"In those days
cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of
Judaea, saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand" (Matthew 3:1,2). "I... say unto thee,
that I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall
not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).
"And if he
refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church"
(Matthew 18:17).
It is a very
significant fact that it is in the Gospel by Matthew,
which is essentially the Gospel of the Kingdom, that the
Church is first brought into view in the New Testament.
THE
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE KINGDOM AND THE CHURCH
The first question
which arises is as to what the difference is between the
Kingdom and the Church. What is the difference? Are they
two things, or one? The attempt has been made, by one
considerable body of teaching, to prove that they are two
different things entirely: that the Kingdom is one thing,
belonging to one age, that it is now in this dispensation
in suspense, but that it will come in with the
restoration of the Jews in the next dispensation, the
present dispensation being that of the Church. If you
want to believe that, you will have to do a lot of
juggling with the Scriptures - as has been done. As far
as I can see, that system of truth is absolutely
unsupported by the Scripture itself. However, I do not
want to introduce a controversial element or source of
confusion. I am simply saying that this is a question
that we must face.
What is the difference?
Are they two things? The answer is really Yes and No.
They are not the same thing, and yet they are. That does
not help you very much, I know, but we must go on to
explain.
The sovereign rule of
God and of the heavens, which has come to be called the
Kingdom, is, in the first place, as we explained earlier,
an announcement, a proclamation, a declaration, of a
Divine fact: namely, that the sovereignty of God has been
established in and through His Son Jesus Christ IN
THIS DISPENSATION, in a new and immediate
way. That fact was proclaimed for the first time, in the
power of the Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost. God
had made Him Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). From that time
onward, the note was made to ring out through the nations
in ever-widening circles - Jesus Christ is Lord! That is
the first phase of the sovereign rule or the Kingdom - a
proclamation or an announcement.
Then, as we saw, it is
an activity. Something is going on. When it is announced,
when the proclamation is made, something begins to
happen. Heaven is moved, and believing souls are saved.
Hell is roused, and the heralds are persecuted. It is an
activity - not just a doctrine, a truth, a theory. This
sovereign rule or Kingdom is a mighty energy. And so,
from a presenting of a fact, it becomes the demanding of
an answer, and thereby a sifting and sorting of mankind
into two categories, into one of two kingdoms.
We saw, further, how
comprehensive is this rule, spreading itself sovereignly
over everything, taking up everything into its
sovereignty. Even the antagonisms and oppositions are
taken hold of by this sovereignty, and made to serve the
end which they were intended to defeat. It is
all-comprehending, knowing all the course of things
through history, as those parables make so clear. That
last parable in Matthew 13 brings us right to the end of
the age, and from the first - the sowing of the seed, the
word of the Kingdom - through all the phases and stages
and variations, and everything that arises, to the last,
the end of the age, we see that this sovereign rule has
comprehended the whole, foreseen and foretold exactly
what would happen and how things would develop, and has
laid hold of all; so that at the last the sovereign rule
is triumphant. That is the essential meaning of the
'Kingdom'.
THE
CHURCH AND THE FRUIT OF THE KINGDOM
What is the Church?
Well, the operation, the activity, of the sovereign rule
works like this. The effect of the challenge and demand
and sifting out, brought about by the proclamation, is
that all along certain people are found who make the
right reaction and response, and are thus brought right
into the meaning of that sovereign rule: people, that is
to say, who first acknowledge, and then themselves
declare, that Jesus Christ is Lord. The sovereign rule
has done its work so far, and then the fruit of that
sovereign activity in the nations is gathered into a body
called the Church. The Church becomes the vessel, the
repository, of the work of the sovereign government of
God. It gathers into itself as a vessel the fruit of the
sovereign activity: so that the Kingdom leads to the
Church, and the Church is the result, the embodiment, of
the Kingdom.
It is interesting to
note in Matthew's Gospel how very clear that is, if we
can only see it. The last parable of the seven in chapter
13, the parable of the drag-net, brings us, as I have
said, to the end of the age: the angels are sent forth,
and the good are gathered into vessels, but the bad are
cast away. Now turn over to chapter 24, verse 31, and
here you find that the Lord is definitely answering that
part of the disciples' question - "What shall be the
end of the age?" (v. 3). "He shall send forth
his angels... and they shall gather together his
elect". Now, chapter 13 is the casting away of the
bad fish; chapter 24 is the gathering of the good; and
between the two, in chapters 16 and 18, we find the
Church introduced.
