In the following chapters the church is brought in. The first mention of the church in Acts is in 5:11. Acts 8:1 refers to the church in Jerusalem. Throughout the book of Acts the church is mentioned again and again (8:3; 9:31; 11:22, 26; 12:1, 5; 13:1; 14:23, 27; 15:3, 4, 22, 41; 16:5; 18:22; 20:17, 28). However, after the church comes in, the kingdom is still preached. In Acts 8:12 Philip brought the good news concerning the kingdom of God to the Samaritans. Acts 14:22 says that “through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.” According to 19:8, Paul spoke boldly in the synagogue concerning the kingdom of God, and 20:25 tells us that he went about proclaiming the kingdom. Finally, in 28:23 Paul “expounded and solemnly testified the kingdom of God” to those who came to him in his lodging. From this we see that the book of Acts begins and ends with the kingdom of God. Furthermore, Acts shows us that the kingdom and the church are a pair. Without the kingdom there is neither the beginning nor the conclusion of the church life. The church life is intimately related with the kingdom because the kingdom is the life-pulse of the church. Therefore, the kingdom is absolutely crucial to the church life.

God works to have the kingdom so that the church may be built up. Then the church will become the organism of Christ, the Body of Christ, expressing the Triune God in His embodiment in Christ. This is the New Testament revelation.

Paul is the unique one in the New Testament to speak concerning the Body. He mentions the Body in four of his Epistles: Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. It was through Paul that the thought, the concept, the revelation, of the Body of Christ was brought in. Neither Peter nor John uses this term.

If we do not have the church with the kingdom coming before it and the Body of Christ coming forth with it, we have neither the framework nor the life-pulse of the New Testament revelation. Therefore, it is crucial that we see the New Testament revelation and understand the New Testament teaching concerning the kingdom, the church, and the Body.

If we mean business in this age to follow the Lord Jesus for His interest on earth, we must enter into the kingdom of God. We need to have not only the truth, the doctrine, of the kingdom but also the reality and practicality of the kingdom. This means that we need to live in the kingdom. Furthermore, we need to be in the church and live in the church both in reality and in practicality. This means that we need to have the practice of the church life. We need to be a church people, living in the reality of the church according to the truth and also living in the practicality of the church, practicing the church life wherever we may be. If we live in the kingdom and in the church, then we shall also live in the Body. If the believers live in the kingdom, the church, and the Body, corporately experiencing the dispensing of the divine Trinity, the Lord will have a way to accomplish His eternal purpose, and we shall receive a reward from Him at His coming.

God planned the church for the purpose of expressing Christ. Hence, the church is the expression of Christ. How can the church be Christ’s expression? The only way for the church to be Christ’s expression is for it to be the Body of Christ. If we consider ourselves, we shall realize that our body is our expression. If we did not have a body, we could not express ourselves. In like manner, there is no way for Christ to be expressed by the church except by it being His Body.

Some Christian teachers say that, in the New Testament, the Body of Christ is merely a parable illustrating how close we are to Christ. According to this teaching, just as the members of the body are close to the head, so we are close to Christ. However, it is not correct to teach that the Body of Christ is a parable, for it is a fact, a reality, not a parable. Just as our body is a fact, so the church as the Body of Christ is also a fact. We may consider the vine in John 15 a parable, but we should not say that the church as the Body of Christ is a parable.

The church as the Body of Christ is not an organization- it is an organism. The church is an organic Body constituted of all the believers, who have been regenerated and have God’s life, for the expression of Christ the Head. The Body is the fullness of the Head, and the fullness is the expression of the Head. Christ, as the One who fills all in all (Eph. 1:22-23), needs a great Body to be His fullness. This Body is His church to be His expression.

The church is the Body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the church (Col. 1:18). Hence, the church and Christ are one Body, the mysterious universal great man, having the same life and nature and sharing the same position and authority.
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