«　WEEK 8　DAY 5　»

　　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.

　　Rev. 1:9 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.

　　The churches produced by Christ's propagation are the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a sphere of life produced by the propagation of Christ. Actually the kingdom is the expansion of this resurrected, propagating One. The resurrected Christ, who is propagating Himself in His ascension, by the Spirit, and through the disciples, is the reality of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is His expansion. (Life-study of Acts, p. 14)

　　We may use the kingdom of man, the human kingdom, for an illustration of the kingdom of God as the expansion of Christ. In the beginning, there was just one man, Adam. Then Adam began to expand, to increase. The kingdom of man was a couple, and then this couple brought forth children. In this way the kingdom of man expanded from one man to a family. Now the entire human race is part of the kingdom of man. The kingdom of man is simply mankind as the expansion of the man, Adam.

　　The kingdom of God is the expansion of God, whose embodiment is Christ. This expansion of Christ is the churches. The churches are the expansion of Christ as the One who came to sow Himself as the seed of the kingdom of God....In the Gospels Christ was the seed of the kingdom. In the book of Acts we have the propagation of this seed to produce the churches as the kingdom of God.

　　Perhaps you would say that Acts has twenty-eight chapters. This, of course, is correct. However, it is also true to say that the book of Acts is still being written because the propagation of the resurrected Christ is still taking place....Even today a portion of a chapter may have been written. This writing is the propagation of the resurrected Christ, and this propagation is the expansion of Christ to be the kingdom of God. We in the churches are the propagation of Christ and the expansion of Christ, and we are enlarging the kingdom of God.

　　The subject of the book of Acts [is] the propagation of the resurrected Christ in His ascension, by the Spirit, through the disciples, for the producing of the churches—the kingdom of God....The kingdom is the churches, and the churches are the propagation of Christ.

　　The more we are impressed with the subject of Acts, the more we shall say, "Lord, we worship You as the resurrected One and the ascended One. We praise You for Your propagation. We thank You, Lord, that we are Your propagation today. We thank You that we are with You in the heavens and that the churches are the kingdom of God." Let us declare to the whole universe that the Lord Jesus is now in the heavens, and that as the exalted One He is now propagating Himself on earth through us as His witnesses. (Life-study of Acts, pp. 14-15)

　　In Acts 14:22 Paul and Barnabas told the disciples that "through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God."...While we are suffering today, we are in the kingdom where we are being exercised, trained, prepared, and qualified to reign in Christ's kingdom as His co-kings.

　　To enter into the kingdom of God is to enter into the full enjoyment of Christ as the kingdom.

　　However, the whole world opposes the entering of God's people into the full enjoyment of Christ as the kingdom. Throughout the centuries, religion in particular has been used by God's enemy to keep God's people from entering into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the kingdom of God. For this reason, it is through many tribulations that we enter into the kingdom of God. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1731)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Acts, msg. 40