Is that clear? The work
of the Kingdom, the activity of the Kingdom, is the
searching out, finding out, challenging, receiving,
gathering, bringing into the Church. Strange that nothing
is said about the Church coming into existence, other
than - "I will build my church"! Nothing is
said about Church teaching at all. It is simply
introduced, almost as though it were a recognised thing,
and then the final picture is of the elect being
gathered. The Church is the fruit and sum of that first
activity of the sovereign rule of God. And the Church is
the 'elect', the 'chosen'. Peter and Paul speak of the
Church in this very language. "Elect... according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Peter
1:1,2). And "he chose us in him before the
foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4).
I trust that we are
clear now that the Church and the Kingdom are not two
things, and yet they are. They are not the same thing,
and yet they are. If you like, they are cause and effect.
They are the complement of each other. There is a sense
in which the sovereign rule is a 'bigger' thing than the
Church - that is, if you will use the word 'bigger' in
the sense of dimensions and not intrinsic value. It is so
comprehensive. As we have seen, it takes up anything -
almost everything - even the work of the Devil, the enemy
who sowed his children amongst the children of God. This
sovereign rule is such an expansive and wonderful thing.
But then it focuses down upon certain results, and
gathers them into a concrete entity called the Body of
Christ. So that we have part and counterpart: they are
one, and yet they are not one.
The Church, then, is
the embodiment of the triumph of His rule. That is not
only a statement of fact or of truth - it is a glorious
testimony. It says what the Church is in the thought of
God, but it also says what the Church ought to be in
itself - the very embodiment of the triumph of the
sovereign rule of God. Of course, it is so, if it is the
Church in reality at all. Every one of us, if we really
are in the Church and of the Church, according to New
Testament conception, is an embodiment and an expression
of the triumph of His sovereign rule. You can use another
phrase, if you like, which only defines that - sovereign
grace, for His rule in this dispensation is the rule of
grace. We are here by the triumph of sovereign grace, and
we shall remain here on that ground alone, and at last we
shall be found in that elect company simply because of
the triumph of His sovereign rule through grace. That is
the Church as the fruit of the Kingdom.
SOVEREIGN
ACTIVITY IN RELATION TO THE WORD
Next, the Church is the
embodiment of the sovereign activity in relation to the
word of the Kingdom, as given by the Sower. While there
is a large proportion of failure and disappointment,
there is the thirtyfold, the sixtyfold and the
hundredfold, and the Church takes that in. The Church is
found to be composed of the triumph of the word of the
Kingdom. Some of us are only 'thirtyfold' results, some a
bit more, some perhaps may be even a hundredfold. At any
rate, something has happened, and the Lord has got
something in us. We want Him to have all that He can
have. But that is just what the Church is - it is the
thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold result of the word of
the Kingdom. It is the wheat as over against the tares,
the children of the Kingdom as over against the children
of the Devil. We thank God that we can truly claim to be
His children.
Again, the Church is
the embodiment of the truth of unleavened bread. It
'keeps the feast' with 'unleavened bread' (1 Cor. 5:8).
Spiritually that means that the leaven has been purged
out. Praise God that all the corrupting, disintegrating
work of sin and of the world has been dealt with.
The Church takes up the
inner principle of the tree - the great, abnormal,
'freak' tree, as we called it - a mustard seed growing
into a great tree, which it never does normally and
naturally. It must be something absolutely abnormal to do
it. But, over against that, the Church is something
spiritually normal and healthy. There is nothing freakish
about it. The Lord deliver us from all that is abnormal
and all that is freakish. Ask the Lord to save you from
being freakish! The Church is the true thing, and not the
false thing like that great tree.
The Church is also the
vessel of the good fish. Perhaps you do not like to think
of yourself as a fish! But that is what the Church is. We
may not think we are good fish - we may feel we are very
poor fish! - nevertheless we are different; there is a
difference.
And to crown it all,
the Church is the "pearl of great price", and
the "treasure hidden in the field".
All this, mark you, is
within the compass of the teaching about the Kingdom; it
all comes in the same chapter on the mysteries or
parables of the Kingdom. They all issue in something
positive, as over against something either negative or
wrong; and the Church comes in and takes up all that is
positive and right as the fruit of the word of the
Kingdom. The Church then becomes the chosen, the elect,
the holy nation, to whom this 'Kingdom', in this sense,
is given. I will not enlarge upon that now; you will
recall the Scriptures which I have cited.
