Acts 14:22 Establishing the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. 1 Peter 1:23 Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God.
The kingdom of God was a main subject of the apostles' preaching in Acts. It is not a material kingdom visible to human sight, but a kingdom of the divine life. It is the spreading of Christ as life to His believers to form a realm in which God rules in His life. According to the New Testament the kingdom of God is not a visible, material realm. Actually, the kingdom of God is a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. When He was questioned by the Pharisees about the kingdom, "He answered them and said, The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, Look, here! Or, There! For behold, the kingdom of God is among you" (Luke 17:20-21). As the context proves, the kingdom of God is the Savior Himself, who was among the Pharisees. Wherever the Savior is, there is the kingdom of God. This was the reason He could say that the kingdom was among the Pharisees. As the Lord's word indicates, this kingdom does not come with observation; that is, it is spiritual, not material and visible. In the four Gospels the Lord Jesus sowed Himself as the seed of the kingdom into His disciples. The development of this kingdom seed begins in Acts and continues in all the Epistles. This development reaches its consummation--the harvest--in the book of Revelation. The kingdom is Christ as the seed sown into the hearts of His chosen people. Our hearts are the soil into which the kingdom seed is sown and in which this seed develops. This is the proper definition of the kingdom of God. [Continued Monday]
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Acts, pp. 342-343. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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