Page 65 - The Christian Life and the Church Life_Government of God

The Church as the Kingdom of the Son of God’s Love 64

are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” I do not
know if you notice that out of the four gospels, only Matthew mentions the
kingdom of the heavens. All the others mention the kingdom of God. Have
you noticed this? The kingdom of God is from eternity to eternity. If you go
into the context of Matthew, the book is talking about the kingdom of the
heavens, which refers to the church life and the heavenly part of the millennial
kingdom. This is what the kingdom of the heavens is talking about. But if you
go through some of the verses in the other gospels, when they are talking
about the kingdom of God, it seems as if they are referring to the kingdom of
the heavens. Have you noticed this?

For some time, I was wondering why Matthew talks about the kingdom
of the heavens, and the other gospels talk about the kingdom of God. Then,
I read something by Brother Lee. He said that the kingdom of God is like
the United States, and the kingdom of the heavens is like the state of Texas.
When you say Texas is the United States, it is okay. The kingdom of the
heavens is the kingdom of God. But you cannot reverse it. The United States
is not Texas. You can be in other parts of the United States, which is not in
Texas. This is the difference in the kingdom of the heavens, which is like
Texas, and the kingdom of God, which is like the United States. When we
read Matthew 5:3, what the Lord is saying is something very specific within
the kingdom of God.
The kingdom is the reality of the church; therefore, apart from the
kingdom life, we cannot live the church life. If we study a little bit about
the kingdom of the heavens, we see three particular aspects of the kingdom
of the heavens: the reality of the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 5-7), the
appearance of the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 13), and the manifestation
of the kingdom (Matt. 24-25). There are these three things, the reality,
appearance, and manifestation.
Today in the church life, we could be in the reality or we could also be
in the appearance. Christendom is mainly in the appearance. Matthew 13
talks so much about this, how the mustard seed became a tree. Many people
in Christianity think this is very good, a small mustard seed became a big
tree; but actually, that is very negative, because birds dwell on the tree. Birds
are evil birds. We in the church should really pay attention to the reality of
the kingdom of the heavens. This is what we want, to have the reality of the