THE
SEAT OF THE SOVEREIGN RULE
But the Church is not
only the embodiment of the fruit and triumph of the
sovereign rule - it is that in which the immediate power
of that rule is centred and then mediated. The sovereign
rule of God, of Heaven, is centred in the Church. That is
the first great truth about the Church in those early
days, as it first comes into being. If you want to know
where to find this sovereign rule, government, dominion,
authority, of God and of Heaven, you will find it in the
Church. There it is in Jerusalem, there it is in Antioch;
there it is going everywhere. God has put authority and
heavenly power in the Church in a peculiar way.
Oh, that the Church
were alive to the meaning of its existence, in this sense
- alive to the great deposit with which it has been
entrusted, as the very vessel of this sovereign
operation, this mighty sovereign activity and rule of
God. That deposit is there. When things have been as they
should be, that is exactly what has been found in the
Church. There were times when unbelievers coming in fell
down on their faces, and said, 'God is in the midst of
you' (1 Cor. 14:24,25). While joyous, while gladsome,
while very blessed in other respects, there ought yet to
be something very awful about the Church. "Of the
rest durst no man join himself to them" (Acts 5:13).
Oh that that forbidding of Divine holiness might be found
in the Church! The Church is the seat of this JUDICIAL
activity of the Divine sovereignty. So it should be.
THE
SOVEREIGN RULE MEDIATED THROUGH THE CHURCH
But then this
sovereignty is mediated through the Church. It goes out
and says: "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth..."
(Acts 3:6). 'In the NAME of Jesus of Nazareth, I
command you, I say unto you...' Here is the authority
mediated, the Kingdom - poor word again - the sovereign
rule, centred in and operating through the Church. That
is how it ought to be. The authority of Jesus Christ is
in the Church and should be exercised by the Church.
Matthew 16 makes that quite clear. "I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven" (Matt. 16:19). If that is not authority in
Heaven and earth, what is? But it is the authority of Him
to whom it was given (Matt. 28:18) through His mighty
victory.
THE
EXPRESSION OF THE DIVINE AND HEAVENLY ORDER
The Church is, further,
that in which the character of the Divine and heavenly
order and rule is expressed. If the Kingdom of God and of
Heaven has, as one of its essential aspects and
components, the nature of Him that rules, then this is
not just official, this is not just ecclesiastical - this
is spiritual and moral in its very nature. At this point
we ought to extend our meditations and go back to those
three mighty chapters of Matthew's Gospel, embracing what
is called 'the sermon on the mount'; for there is a
revolution in ideas there. The whole conception of power
is changed. Virtue is pre-eminent, character is
predominant. The true values are shown to lie in what you
ARE, not in that which is official and
organized. "Blessed are the meek: for they shall
inherit..." "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom...".
That opens a very large
field, which we cannot touch now. But it is all gathered
into this, that the Kingdom is, from one standpoint, the
expression of the nature, of the character, of Him who is
sovereign, and that that is to be found in the Church. We
may think of the Kingdom as a great, general thing,
operating and active in the whole world, irrespective of
anything and everything that is contrary to it; but it is
not going to stop there. It is going to work until it has
produced an expression of its own character; it will
work, down and down until it has that nucleus that
expresses the character of Him who is on the throne. And
it is in the Church that the Divine and heavenly nature
is found, and it is that nature that is sovereign.
There is perhaps no
greater force operating from Heaven than the force of
meekness. "He humbled himself, becoming
obedient..." (Phil. 2:8); but the whole kingdom of
Satan was shattered along that line. Men do not like that
at all. Here is the revolution. But, you see, it is in
the Church that this tremendous power is to be found -
this being poor in spirit, this meekness, this being
persecuted for righteousness' sake, and all the rest. But
therein is power, therein is authority. It is very often
not until you get down on your knees, utterly broken as
to your own pride, that you get through to God in
absolute victory. To be emptied of all self is the way of
power, the way of God, the way of Heaven. That is the
essence of the Kingdom or sovereignty, and that is all to
be taken up by the Church.
THE
CHURCH JOINT-HEIR WITH CHRIST
Just one brief word in
conclusion. The Church is the joint-heir with Christ of
the inheritance, the universal rule, in the ages to come.
We know this on the authority of Scripture. The Church is
heir to the throne of the world to come - to the
administrative place with the Lord Jesus over all that
will be extra to itself. For a city presupposes a
country, a metropolis presupposes a wider range. The City
in the midst of the nations means that government over
the nations is THERE, and at the end of the book
of the Revelation (21:24, 22:2) that is where the whole
matter issues.