyone enter into God’s kingdom?

To enter into this kingdom, people need to repent of their sins and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15) so that their sins may be forgiven, and they may be regenerated by God to have the divine life, which matches the divine nature of this kingdom (John 3:3, 5). Amen!

As believers in Christ, we share the kingdom in the church age for our enjoyment of God in His righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17).

The kingdom of God will become the kingdom of Christ and of God for the overcoming believers to inherit and enjoy in the coming kingdom age (see 1 Cor. 6:9-1; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5) so that they may reign with Christ one thousand years (Rev. 20:4, 5).

We want to be the overcoming believers who share in the kingdom of God and of Christ in the coming kingdom. Amen!

Then, as the eternal kingdom, the kingdom of God will be an eternal blessing of God’s eternal life for all of God’s redeemed to enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5, 14, 17).

The reality of the church brought forth by the resurrection life of Christ through the gospel (1 Cor. 4:15) is the kingdom of God.

We enter into the kingdom of God through regeneration (John 3:5) and this kingdom develops within us by our growing in the divine life (2 Pet. 1:3-11). Amen!

May we be those who daily grow in the Lord day by day, allowing the Lord to grow in us and develop in us.

May we realize that the kingdom of God is Jesus Christ the Savior Himself as the seed of life sown into us, the believers in Christ as God’s chosen people (Mark 4:3, 26) to grow in us and develop in us into a realm over which God can rule as His kingdom in His divine life.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into us as the kingdom of God to grow in us, develop in us, and increase in us until You gain a realm in us over which You can rule and reign. Amen, Lord, we open to You! Grow in us a little more today. Spread more in our inner being. Set Your throne in our heart. Hallelujah, we believers in Christ entered into the kingdom of God by repenting and believing into the Lord Jesus! Amen, Lord, we want to share the kingdom in the church age for our enjoyment of God in His righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit! May we be in the reality of the kingdom of God today so that we may enter into its manifestation in the coming age! Amen, Lord, we aspire to be the overcoming believers who will inherit and enjoy the kingdom of God and of Christ in the coming age! Oh Lord, grow in us today. Develop in us. Increase in our being. Spread in all the parts of our soul and make Your home in our heart so that Your kingdom may come in us!

The Churches Produced by the Propagation of Christ are the Kingdom of God on Earth today

When we speak of the kingdom of God, some believers and unbelievers alike think this is something that will come in the future; some even think that the kingdom has been “suspended” and that in the coming age the kingdom will come again.

However, according to the divine revelation in the Bible, the kingdom of God today is the church.

The churches and the kingdom of God go together; the churches produced by the propagation of the resurrected Christ are the kingdom of God on earth today (Acts 14:22; 20:25).

In one aspect, the church today is our home and is also God’s home; here we are at rest, we enjoy God, and God enjoys us. How wonderful it is to be in the church as the kingdom of the Son of God’s love!

However, we need to go on with the Lord and advance in our growth in life to realize that the church today is the kingdom of God on the earth.

Yes, the church life is God’s home and our home, but at the same time, in the house of God today we are ruled by God to be in His kingdom.

We live the church life under the rule of the kingdom of God.

The churches are produced by the propagation of the resurrected Christ; the churches are not different from the kingdom, for the churches are the kingdom of God on earth today.

May this penetrate us to become part of our inward realization.

May we have a deeper and broader understanding of what it means to be in a local church.

We are in the local churches – we are in the kingdom of God!

The resurrected Christ, who is propagating Himself in His ascension, by the Spirit, and through the disciples, is the reality of the kingdom of God; the kingdom of God is His expansion (Acts 1:8; 8:12).

The kingdom of God is nothing else but the expansion, increase, and development of Christ in humanity.

When Christ was on earth, He spoke concerning the kingdom of God; when He became the Spirit and came back as the Spirit, He started to propagate Himself in humanity, and He does it as the Spirit and through the disciples.

The issue of Christ propagating Himself as the Spirit through the disciples, the reproduction of Christ, is the churches as the kingdom of God on earth today.

