In Luke 9 and 10 the Lord Jesus sent the twelve apostles and the seventy disciples to preach the kingdom. When He proclaimed the kingdom, He alone was carrying out the God-given ministry. After He began to preach the kingdom, He called certain ones to Himself. In Luke 6:13 the Lord Jesus called His disciples, and “He chose from among them twelve, whom He also named apostles.” These twelve apostles became “apprentices” following the Lord to learn how to carry out His ministry. Eventually, they were ready to share in the spreading of the kingdom. Prior to Luke 9:1 the ministry was carried out only by the Lord Himself. But here we have the spreading of the kingdom through the twelve apostles. No longer was there just one person proclaiming the kingdom. Now twelve others were sent out to preach the kingdom.
Luke 9:1 says, “Having called together the twelve, He gave them power and authority over all the demons, and to heal diseases.” The power and authority over demons and to heal diseases is for the release of the captives (Luke 4:18). As a result of the fall, man was captured by Satan, sin, and disease, which is the issue of sin. Every fallen human being is a captive both of demons and of diseases. Therefore, the Lord Jesus gave the twelve apostles power and authority over demons and diseases. This is the negative aspect of the jubilee (Luke 4:18-19), the aspect of the release of the captives. The authority over demons and disease is a foretaste of the power of the coming age (Heb. 6:5), that is, of the millennium, in which all demons will be cast out and all diseases will be healed (Isa. 35:5-6).
Luke 9:2 continues, “He sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to cure the sick.” Here we have the proclaiming of the kingdom of God as the positive aspect of the jubilee. The kingdom of God involves the recovery of the right to enjoy God in Christ. Therefore, to proclaim the kingdom of God is to proclaim the jubilee. In particular, it is to preach the positive aspect of the jubilee-the recovery of our lost right to the enjoyment of God in Christ.
In Luke 10:1 and 9 we see that later the Lord Jesus appointed seventy disciples to preach the kingdom. “The Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to come” (v. 1). These seventy were to say to the people, “The kingdom of God has drawn near to you” (v. 9). The preaching of the kingdom through the twelve was in Galilee. But in Luke 10, on the way from Galilee to Jerusalem and through Samaria, the need was much greater. Therefore, the Lord Jesus appointed seventy and sent them to preach the kingdom. He appointed seventy disciples to share His ministry, even as Moses appointed seventy elders to share his burden as God charged him (Num. 11:16-17; Exo. 24:1, 9). The fact that He sent them out two by two indicates that they were sent out as witnesses (Deut. 17:6; 19:15; Matt. 18:16).
Matthew 13 reveals that in His ministry Christ sowed the seed of the kingdom. In verse 3 He says, “Behold, the sower went out to sow.” In verse 24 He speaks of “a man sowing good seed in his field,” and this man is the Son of Man (v. 37). Although the Lord Jesus was often called a teacher, in His earthly ministry He was actually a sower. He came to sow the seed, and this seed is the word of the kingdom with Christ in it as life (v. 19). The seed is also the sons, the people, of the kingdom (v. 38). Hence, the seed sown by the Lord Jesus was Himself as life to make the believers the seed of the kingdom. Here three things are interrelated: the word of the kingdom, the sons of the kingdom, and Christ Himself as the life within the seed. The word of the kingdom actually is Christ Himself as the word of life. This seed eventually produces the sons of the kingdom who are the believers. Therefore, the seed refers to the word of the kingdom, to Christ Himself as life, and to us, the sons of the kingdom. By Christ’s being the living word of life sown into our being, we are made the sons of the kingdom.
In Matthew 13 we see that Christ establishes the kingdom by sowing Himself as the seed of life into believing people so that the kingdom may grow. This indicates that the establishment of the kingdom is absolutely a matter of growth in life. To establish the kingdom is to grow the kingdom. The kingdom is not established by outward working but by inward growing. If we do not see this, we may think that the church is built up by work and labor. The church, however, can be produced only by sowing Christ as the seed into humanity. This seed will grow within the believers and produce the church. Therefore, the kingdom is brought into being not by teaching or working but by sowing Christ as the living word of life into humanity. This seed will grow, and the life in it will produce the kingdom. The kingdom is a matter of life which has grown. The source of the kingdom is Christ as the seed of life. May we all be deeply impressed with the fact that the kingdom is wholly a matter of life. This means that the kingdom is Christ Himself as the seed of life sown into our being. The Sower is Christ, and the seed also is Christ, Christ in the word sown into us to make us sons of the kingdom.
In Mark 4 we have a further revelation of Christ’s work in sowing the seed of the kingdom. The sower in verse 3 is Christ, the Son of God, coming to sow Himself as the seed of life in His word (v. 14) into people’s hearts so that He may grow and live in them and be expressed from within them. This sowing was Christ’s preaching of the gospel that brought in the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15). It was, as in Mark 4:26, the sowing of the seed of life in the word spoken by the Lord Jesus. This indicates that His ministry was to sow the divine life into the people whom He served. The growth of this life depends upon the condition of the served ones, its issue differing according to their various conditions.
The Lord Jesus sowed the seed of the kingdom into the human heart. In Mark 4 and Matthew 13 the human heart is likened to soil. Our heart is the field, the soil, into which Christ has sown Himself as the seed of life. Therefore, the Lord Jesus is both the Sower and the seed sown. As the Sower, He sows Himself as the seed of life through His word.
In our reading of Matthew 13 and Mark 4 we need to be impressed with the fact that the kingdom of God is very different from the kingdom of man. The kingdom of man is a matter of organization. The kingdom of God is not a matter of organization but absolutely a matter of life. The kingdom of God is actually the God-man, Jesus Christ, sown as a seed into His believers. After this seed has been sown into them, it will grow in them and eventually develop into a kingdom. Jesus Christ, the seed of the kingdom of God, has been sown into those who believe in Him. Now this seed is growing and developing within the believers. Eventually, this growth and development will have an issue, and this issue will be the kingdom.
If we say that we are practicing the kingdom life, we need to realize that this kingdom is not an organization. No, this kingdom is a life which is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who has been sown into us and is now growing within us.
In order to make this matter clear, we may borrow from biology the word “gene.” The Christ who has been sown into our being is the gene of the kingdom. We know that without human genes it is impossible to have human life. Our birth, being, and existence all came from a gene. Now we must see that Christ has been sown into us to be the gene of the kingdom. Eventually, the kingdom will issue from this gene. May we all see that the One who has been sown into our heart is the gene of the kingdom. Christ has been sown into us as a gene, as a seed of life, to grow, develop, and issue in the kingdom.
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