The Church is the Glory of the Kingdom of God
The church is the glorious mystery of the kingdom of God. The truth that the gospel of the cross unites the church with Christ means that, amazingly, all the glory, honor, wealth, and wisdom of Christ now belong to the church.
The kingdom of God is a nation that drives out the darkness of the world with the light of holiness, glory, and truth. God’s kingdom is the true authority, while the kingdom of the world is merely parasitic. It cannot stand on its own; it only distorts, deceives, and imitates. The church may appear as small as a mustard seed planted in a field, but it contains a fullness of life powerful enough to cover the whole earth.
The kingdom of God is a nation that drives out the darkness of the world with the light of holiness, glory, and truth. God’s kingdom is the true authority, while the kingdom of the world is merely parasitic. It cannot stand on its own; it only distorts, deceives, and imitates. The church may appear as small as a mustard seed planted in a field, but it contains a fullness of life powerful enough to cover the whole earth.
Now, through the church, the Lord is destroying the evil powers of darkness that falsely claim ownership. The church is the Lord’s army, advancing against the kingdom of this world, and this is His will. The kingdom of God drives out darkness with holiness, glory, truth, purity, and light.
A church under the authority of the kingdom of God must remember this:
the kingdom of God is eternal in nature, while the kingdom of the world is temporary. The two cannot mix. This principle applies equally to our personal lives.
The kingdom of God must be real in my life.
Though it may seem in daily life that both kingdoms coexist, those who have truly encountered the gospel of the cross are not deceived by the world.
When we live by the gospel in the Holy Spirit, the two are clearly distinguished.
As soon as darkness in me is revealed, I must go to the cross and allow the Lord to reign in my life. I must proclaim His sovereignty. If the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are real events that happened to me, then I must continue to trust that truth and live it out with faith in the midst of everyday life.
I must raise a banner of truth and let God be my King.
Jesus Christ came in the flesh and lived among us as one of us, but within Him the kingdom of God was fully present.
If we believe in Christ Jesus, the same reality can be ours.
Through the Holy Spirit, Christ and the church are united as one, so the church can share in everything that happened to Christ. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ and the church are united as one, so the church can share in everything that happened to Christ.
(Ephesians 5:31–32, NIV)
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
This is the church. This is what it means to be “the body of Christ.” The church is inseparably connected to Christ and is an organic body joined by life. The kingdom of God is most clearly revealed through the church.
The church of the Lord is one body with Christ as its head.
There is no such thing as a local church that stands alone. The church is one body with one hope, one Lord, and one vision.
The prayer of such a church must be a prayer for the restoration of all nations.
God desires to restore all creation and all nations and unite them with Jesus Christ. Jesus shared this heart and willingly gave His life. The heart of Christ in us is more than enough to embrace all nations. We may be a small flock, but the One who gives us the nations is the great and mighty God.
Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery. (Psalm 2:8–9, NIV)
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12, NIV)
How can we inherit the nations, break down our enemies with divine authority, and do greater things than Jesus? We can because we are united on the cross with the One who fills all things. And the Lord has given the church the authority to pray in His name.
How can we inherit the nations, break down our enemies with divine authority, and do greater things than Jesus? We can because we are united on the cross with the One who fills all things. And the Lord has given the church the authority to pray in His name.
The Lord said the church is a house of prayer for all nations.
What must certainly happen in the church is that all peoples pray for all peoples. The church must carry out the Lord’s mission through prayer, standing on what He has already accomplished. When we work, we work. But when we pray, God works.
》Scripture Prayer
Ephesians 4:1–4, 13–16(NIV)
1 As a prisoner for the LORD, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the SPIRIT through the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one SPIRIT, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of GOD and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of CHRIST.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, CHRIST.
16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
》Pray that the Word may become the Conclusion.
1. Having come to believe in the gospel of the cross by grace, we have become one body with Christ, united as His church. Now we are soldiers of the kingdom of God, advancing against the kingdom of the world. However, if we still cannot believe in the kingdom of God because we do not understand the true identity of the church, let us pray that we will come to realize and believe through Scripture. As those who have become the church, let us declare that the idol of our diseased selves—one that lives for the world instead of for the kingdom of God—was crucified with Christ. Let us decide to engage in spiritual warfare and pray with conviction.
2. God has made it possible for us to experience everything that happened to Christ by believing in Him. To make this possible, He sent us the Holy Spirit. Let us first pray that whenever we read and learn the Word of truth, the Holy Spirit will help us know and believe in the glory, power, and blessing of the gospel accomplished by Jesus on the cross. In this way, as the church united in one hope through our calling, let us pray that we may live in the world following God’s Word, striving to maintain unity through the bond of peace and walk in victory.
3. Jesus Christ restored sinners who had been enslaved to Satan and made them one with Himself, bringing them into worship before God the Father. For this glorious purpose, Jesus boldly took up the cross. It is only right that the church lives in obedience of sharing God’s heart to save every sinner and unite them with Christ, in one hope, one purpose, and one vision. The church has been given the authority to pray to God in the name of Christ. This authority has the power to crush the enemy, Satan, with an iron rod and save sinners. Let us now rise as the church—one body with Christ—and become a house of prayer for all nations, committing ourselves to never stop praying until the kingdom of God is revived across the earth and the task of missions is complete.
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