I.　Ephesians 2:19 reveals that the church is the kingdom of God:

A.　The term fellow citizens indicates the kingdom of God—v. 19.

B.　In Ephesians 2:19 Paul's main concept is that of citizenship in God's kingdom.

C.　All the believers, both Jewish and Gentile, are citizens of God's kingdom, which is a sphere wherein God exercises His authority—John 3:5; Rev. 1:6, 9:

1.　Citizenship in God's kingdom involves rights and responsibilities, two things that always go together.

2.　We enjoy the rights of the kingdom, and we bear the responsibilities of the kingdom—22:14; Luke 14:15-24; 19:11-27; Matt. 24:14; 28:18-19.

II.　God has called us to enter into His kingdom; the kingdom of God is the realm for us to worship God and enjoy God under the divine rule—1 Thes. 2:12:

A.　The kingdom of God is a divine sphere for God to work out His plan; it is a realm where God can exercise His authority to accomplish what He intends—Matt. 6:10.

B.　The New Testament preaches the gospel in the way of the kingdom; the gospel is for the kingdom, and the gospel is proclaimed so that rebellious sinners might be saved, qualified, and equipped to enter into the kingdom—Mark 1:14-15;Matt. 4:17; Acts 8:12.

III.　The Bible first presents the kingdom and thereafter presents the church; the presence of the kingdom produces the church—Matt. 4:23; 16:18-19:

A.　The life of God is the kingdom of God; the divine life is the kingdom, and this life produces the church—John 3:3, 5; Matt. 7:14, 21; 19:17, 29; 25:46:

1.　The kingdom is the realm of life for life to move, rule, and govern so that life may accomplish its purpose, and this realm of life is the kingdom.

2.　The gospel brings in the divine life, and this life has its realm, which is the kingdom; the divine life with its realm produces the church—2 Tim. 1:10. 2 Tim 1:10 But now has been 1amanifested through the bappearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who 2nullified cdeath and brought 3dlife and 4eincorruption to light through the gospel,

3.　The gospel of the kingdom brings forth the church because the kingdom is the life itself, and the church is the issue of life—Matt. 4:23; Acts 8:12.

B.　The kingdom is the reality of the church; therefore, apart from the kingdom life, we cannot live the church life—Matt. 5:3; 16:18-19; Rev. 1:4-6, 9:

1.　The reality of the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 5—7) is the content of the church life; without the reality of the kingdom, the church is empty.

2.　Since the kingdom life issues in the church life, as we live corporately in the kingdom life, we spontaneously live the church life—Rom. 14:17.

C.　Without the kingdom as the reality of the church, the church cannot be built up—Matt. 16:18-19:

1.　The church is brought into being through the authority of the kingdom.

2.　The keys of the kingdom are given to make the building of the church possible—v. 19; 18:18; cf. John 20:23.

3.　When the kingdom of the heavens is able to assert its authority over a company of believers, those believers can be built up into the church—Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:15-16.

IV.　The Father delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love—Col. 1:13:

A.　Through regeneration we have been transferred into the delightful kingdom of the Son of God's love—a realm where we are ruled in love with life—v. 13.

B.　When we live by the Son as our life in resurrection, we are living in His kingdom, enjoying Him in the Father's love; here we have the church life—3:4; John 6:57.

C.　Although the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love comprises the present age, the coming age, and the eternal age, the emphasis in Colossians 1:13 is on the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love in this age, the age of the church:

1.　Because the Father delights in His Son, the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love is a pleasant realm, a matter of delight—Matt. 3:17; 17:5.

2.　The church life today is the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love, which is as delightful to God the Father as the Son of God is.

V.　The kingdom of God today is a realm of the divine species, in which are all the divine things—John 3:3, 5:

A.　To enter into the divine realm, the realm of the divine species, we need to be born of God to have the life and nature of God, thereby becoming God-men in the kingdom of God—1:12-13.

B.　We were regenerated of God to become the species of God and enter into the kingdom of God; now we are God-men in the kingdom of God as a realm of the divine species—3:3, 5.

VI.　The genuine church is the kingdom of God in this age; today, the believers live the kingdom life in the church—Matt. 16:18-19; 18:17-18; 13:44-46; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 4:20; Eph. 2:19; Col. 4:11; Rev. 1:4-6:

A.　Each time the Lord Jesus spoke of the church, He mentioned it in relation to the kingdom; this indicates how intimately the kingdom and the church are related—Matt. 16:18-19; 18:17-18:

1.　Romans 14:17 proves that the church in this age is the kingdom of God.

2.　The kingdom of God in 1 Corinthians 4:20 refers to the church life (v. 17), implying that in the sense of authority, the church in this age is the kingdom of God.

3.　What Paul and his fellow workers were doing in the gospel work for the establishing of the churches was for the kingdom of God—Col. 4:11.

4.　The word kingdom in Revelation 1:6 reveals that where the church is, there the kingdom of God is; the church represents the kingdom.

B.　Although the church today is God's kingdom, we are in the kingdom in reality only when we live, walk, and have our being in the spirit, not in our natural man—Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 25.

C.　When the authority of God's kingdom is allowed to operate in us, righteousness, peace, and joy will characterize our daily life—Rom. 14:17.

D.　As those who are under the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, we need to live a kingdom life in the church, growing and developing in the divine life until we reach maturity—2 Cor. 13:14; Mark 4:26-29: 2 Cor 13:14 The 1agrace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blove of God and the cfellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

1.　After we have entered into the kingdom of God through regeneration, we need to go on to have a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by experiencing the full development of the divine life as revealed in 2 Peter 1:5-11.

2.　As a result of the growth and development of the divine life to maturity and of living in the reality of the kingdom in the church life today, we will inherit the kingdom of God—1 Cor. 15:50; Gal. 5:21.

VII.　The church brings in the kingdom; the work of the church of God is to bring in the kingdom of God—Matt. 6:10; 12:22-29; Rev. 11:15; 12:10:

A.　All the work of the church is governed by the principle of the kingdom of God.

B.　The church is responsible for bringing heaven's will down to earth and for carrying it out on earth—Matt. 6:10; 7:21; 12:50.