The churches today are the expansion of Christ; He came to sow Himself as the seed of the kingdom of God – as revealed in the Gospels (Mark 4:3, 26).

In the Gospels what we see is Christ as the seed of the kingdom of God; in the book of Acts, we see the propagation of this seed to produce the churches as the kingdom of God (Acts 8:1, 12; 13:1-4).

The Christ who sowed Himself as the seed of the kingdom in the Gospels is now spreading and propagating Himself as the seed of life to produce the churches as the kingdom of God.

Thank the Lord that we today in the churches are in the kingdom of God and in the Father’s dwelling place; we declare the kingdom of God as the gospel, and Christ is expanding in humanity.

Today we are still in the book of Acts; this book has no end, for the very last portion of this book speaks how Paul spoke concerning the kingdom of God in his rented dwelling place in Rome.

Thank the Lord that today in the local churches we are in the kingdom of God, and we are taking Christ as our life and also as our King!

We in the churches are the propagation of Christ and the expansion of Christ, and we are enlarging the kingdom of God (Rev. 1:9, 11).

As we speak to our neighbours and colleagues, or even to the people in the shop when we do our shopping, we can minister Christ as the seed of the kingdom of God so that He may be planted into them and grow in them to develop into a realm over which He can rule and reign.

The ones who receive the gospel and believe into the Lord become part of the enlargement of Christ, the expansion of Christ, the churches as the kingdom of God on earth today.

Lord Jesus, cause us to see that the church today is the kingdom of God on earth! Praise the Lord, the churches and the kingdom of God go together! Amen, Lord, may we see that the churches produced by the propagation of the resurrected Christ are the kingdom of God on earth today. May we realize that the church is not only the Father’s house where we enjoy His presence and His sweet visitation in love, but also the kingdom of God on earth today. Amen, Lord, may we all allow You to expand in our being may we give You the ground to increase in us until You have a realm in us over which You can rule and reign. May You have a free way to rule and reign in the saints in the church life. May God be the One who rules and reigns in the church as the kingdom of God on earth today. Grow in us, Lord, and spread in our being; rule and reign in us for the church, the kingdom of God. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You for Your kingdom to come in us and around us through our speaking and our living!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Acts, pp. 24-27, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 12, The Divine Trinity, the Spirit of Jesus, and the Kingdom of God.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – An entrance into the kingdom, a portion from, The Basic Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, Chapter 6.
  – 7 Wonderful Aspects of the Church in Ephesians, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Rich in things other than the Triune God, a portion from, Life-Study of Mark, Chapter 66.
  – Assailing the Ground of Oneness (1): The Genuine Ground of the Church According to the Teaching and Practice of the New Testament, via, Shepherding Words.
  – What is the kingdom of God? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – A Testimony: Enjoying Crystallization Studies I and II of the Book of Numbers to Work out the Kingdom of God on Earth Today, via, Living to Him.
  – Christ as the seed of life sown into us to grow within us for God’s building, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – We Have Come to the City and the Church of the Living God, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The Kingdom of God—the Realm of the Divine Life and of the Divine Species, message via, Heavenly Foods.
  – The Kingdom of God, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee.
  – The kingdom of God in the New Testament: a panoramic view, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Jesus the kingdom has come into us, / Reigning and shining He’s all glorious, / Christ as the seed is the King who has come, / Into our spirit His kingdom He’s sown. / O let Him grow, O let Him grow; / His kingdom life be all we know. / Jesus, the kingdom is sown into us; / Jesus, the kingdom, O how glorious! (Hymns #1301 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Yes, Lord, impress our heart / That we must take You in each day; / The seed will have its way; / Your growing brings the kingdom here to stay— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. / Amen!—The growth in life! / There’s nothing that Your life can’t do; / Our every part renew. / We’ll make it, we’ll make it just by You. / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132 stanzas 7-8)
  – We’re in the local church, / God’s chosen ground; / Here we have Christ as life / And blessings all abound. / “In spirit, on the ground” / Our battle cry; / And we will overcome the enemy / To bring the kingdom nigh. (Hymns #1260)