Wednesday

Related Verses
Matt. 16:18-19
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
19 I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in the heavens.

Matt. 5:3
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.

Rev. 1:4-6, 9
4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,
5 And from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood
6 And made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.
9 I John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Eph. 2:22
22 In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.

Col. 2:19
19 And not holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.

Related Reading
The four Gospels record only two occasions when our Lord on earth made reference to the church, and both of these are in the book that specifically proclaims the kingdom. From that fact we may know how intimately the kingdom and the church are related. Throughout the New Testament we find these two advancing together in the closest connection. When the Lord said, “Upon this rock I will build My church,” He immediately added, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens” [Matt. 16:18-19]. The keys of the kingdom are given to make the building of the church possible. Where the authority of the kingdom is absent, there the building of the church will be lacking. Anyone who refuses to submit to the authority of the kingdom can at best be a saved person; he will never be built into the structure of the church. (CWWL, 1957, vol. 3, “The Kingdom and the Church,” pp. 261-262)

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The Bible first presents the kingdom and thereafter presents the church. Where the kingdom of the heavens is in authority, there a church will be built up. A church comes into being where a company of people accept the government of heaven. So it would appear to be the presence of the kingdom that produces the church. But the New Testament goes beyond that. That is only one half of the New Testament revelation; the other half is this—the church brings in the kingdom. The church that comes into being under the rule of heaven, by reason of her submission to the heavenly rule, deals with God’s enemy. It is the presence of God’s enemy that hinders God’s will from being done on the earth, and it is the exercise of God’s authority by the church that casts him out. Then the New Jerusalem appears, and in the New Jerusalem you see the kingdom and the church blending into one. The New Jerusalem is the bride, which according to Ephesians 5 is the church. It is also a city, which speaks of government, and in this center of government there is the throne of God and of the New Testament. We might express it in three statements—the kingdom produces the church, the church brings in the kingdom, and the ultimate issue is the kingdom and the church. The New Testament opens by presenting the kingdom and thereafter presenting the church…When the church has ceded to the kingdom the right to rule and has submitted to its sway, the church then brings the dominion of heaven to the earth. All the way through the New Testament we see the church blending with the kingdom and the kingdom blending with the church, until eventually this blending issues in the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem, where you can detect the nature of the church and the conditions of the kingdom, God is able to express His sovereignty fully and can therefore execute His will and display His glory.

The church [was] brought into being…for the purpose of bringing in the kingdom [and]…by means of the authority of the kingdom. God’s purpose was to bring His heavenly dominion to the earth, and apart from the church His goal could not be attained. He needed a people who would subject themselves to the dominion of heaven so that under that dominion they might be built up into the church…We who are saved are in the church, but our salvation alone does not constitute us the church. The church is a Body; therefore, there is the need of relatedness, and there is the need of building up. (CWWL, 1957, vol. 3, “The Kingdom and the Church,” pp. 262-263)

Further Reading: CWWL, 1957, vol. 3, “The Kingdom and the Church,” ch. 7